化学工业脱碳

化工是全球最大的行业之一，年收入约为4.7万亿美元。此外，它创造的产品深深嵌入了世界上最大的价值链，如制造业和建筑业。2021年，化学工业的全球二氧化碳排放总量约为9.25亿吨，约占总排放量的2%。与此同时，该行业正在发生根本性的变化，包括消费者对低碳产品的需求增加，消费者对回收和使用再生材料的意识增强;对资源节约型生产的需求增加;监管压力加大，要求更严格的材料要求。化工作为欧洲能源密集程度最高的行业之一，在能源体系重组和减少二氧化碳排放方面可以发挥特殊作用。考虑到这一点，我们研究了多个国家的化工行业的20多个脱碳项目，包括比利时、芬兰、法国、德国、意大利、荷兰、挪威、西班牙和瑞典。我们的研究结果表明，企业可以通过追求蒸汽产生、利用余热、改变电力采购和提高能源效率来减少排放。考虑到数据的规模和可用性，我们选择将分析和说明性示例集中在德国的化学工业上。然而，这并不否定脱碳杠杆对其他国家的普遍适用性。

The chemical industry is one of the largest industries globally, with an annual revenue of approximately 4.7 trillion US dollars. Furthermore, the products it creates are deeply embedded in the world’s most prominent value chains, such as manufacturing and construction. In 2021, the global total CO₂ emissions from the chemical industry amounted to roughly 925 million tons, accounting for about 2% of total global emissions. Meanwhile, the industry is undergoing fundamental transformations, including growing consumer demand for low-carbon products, heightened awareness of recycling and the use of recycled materials, increasing demand for resource-efficient production, and mounting regulatory pressure for stricter material requirements. As one of the most energy-intensive industries in Europe, the chemical industry can play a unique role in energy system restructuring and CO₂ emission reduction. In light of this, we examined over 20 decarbonization projects in the chemical industries across multiple countries, including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. Our findings demonstrate that enterprises can reduce emissions by optimizing steam generation, utilizing waste heat, adjusting power procurement, and improving energy efficiency. Given the scale and availability of data, we chose to focus our analysis and illustrative examples on the German chemical industry. However, this does not negate the universal applicability of the decarbonization levers to other countries.