Emerging Energy Efficiency Technologies in California's Chemicals and Allied Products Industry-Estimating Energy Efficiency Cost Curves and Identifying Technology R&D Needs and Gaps
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
9th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$300,000
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The draft final report was delayed due to COVID-19 but was completed in March 2021 and recipient is working on finalizing the report. This project identified R&D opportunities for reducing natural gas use and decarbonization of the chemical industry in California. Recommended future research includes: a) separation advancements (e.g., electrochemical potential, membrane longevity, materials, and the use of electricity to drive) instead of distillation; b) dewatering; c) production and use of low-carbon hydrogen via electrolysis to lower costs and drive adoption at scale and application, including avoiding materials embrittlement, unified standards for retrofits, the applicability of furnaces with higher hydrogen content in blends, material safeguarding, and minimizing post-combustion moisture impacts; and d) electric technologies where R&D is needed to help overcome scaling issues. The recipient plans to send the final report by October 31, 2021.
The Issue
California's chemicals and allied products manufacturing industry produces a wide array of products and is a major user of natural gas and electricity and the third largest emitter of GHG emissions in California. Information is lacking on the major natural gas using systems in this sector and the potential energy efficiency research and development needs, emerging technologies that are most beneficial, and associated costs and barriers that prevent implementation.
Project Innovation
The project provides a technical assessment of the chemical and allied products manufacturing industry in California and provides information on the energy use trends, energy efficiency opportunities, prioritized research needs, and associated costs and barriers. The prioritized research needs will be categorized by Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) with a focus on TRL 7 through 9.
Project Benefits
This project identifies potential research that could help the chemical and allied products industry reduce energy use and costs, and greenhouse gas and other emissions, and increase their operational competitiveness. The focus is to guide future research on technologies with a TRL 7-9, since they have the highest likelihood of deployment by the industry in the next 3-5 years. As the chemical and allied products industry is one of the major users of natural gas, focusing on research with the highest potential for implementation in the near term will help the industry meet the state's energy efficiency and greenhouse reduction goals.
Affordability
This project will result in a technical assessment that will identify technologies that could be implemented in the next 3-5 years by the chemical and allied products industry. If these technologies are implemented it could reduce energy and costs, greenhouse gas emissions and associated criteria pollutants.
Key Project Members
Willam Morrow
Subrecipients
Global Efficiency Intelligence, LLC
JM Energy Consulting, Inc.
