ASU-Led Initiative Unveils First Decarbonization Projects for U.S. Industry

An Arizona State University-led initiative aims to reduce manufacturing CO2 emissions by up to 60 million metric tons over the next 15 years.

Today, Electrified Processes for Industry Without Carbon, or EPIXC, took its first steps toward that ambitious goal and announced its first volley of efforts targeting industrial greenhouse gas emissions. EPIXC’s projects are part of a $43 million investment from the U.S. Department of Energy to drive industrial decarbonization.

EPIXC, a multi-institution initiative funded by the DOE, is one of seven Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. EPIXC is tasked with studying and developing cost-effective technologies to replace fossil fuel-based industrial process heating — the thermal energy used to prepare materials and produce manufactured goods — with clean electricity while developing a robust and diverse workforce.

“The use of heat is interwoven into processes across the nation’s industrial sector and accounts for almost half of the sector’s emissions,” said Avi Shultz, director of DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, which manages EPIXC. “Tackling emissions from industrial heat presents one of our biggest challenges to industrial decarbonization, and EPIXC is uniquely positioned to mobilize partners and unlock the innovations we’ll need to overcome it.”

The first five jump-start projects intend to advance such innovations by integrating new technologies and processes into existing facilities designed around fossil fuel heating.

“The way I see it, there currently exists all the needed technical solutions to electrify industrial process heating — but in a piecemeal manner,” said Sridhar Seetharaman, chief executive officer of EPIXC. “These projects provide a physical or digital test bed to connect all the existing technical solutions to show they can work as a systems-level solution. We hope to close the critical knowledge gaps and help industrial investments for deployment of these cost-effective solutions further on.”

Collectively, the projects represent $11.8 million in total investment, and the research will be executed at ASU, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. EPIXC plans to announce additional funding opportunities for more electrified industrial process heating research and development projects in the future.

Michael Baldea, chief technology officer of EPIXC, said these projects were selected because they involve industrial sectors that are among the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

“We’re also focusing on applications that would be relevant to multiple sectors,” said Baldea, Kenneth A. Kobe Professor of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin. “This way we leverage our investments in a way that makes the best use of our federal and private funding.”

The projects also cover multiple heating-process temperature ranges, from the food industry’s low 100 or 150 degrees Celsius to the chemical industry’s 900 maximum temperature, and all the way to the 1,200–1,400-degree Celsius temperatures used in steel production.

“We’re trying to be as broad as possible in our project portfolio,” added Baldea.

One jump-start project targets the electrification of hot rolling, a metalworking process in which steel is heated past its recrystallization temperature — 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. It increases the mechanical strength and durability of steel, and the high temperatures make it more malleable and easier to work with. It’s also traditionally achieved with natural-gas burner systems that can emit up to 1.94 metric tons of CO2 per metric ton of hot-rolled steel.

Ronald O’Malley, F. Kenneth Iverson Chair Professor in Steelmaking Technologies at Missouri University of Science and Technology is leading a project to test an atmospheric microwave plasma, or AMP, heating system as a potential replacement for natural gas-fired systems. The two-year project will retrofit an AMP system in an existing test bed to demonstrate the technology for hot rolling.

Mark Barteau, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry and C. D. Holland ’53 Chair at Texas A&M, is leading a project to explore renewable energy to produce propylene, a raw material used for various products and chemicals. Often created as a byproduct of petroleum refining, propylene can also be generated from the catalytic dehydrogenation of propane, which is a carbon-intensive process requiring temperatures over 500 degrees Celsius.

Barteau’s two-year effort aims to create new methods of electrical input and catalysts for the catalytic dehydrogenation of propane. The project could reduce CO2 emissions by .3 metric tons per metric ton of propylene produced and increase propylene yields by up to 10%.

Portland cement is a foundational ingredient in concrete, a material that underpins much of our built environment. Cement is used in everything from major infrastructure such as dams, bridges and tunnels, to the sidewalks we walk on every day — but it’s also one of the largest CO2-emitting industries, representing approximately 8% of global emissions.

ASU’s Narayanan Neithalath, Fulton Professor of Structural Materials in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, is embarking on a two-year project to lessen emissions from this vital material by creating an electrified calciner — the specialized kiln used to heat cement during production. Calciners consume more energy and contribute more CO2 than any other step in cement production, and Neithalath’s project will work toward reducing those emissions by more than 70%.

One reason fossil fuels are so widely used in industrial process heating is their continuous availability. Renewable electricity sources can ebb and flow, and energy storage solutions are expensive and inadequate.

Industrial processes such as distillation — a fundamental part of manufacturing chemicals, refining and food and beverage production — require a non-interruptible energy source. Distillation accounts for 15% of energy use in U.S. manufacturing, representing a large carbon footprint.

Frank Seibert, technical manager of the Separations Research Program at UT Austin’s Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, will lead a two-year project to address the intermittent nature of renewable sources when used for electrification of distillation operations. Electric heating could eliminate all emissions from distillation processes, reducing CO2 emissions by an estimated 37,000 tons per year.

Seibert’s project will focus on electrification heating methods at an experimental distillation facility at UT Austin’s James R. Fair Science and Process Technology Center and explore grid-synchronized, variable distillation operation for a more cost-effective and energy-efficient process.

The intense heat requirements of iron and steel production make it one of the most challenging industries to decarbonize. Annually, the sector emits 2.6 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions, much of which is generated by critical heating applications in production.

ASU Regents Professor Vijay Vittal at the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering is leading a one-year case study to evaluate the potential conversion of these applications to electrical heating in an attempt to curb emissions. Vittal’s effort will produce an electrification roadmap, an industry impact assessment and a greenhouse gas emission reduction estimate.

EPIXC’s electrification efforts will not only affect emissions in U.S. manufacturing. The workforce will feel the effects as well, as jobs fields are altered or reclassified and new jobs are created.

“The workforce development and technical educational component is integral to each of these initial projects,” said Robin Hammond, EPIXC chief education and workforce development officer. “As our researchers develop new decarbonization electro-technologies, we are developing new job and technical education opportunities in parallel for both incumbent workers skilled in legacy, fossil fuel applications as well as for future workers. EPIXC’s strength is helping build a diversified workforce and engaging historically disadvantaged communities to participate in the clean energy economy.”

EPIXC’s first round of selected projects include learning pathways for high school students and undergraduate and graduate researchers drawn from underserved populations, as well as current plant operators and maintenance personnel. Internship opportunities will also be offered to students from Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Working in conjunction with the DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office and leveraging local workforce systems, EPIXC’s workforce development and education approach is envisioned as a hub and spokesmodel to minimize worker displacement while attracting new workers to U.S. manufacturing.

EPIXC is paying close attention to communities affected by industrial processes.

“Whether it’s New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana or Braddock, Pennsylvania, or Gary, Indiana, there are many communities that have been historically affected asymmetrically by pollution and by low wages and job losses,” said Seetharaman. “As we transition toward electrification, we must make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of jobs, and if it does, engage those communities in efforts to replace their livelihood. This is a complex problem, and we don’t have a clear solution, but we are involving these communities in our solutions from the start.”