Wuppertal Institute - Infrastructure needs for decarbonisation of heavy industries until 2050, Essen, 3.12.19

The Paris Agreement calls for a climate-neutral socio-technical system by 2050. Recent studies show, that the transformation of energy and carbon intensive industries to net zero GHG emissions is a huge, but not impossible challenge. The transformation pathways will result in considerable additional demands for renewable based electricity, gases and fuels and/or Carbon Capture and Storage/Utilisation, which requires suited transport & storage infrastructures. 

The triangle between Antwerp, Rotterdam and Rhine-Ruhr is the most important cluster of steel and chemical industry in Europe. It is home of 50% of the petrochemical capacity in the EU. The chemical parks are well connected by feedstock and product pipelines and the River Rhine as the backbone of logistics. Within Europe, the “ARRRA” represents a unique “sink” of energy. A supply of such large quantities of electricity and hydrogen as well as transport and storage of CO2 is an enormous infrastructural challenge not only for this region, but also for Europe. For this reason, this region was selected for an explorative case study.

The workshop seeks to illustrate and work out: 

-           How could the industrial sectors of plastics, steel and cement become decarbonised until 2050?

-          What new processes and which demands for power, gas and CCS will emerge?

-          Which infrastructure solutions (electricity, H2, CO2) will be needed to cover these demands? 

Keywords: Industrial Decarbonisation, Antwerp–Rotterdam–Rhine-Ruhr renewables, hydrogen, infrastructure, CCS

The Background of the event is the EIT Climate-KIC funded research project „Infrastructure Needs of an EU Industrial Transformation towards deep decarbonisation“, which is part of the European Climate Foundation´s Industrial Transformation 2050 initiative. For further information see the websites:   https://re-industrialise.climate-kic.org/projects/infraneeds/  and https://wupperinst.org/en/p/wi/p/s/pd/818 /   

Registration

Further information:  frank.merten@wupperinst.org