Towards an accelerated decarbonization of chemical industry by electrolysis

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of electrolysis powered by renewable energy to decarbonize the chemical industry by 2050, highlighting energy requirements, challenges, and research priorities for scaling up the technology.

Contribution

It provides a forward-looking scenario analysis of energy needs for full-scale electrolysis in chemical manufacturing and discusses strategies to reduce energy input and support technology development.

Findings

Electrolysis energy demand could exceed 50% of planned renewable energy by 2050.

A significant energy gap exists between renewable energy plans and electrolysis needs.

Research priorities include scaling up electrolysis and integrating renewable energy sources.

Abstract

The transition towards carbon-neutral chemical production is challenging due to the fundamental reliance of the chemical sector on petrochemical feedstocks. Electrolysis-based manufacturing, powered by renewables, is a rapidly evolving technology that might be capable of drastically reducing CO2 emissions from the chemical sector. However, will it be possible to scale up electrolysis systems to the extent necessary to entirely decarbonize all chemical plants? Applying a forward-looking scenario, this perspective estimates how much energy will be needed to power full-scale electrolysis based chemical manufacturing by 2050. A significant gap is identified between the currently planned renewable energy expansion and the energy input necessary to electrify the chemical production: at minimum, the energy required for production of hydrogen and electrolysis of CO2 corresponds to > 50% of all renewable energy that is planned to be available. To cover this gap, strategies enabling a meaningful reduction of the energy input to electrolysis are being discussed from the perspective of both a single electrolysis system and an integrated electro-plant. Several scale-up oriented research priorities are formulated to underpin timely development and commercial availability of described technologies, as well as to explore synergies and support further growth of the renewable energy sector, essential to realize described paradigm shift in chemical manufacturing.