A carbon neutral chemical industry powered by the sun

Abstract

AbstractThe decarbonisation of the chemical industry requires a transformation of the sources of energy, raw materials, and structure of the sector. The production of chemicals by converting fossil fuels is a pillar of the modern economy, consuming 10% of global energy demand and releasing 7% of global CO2 emissions. Being the most abundant source of energy available to humankind, solar energy can provide solutions across the different needs identified to deploy a low-carbon and sustainable industry. However, its transformation into functional energy and chemical feedstocks presents multiple challenges at the technical, economic, environmental, and social levels. While solar energy is being largely deployed, its incorporation within the chemical sector requires a guarantee of supply at feasible costs. Analysing alternative feedstocks, even mature processes struggle to reach competitive prices, a situation that worsens as technologies at early development stage are considered. Despite these, and other challenges, the use of solar energy is a general trend that is widely accepted within the chemical and other industries, with increasing research efforts aiming to present solutions to guarantee its sustainable implementation. The penetration of these technologies into the existing structure of the sector calls for a process systems engineering thinking, which combined with life cycle assessment, can shed light into the sustainable deployment of solar-based processes. On this basis, we present the status of solar technologies and their potential contribution to achieve a sustainable industry. This perspective thus presents an analysis of solar technologies that can support the transition of the sector in the short, middle, and long term, and the challenges inherent to their implementation. While the transition of the chemical industry from fossil fuels to solar technologies seems promising and shows significant abatement of CO2 emissions, it is expected to occur at the expense of higher production costs and unintended environmental burden shifting. Therefore, the application of sustainable process systems thinking at a multi-scale level will be key to identify energy-efficient and highly-integrated systems deployed within local and regional contexts. These tools will ultimately assist the decision-making process to guide a global environmental policy framework that promotes sustainable development and ensures competitiveness of the sector across multiple regions.