How hydrogen and electricity can clean up heavy industry

This nonfiction is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's play clime newsletter. To person it successful your inbox each Wednesday, sign up here.

Hello hullo and invited backmost to The Spark! 

This variation of the newsletter is coming to you with impeccable autumn vibes from Boston. 

I’m successful municipality for our archetypal yearly ClimateTech event, and 1 of the sessions that I’m particularly excited to beryllium moderating this week is called “Solving the Hard-to-Solve Sectors.” It’s a statement that gets thrown astir a batch successful the clime exertion space, and it lumps unneurotic a fewer industries that are important to our satellite but thin to beryllium forgotten astir erstwhile it comes to innovation. 

So let’s instrumentality a sneak peek into this ClimateTech league and untangle what these sectors are, what’s truthful hard astir them, and what approaches companies are taking to cleanable them up. 

Why is dense manufacture specified a clime nightmare? 

Usually, erstwhile radical speech astir hard to lick sectors, they’re referring to dense industry, including steel, cement, and chemic production—building blocks for our roads, buildings, and astir of the products we usage each day. 

Other sectors similar proscription and nutrient mightiness get much attention, but this isn’t immoderate tiny portion of the clime alteration pie—industry accounts for astir 20% of planetary greenhouse state emissions. 

There are a mates large reasons wherefore emissions from dense manufacture are truthful hard to cut. 

First, the processes thin to beryllium wildly vigor intensive. Producing steel, for example, requires temperatures of implicit 1600 °C (2900 °F). Getting furnaces this blistery means burning a batch of fossil fuels, often coal. 

Different vigor sources similar hydrogen and biofuels tin sometimes beryllium swapped successful to assistance chopped emissions. But there’s a 2nd problem: successful immoderate cases, c is tied up successful the chemic process of making a product. 

Take cement production, for example—I won’t get excessively heavy into the chemistry, but fundamentally cement starts its beingness arsenic limestone, which is mostly calcium carbonate, and it needs to beryllium turned into lime, oregon calcium oxide. This process requires precocious heat, which sloughs disconnected the c and oxygen successful the limestone—releasing c dioxide, the celebrated greenhouse gas. 

So adjacent if there’s an alternate substance to vigor up the kiln, cement accumulation has emissions baked in. 

And for immoderate concern products lipid and earthy state are the starting point. Plastics are a classical example—most single-use plastics are derived from fossil fuels. This is the lawsuit for different chemicals too, similar the detergents successful your manus soap oregon fragrances successful your perfume.

The icing connected the barroom is that the sheer size of concern facilities means that it tin beryllium hard and precise costly to marque changes. A large alloy mill tin outgo upwards of a cardinal dollars to build, and they usually run for decades—so companies looking to chopped emissions successful the aboriginal request to put a batch of wealth successful caller technologies, and soon.

What tin we bash astir it?

New, decarbonized ways to nutrient steel, cement, and chemicals are mostly inactive successful the probe oregon aviator stage, and determination isn’t a wide victor yet for immoderate of these industries. But determination are a fewer approaches that are gaining momentum. 

Using hydrogen arsenic an alternate substance could beryllium 1 of the astir straightforward ways to chopped emissions from industries similar steel. Some instrumentality would request to beryllium adjusted, but burning hydrogen is closest to the attack utilized today, which chiefly relies connected ember oregon earthy gas. At ClimateTech, I’ll beryllium speaking with Maria Persson Gulda, CTO of H2 Green Steel, to sermon the relation hydrogen tin play successful alloy production. 

Green hydrogen was 1 of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies successful 2021—you tin work much astir its potential, and imaginable challenges, here. 

Leah Ellis was 1 of Technology Review’s 35 Innovators nether 35 successful 2021—read much astir her and astir Sublime systems here. 

Capturing c dioxide could besides beryllium an indispensable portion of cutting emissions. The exertion is inactive costly today, and wherever the c dioxide goes aft it’s captured tin beryllium a cardinal item successful however overmuch the process really reduces emissions. 

Startup Twelve is moving to alteration c dioxide into usable products, from fuels to plastics. I’ll beryllium chatting with Kendra Kuhl, co-founder and CTO of Twelve. Kendra Kuhl was besides connected our database of 35 nether 35, successful 2016. Dive deeper connected Twelve and her communicative here. 

Keeping up with Climate

To people the commencement of ClimateTech, James Temple, our elder exertion for energy, wrote a timely effort astir however the dangers of clime alteration are accelerating, what we tin bash astir it, and however captious this infinitesimal is. If you privation to consciousness charged up astir clime change, you should decidedly give it a read. 

The United Nations assemblage that oversees planetary aviation yet acceptable a net-zero extremity for 2050, a determination years successful the making. (New York Times) Some airlines and manufacture groups had already acceptable 2050 arsenic a target. For much connected that extremity and what it would instrumentality to scope it, cheque retired my portion from earlier this year. 

In different aviation news, a frequent flier tax could assistance wage for costly changes needed to chopped emissions from flying. (Washington Post) 

Automakers are pouring wealth into US electrical conveyance manufacturing. Incentives successful the Inflation Reduction Act are accelerating progress. (Protocol)

A cobalt mine opened past week successful Idaho—the lone progressive 1 successful the US. Cobalt is simply a cardinal mineral utilized successful astir lithium-ion batteries successful EVs and user electronics, and contiguous it’s mostly mined successful the Democratic Republic of Congo and processed successful China. (NPR)

Electric motortruck and SUV shaper Rivian issued a large recall past week that affects astir each its vehicles. The contented could impact vehicles’ steering, and the callback comes arsenic the startup works to ramp up production. (Wall Street Journal)

Just for Fun

The Guardian dove heavy into pumpkin spice’s meteoric rise: 

“Ten years ago, much radical searched Google for ‘candy corn’ than ‘pumpkin spice’ each fall. But present pumpkin spice is the much fashionable hunt word worldwide by a wide margin.’”

Did you cognize that pumpkin spice Spam exists? When are radical going to travel astir and recognize that salted caramel is the amended autumn flavor?

That’s each for this week! Thanks truthful overmuch for reading, and if you person ideas oregon suggestions for this newsletter, drop maine a line. Until adjacent time!

Casey