Low-Carbon Infrastructure NRW

Deep Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries

  • Project no.151322
  • Duration 06/2017 - 04/2018

In order to reach Europe's climate targets, the industry sector, particularly in the energy-intensive basic industries, needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions drastically. Although great progress has been made in the past, further groundbreaking innovations as well as the development of the respective infrastructure are imperative. In the framework of this project for the European Climate Foundation, the Wuppertal Institute summarises the current knowledge on the topic and discusses it with regard to the status quo in the German federal state of Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW). Moreover, scenarios are modelled which show potential future decarbonisation pathways for the local energy-intensive basic industries. These are analysed and key issues and further research questions for NRW identified.
The project includes the following tasks:

  • Collection and written summary of potential deep decarbonisation strategies for the energy-intensive basic industry based on literature research, including an identification of the respective infrastructure requirements
  • Discussion of the strategies and infrastructure requirements with regard to the current situation in NRW; feasibility analysis and identification of potential challenges and key issues for local industrial clusters
  • Modelling of one or more ambitious climate-protection scenarios showing potential pathways for the deep decarbonisation of the energy-intensive basic industries in Northrhine-Westphalia
  • Analysis of the scenarios with a focus on the potential role of industrial CCS (carbon capture and storage) and CCU (carbon capture and use)
  • Discussion of potential technological and infrastructural developments and interactions in the area of deep decarbonisation of the energy-intensive basic industries in NRW; identification of future reasearch questions

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