Innovations to decarbonize materials industries

Daehn, Katrin; Basuhi, R.; Gregory, Jeremy; Berlinger, Maya; Somjit, Vrindaa; Olivetti, Elsa

doi:10.1038/s41578-021-00376-y

Cited by 71 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 196 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Concrete carbonation is a phenomenon in which CO 2 diffuses into cementitious materials and reacts with hydrates, resulting in the gradual loss of alkalinity in cementitious materials. Although this phenomenon has traditionally been recognized as a durability issue of reinforced concrete, its role as a CO 2 sink has gained attention in recent years in the context of climate change mitigation 4 , 29 , 49 , 51 . This study estimates the CO 2 uptake by concrete carbonation considering four sinks: concrete, mortar, construction waste, and cement kiln dust.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A prime example is concrete, the most extensively used human-made material in the world 2 . The chemical reactions and high temperatures required for the production of cement, the binding agent for making concrete, combined with its mass production and use, make its decarbonization one of our most significant challenges 3 , 4 . The share of CO 2 emissions arising from the entire cement and concrete cycle in total global energy-related emissions has been increasing in recent decades 5 , and is now ~10% 6 , 7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Decarbonization strategies for the cement and concrete sector have relied heavily on supply-side technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS), masking opportunities for demand-side intervention. Here we show that cross-cutting strategies involving both the supply and demand sides can achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 across the entire Japanese cement and concrete cycle without resorting to mass deployment of CCS. Our analysis shows that a series of mitigation efforts on the supply side can reduce 2050 CO2 emissions by up to 80% from baseline levels and that the remaining 20% mitigation gap can be fully bridged by the efficient use of cement and concrete in the built environment. However, this decarbonization pathway is dependent on how CO2 uptake by carbonation and carbon capture and utilization is accounted for in the inventory. Our analysis underscores the importance of including demand-side interventions at the heart of decarbonization strategies and highlights the urgent need to discuss how to account for CO2 uptake in national inventories under the Paris Agreement.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Toward mitigating climate change, there is concerted effort in the global community to identify methods of reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions in the chemical sector, ,− including prior efforts to estimate the energy requirements of manufacturing petrochemicals. − Areas of particular interest include sourcing alternative feedstocks, implementing renewable electricity, and replacing or reducing fossil carbon-derived heat inputs, among others. For all options, it is critical to have an accurate baseline of existing technologies against which new approaches can be compared to enable meaningful industrial decarbonization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with United States Consumption of Organic Petrochemicals

Nicholson

Rorrer

Uekert

et al. 2023

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The production of commodity organic chemicals today is both primarily sourced from and powered by fossil carbon resources. Toward decarbonization of this key global economic sector, it is imperative to quantitatively understand the contributions to energy usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the petrochemical manufacturing supply chain, which can inform judicious policy development and impactful technology options to improve or reimagine existing manufacturing practices. To that end, here we use the Materials Flows through Industry (MFI) tool to estimate the supply chain energy and GHG emissions for 51 organic petrochemicals and 6 intermediates that are globally produced at a capacity of at least 1 million metric tons (MMT) per year. This analysis focuses on supply chains in the United States, from which industrial data are readily sourced to obtain accurate energy and GHG emission estimates. Analysis for each chemical includes contributions from sourcing chemical feedstocks, electricity use, and fuel usage for transportation and manufacturing. This analysis predicts that process fuel, which is primarily used for heating, dominates GHG emissions in all cases except for chlorochemicals, where electricity is used extensively for the chloroalkali process and results in a large electricity GHG emission contribution ranging from 7 to 54% of total GHG emissions. Additionally, the contribution of electricity to GHG emissions ranges from 6 to 63%, representing the decarbonization potential in the transition toward renewable electricity with existing manufacturing processes. Taken together, these data serve as a critical baseline toward industrial decarbonization of the organic chemical sector, against which to compare changes to the electrical grid and industrial heat sources, improvements to existing technologies to manufacture the same chemicals, and new technologies to source alternative feedstocks to manufacture direct or functional replacement chemicals.

show abstract

“…[ 1 ] Hydrogen benefits from a relatively high energy density and has already found successful applications in fuel cells and combustion processes, through its green exothermic reaction with oxygen (O 2 ). [ 2–4 ] The large, and growing global demand for H 2 is currently met by electrolysis of H 2 O and methane reforming. [ 5 ] Both reactions require energy input, which, in turn, drives the search for sustainable energy sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring Plasmonic Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Toward Sunlight‐Driven H₂ Production

Herran

Sousa‐Castillo

Fan

et al. 2022

Adv Funct Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hybrid nanoparticles combining plasmonic and catalytic components have recently gained interest for their potential use in sunlight‐to‐chemical energy conversion. However, a deep understanding of the structure–performance that maximizes the use of the incoming energy remains elusive. Here, a suite of Au and Pd based nanostructures in core–shell and core‐satellites configurations are designed and their photocatalytic activity for Hydrogen (H2) generation under sunlight illumination is tested. Formic acid is employed as H2 source. Core‐satellite systems show a higher enhancement of the reaction upon illumination, compared to core–shell ones. Electromagnetic simulations reveal that a key difference between both configurations is the excitation of highly localized and asymmetric electric fields in the gap between both materials. In this scheme, the core Au particle acts as an antenna, efficiently capturing visible light via the excitation of localized plasmon resonances, while the surrounding Pd satellites transduce the locally‐enhanced electric field into catalytic activity. These findings advance the understanding of plasmon‐driven photocatalysis, and provide an important benchmark to guide the design of the next generation of plasmonic bimetallic nanostructures.

show abstract

Innovations to decarbonize materials industries

Cited by 71 publications

References 196 publications

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

Manufacturing Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with United States Consumption of Organic Petrochemicals

Tailoring Plasmonic Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Toward Sunlight‐Driven H₂ Production

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Innovations to decarbonize materials industries

Cited by 71 publications

References 196 publications

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

Efficient use of cement and concrete to reduce reliance on supply-side technologies for net-zero emissions

Manufacturing Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with United States Consumption of Organic Petrochemicals

Tailoring Plasmonic Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Toward Sunlight‐Driven H2 Production

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Tailoring Plasmonic Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Toward Sunlight‐Driven H₂ Production