By Prasad Ashok Thakur, CIMO scholar and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Administration, Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Know-how, Bombay; and Labanya Prakash Jena, Head, Centre for Sustainable Finance, Local weather Coverage Initiative
In India, the industries sector is second solely to the electricity-generation sector on the subject of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, as per Worldwide Power Company estimates. The sector additionally contributed to 41 per cent of the nation’s electrical energy consumption throughout 2021-22, thus inflicting oblique carbon emissions. Therefore, decarbonising India’s industrial sector is crucial for decreasing the emissions depth of its GDP by 45 per cent by 2030 and reaching its internet zero goal for 2070.
Understanding industrial warmth
Manufacturing actions type a serious share of the vitality consumption inside the industrial sector. It contains all services and {hardware} concerned within the manufacturing, processing, and meeting of various commodities. As anticipated, this encompasses a big selection of operations inside its ambit. Globally, making use of warmth is an ordinary course of throughout industries to rework the properties of supplies. These embody modification of chemical and bodily traits of uncooked supplies similar to dehydration, facilitating chemical reactions, treating alloys and metals, liquefication of polymers, and so on. Such intense industrial warmth requirement is accountable for many of the GHG emissions within the manufacturing worth chain as it’s presently sourced primarily from fossil fuels like coal, petroleum-based fuels, and pure gasoline.
Technological options can be found to interchange or optimise industrial warmth
Adopting low/zero-carbon fuels and electrical heating techniques can scale back industrial heating’s greenhouse gasoline (GHG) footprint. The adoption of AI-enabled good vitality automation instruments and digital twin fashions the place related can optimise thermal cycles of era and vitality conservation. Creating new chemistries can churn out supplies with bodily and chemical properties, decreasing the necessity for industrial heating processes. Deploying electromagnetic radiations like microwaves/radio frequencies, mechanical vibrations by way of contact/non-contact ultrasound, biotechnological approaches, and superior membranes for ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis reduces industrial warmth necessities. The warmth restoration and reuse philosophy can drive analysis in creating round vitality loops inside industrial techniques. This method emphasises the event/use of latest supplies and in-situ vitality reserves for calibrated warmth injection mechanisms to restrict thermal losses. Novel Trade 4.0 approaches like additive manufacturing/3D printing can considerably scale back the variety of thermal processing steps.
Decarbonising industrial warmth
Realising the rising significance of the manufacturing sector within the nation’s trajectory in direction of a $5 trillion financial system, concerted efforts should be made to scale back carbon emissions from energy-intensive processes like industrial heating. A devoted mission will be conceived to gather and analyse empirical datasets about India’s current industrial warmth necessities throughout sectors. Primarily based on brief/mid/long run sectoral forecasts, creating a portfolio of emission discount options for various use circumstances of commercial warmth should be set into movement. Consideration should be given to the evolving dynamics of enormous, micro-small, and medium industries and startups to make sure the widespread percolation of such improvements. Drawing inspiration from the US Division of Power’s (US-DOE) ‘Industrial Warmth Shot’ initiative (85 per cent GHG discount by 2035), the mission ought to set formidable and time-bound targets primarily based on clear consultations with related stakeholders. India ought to goal to develop cost-competitive, planet-friendly, and dependable industrial warmth decarbonisation options for the home and world markets. Such initiatives will help enhance the competitiveness of India’s manufacturing sector whereas assembly our nationally decided contribution (NDC) targets.
Roadmap for execution
Commercially accessible or near-commercialised options should be shortly evaluated and adopted by industrial-heat course of house owners to get near-term reduction for addressing the challenges of excessive vitality consumption and ensuing GHG emissions. Alternatives for changing polluting applied sciences inside current plant infrastructure that require comparatively low effort and prices should be seized instantly. Right here, discount of vitality losses, waste warmth restoration, and good vitality automation options are some areas value exploring. Moreover, authorities companies at union/state/native ranges engaged on industry-related issues can take step one by creating consciousness and financially supporting quick-win pilot demonstrations, with a particular give attention to MSMEs. On-line and licensed platforms will be launched to mannequin and consider competing expertise options to advertise knowledgeable decision-making. In keeping with world mega-trends, monetary incentives/deterrents like tax rebates, upskilling-workforce by way of government-supported MOOC programs, selective imposition of carbon tax, awards and recognitions will be strategically used to hand-hold all stakeholders to embark collectively on the commercial warmth decarbonization pathway.
Within the medium time period, large-scale clear various fuels/vitality sources (for instance, photo voltaic/wind/bio energy-based electrical energy, inexperienced hydrogen, geothermal, and so on.) for industrial warmth functions are anticipated to supply price benefits. This will entail important modifications to in-situ infrastructure and its paraphernalia. Appropriate monetary incentives and coverage frameworks should be launched to assist this transition for hard-to-abate sectors like cement, metal, and refining. In the long run, it’s envisaged that transformative modifications in processing services and the creation of novel uncooked supplies could restrict the requirement of thermal heating to selective product worth chains.
CSIR can play a crucial function
The Council of Scientific & Industrial Analysis (CSIR) can act as a nodal company to catalyse such efforts. CSIR has developed cutting-edge capabilities and a pan-India attain by way of its community of nationwide laboratories/ outreach facilities. It may change into the trusted platform for incubating strategic public-private-academia partnerships for fixing techno-commercial challenges supporting industrial warmth decarbonisation efforts. Such R&D and the next scale-up actions will be centered round finish user-inspired themes.
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