Report: Industrial Electrification in U.S. States

Authors: Ali Hasanbeigi, Ph.D. - Global Efficiency Intelligence

               Lynn A. Kirshbaum and Blaine Collison - David Gardiner and Associates

The United States set an economy-wide target to reduce its net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030 and set a goal to reach 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. Meeting these goals will require a concentrated effort to develop and deploy clean technologies across sectors. The U.S.’s emissions reduction targets place a new emphasis on industrial emissions, highlighting the need for commercialization and deployment of cleaner industrial technologies. Unleashing US$369 billion in climate and clean energy incentives, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides powerful tailwinds for achieving these climate change mitigation targets. 

The industrial sector accounts for about a quarter of energy use and GHG emissions in the U.S. While emissions from electricity generation continue to decline, thermal energy needs in industry, especially for process heating, are a significant challenge for climate change mitigation efforts.

There is a significant opportunity to decarbonize the industrial sector by shifting away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to clean sources such as electrification, where low- or zero-carbon electricity is used. As can be seen in Figure 1, electrifying just the processes included in the study has the potential to realize significant emissions reductions throughout the country.

Figure 1. Change in emissions from select industrial process electrification in 2050 (Source: this study)

This report is a follow-up study to our previous report, “Electrifying U.S. Industry: A Technology- and Process-Based Approach to Decarbonization.” In the previous report, we studied industrial electrification potential at the national level. In this report, we analyze the electrification potential for 12 industries (aluminum casting, pulp and paper, container glass, ammonia, methanol, recycled plastic, steel, beer, beet sugar, milk powder, wet corn milling, and soybean oil) in 20 states. 

The report identifies specific processes that could be electrified in the near term with commercially available technologies and analyzes the expected changes in energy use, CO2 emissions, and energy costs. Understanding which conventional processes could be electrified and how this impacts emissions and costs can help industrial facilities identify which of their processes may be suitable candidates for electrification. In addition, understanding the potential growth in industrial electricity demand that will result from electrification can help utilities, grid operators, and electricity generators plan for these changes and ensure equipment and generation resources are available to meet the growing demand for renewable electricity.

It should be noted that, in practice, electrification projects will happen at the plant level. If a given industrial facility in any state electrifies its process heating demand today and purchases renewable electricity (e.g., through a power purchase agreement (PPA)) to supply the electricity demand of the electrified process heating, the CO2 emissions reductions from electrification can be achieved immediately. Therefore, our state-level results that are based on expected grid-wide decarbonization timelines should not over-ride the immediate decarbonization impact of an electrified plant partnered with a new renewable energy purchase. Plants do not need to wait until the grid is decarbonized to have emissions reduction impacts.

Emissions reductions have global benefits, helping to mitigate climate risks and climate change impacts around the world. But reducing emissions has local benefits too. When industrial facilities use fossil fuels on-site, surrounding communities can be impacted by the resulting air pollution. In the U.S., low-income communities are often exposed to higher levels of air pollution across income levels, in urban and rural areas, and in all states. Industrial electrification offers an opportunity to reduce localized emissions and improve health outcomes for communities.

Electrifying industrial processes and realizing these benefits will require a multifaceted effort to solve significant challenges in renewable electricity generation and transmission, technology development and deployment, and workforce development. This report recommends six impactful changes that would support increased industrial electrification: 1) Support demonstration of emerging electrification technologies and new applications of existing technologies, 2) Financially incentivize electrification, 3) Increase renewable electricity generation capacity, 4) Enhance the electricity grid, 5) Engage communities, and 6) Develop the workforce.

To read the full report and see the complete results and analysis of this new study, click on this link.

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Industrial Heating Profile and Electrification

Author: Ali Hasanbeigi, PhD

The U.S. industrial sector accounts for about a quarter of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S. The majority of the energy used in U.S. industry is fossil fuels (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. U.S. industrial sector energy use by fuel type, 1950-2019 (US DOE/EIA, 2020)

The top five U.S. manufacturing sectors in terms of energy use are bulk chemicals, petroleum refining, pulp and paper, primary metals, and the food and beverage industry

Thermal processes account for 74% of total manufacturing energy use in the U.S.; process heating accounted for 35%; combined heat and power/cogeneration for 26%; conventional boilers for 13% (US DOE, 2019) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. U.S. manufacturing energy use by end uses- values in Trillion Btu (US DOE, 2019)

Five industries account for more than 80% of all U.S. manufacturing thermal process energy consumption: petroleum refining, chemicals, pulp and paper, iron and steel, and food and beverage (US DOE/EIA, 2017).

Industrial process heating operations include drying, heat treating, curing and forming, calcining, smelting, and other operations (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Energy use for process heating in the U.S. industry by type of process heat (US DOE, 2015)

Process heating technologies can be grouped into four general categories based on the type of energy consumed: direct fuel-firing, steam-based, electric-based, and hybrid systems (which use a combination of energy types). In process heating, material is heated by heat transfer from a heat source such as a flame, steam, hot gas, or an electrical heating element by conduction, convection, or radiation—or some combination of these. In practice, lower-temperature processes tend to use conduction or convection, whereas high-temperature processes rely primarily on radiative heat transfer. Energy use and heat losses from the system depend on process heating process parameters, system design, operating practices, and other factors (ORNL, 2017).

Around 30% of the total U.S. industrial heat demand is required at temperatures below 100°C. Two-thirds of process heat used in U.S. industry are for applications below 300°C (572°F) (Figure 4) (McMillan, 2019). In the food, beverage, and tobacco, transport equipment, machinery, textile, and pulp and paper industries, the share of heat demand at low and medium temperatures is about, or even above, 60% of the total heat demand. With a few exceptions, it is generally easier to electrify low-temperature processes than high-temperature processes. Therefore, there is significant potential for electrification of industrial processes for low or medium heating applications. Figure 5 shows the share of industrial head demand by temperature in selected industries.

Figure 4. Cumulative process heat demand by temperature in 2014 (McMillan, 2019).

Figure 5. Share of industrial head demand by temperature in selected industries (Rightor et al. 2020; McMillan, 2019)

Industry uses a wide variety of processes employing different types and designs of heating equipment. Process heating methods used in manufacturing operations largely depend on the industry, and many companies use multiple operations. For example, steelmaking facilities often employ a combination of smelting, metal melting, and heat-treating processes. Chemical manufacturing facilities may use fluid heating to distill a petroleum feedstock and a curing process to create a final polymer product (ORNL 2017). Table 1 shows the industrial process heating temperature profile for various subsectors. As can be seen from this table, a variety of thermal processing is conducted in each industry under different temperature profiles.

Table 1. Industrial process heating temperature profile for various subsectors (DGA, 2018)

As can be seen, there is a significant opportunity to decarbonize the industrial sector by shifting heat production away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to electrified technologies where low- or zero-carbon electricity is used. 

In the past few years, Global Efficiency Intelligence, in collaboration with its partners, has published several detailed reports on industrial electrification. These reports conduct sector- and systems-level techno-economic analysis for the electrification of heating in the industry sector in different regions. You can download these report
from our publication page.

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Reference:

Hasanbeigi, Ali, et al. 2021. Electrifying U.S. Industry: A Technology and Process-Based Approach to Decarbonization.

U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE). (2019). Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprint. 

U.S. DOE/ Energy Information Administration (US DOE/EIA). (2017). Manufacturing energy consumption survey, 2014.  

U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE). (2015). Technology Assessments: Chapter 6: Innovating Clean Energy Technologies in Advanced Manufacturing. Quadrennial Technology Review 2015.

McMillan. C. 2019. Solar for Industrial Process Heat Analysis. Available at: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/solar-industrial-process-heat.html 

Caludia, V., Battisti, R., & Drigo, S. 2008. Potential for solar heat in industrial processes.

David Gardiner and Associates (DGA). (2018). A Landscape Review of the Global Renewable Heating and Cooling Market. 

Oakridge national laboratory (ORNL). 2017. Application of Electrotechnologies in Process Heating Systems—Scoping Document.

Infographic: Electrification of Industrial Heating

Author: Ali Hasanbeigi, PhD

Heat represents two-thirds of all energy demand in the industrial sector, yet very little of this demand is met with renewable energy sources. A significant opportunity lies in decarbonizing the industrial sector by transitioning heat production away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels and towards cleaner alternatives such as electrification, where low- or zero-carbon electricity is utilized.

The infographic below highlights some general aspects of electrification in the industry sector. There is a substantial need for more research and analysis on electrification potential in different industry subsectors and electrification technology R&D for the manufacturing sector in different countries.

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To download the high-resolution image file (JPEG) of the infographic, click here.