Understanding the Transformation Processes in Heavy Industry

European heavy industry has published roadmaps in which its associations show how they envisage a greenhouse gas neutral future for their industries. The focus of these future visions is on technical innovations. The roadmaps also show that such a focus will result in enormous additional consumption of renewable energies. These quantities are not yet foreseen in many energy scenarios and may lead to further land consumption or result in new international import dependencies.

The REINVENT project pursues the goal of gaining a broader understanding of the upcoming transformation process in heavy industry and the researchers took regional implications, cross-sectoral strategies, and social innovations into account when developing their scenarios. In their current REINVENT report "Decarbonisation pathways for key economic sectors", they outline possible development paths for the steel, plastics, and paper and pulp industries and illustrate how individual locations and regions can become greenhouse gas neutral with partly different technologies and strategies.

The report is available free of charge via the following link.