Electrification of Industrial Processes: Start of a Clean New Industrial Era

---

Written by

Reaching the climate targets requires significant activity to curb emissions from heavy industry. However, the global industrial emissions have continued to increase, and that trend needs to be turned now. Electrification of industrial processes across industry sectors – including the hardest-to-abate ones – is key to achieving the required emission reductions and to speed up the transition. Clean electricity provides a clear pathway towards zero carbon industrial production in an energy and cost-efficient manner.

RotoDynamic Technology: A Key Driver in Industrial Electrification

Coolbrook is currently commercializing its revolutionary RotoDynamic Technology which makes it possible to replace burning of fossil fuels across all key industrial sectors at scale. With our high-efficiency electric technology it is possible to reach process temperatures up to around 1,700 degrees Celsius – something that has been considered impossible for electric technologies at scale.

We are working with the leaders in chemical and petrochemical industry, cement industry, iron and steel industry, and beyond to stop burning of fossil fuels in the industrial production processes and thereby reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 2 billion tons annually, representing around 7% of all global CO₂ emissions.

Decarbonization solutions

Current political discussion focuses strongly on hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Whilst both will be needed in the full mix of solutions to battle the climate crisis, direct electrification is clearly superior alternative in all cases where it can be applied due to higher energy efficiency and lower cost.

Policymakers and industries need to adopt a clear prioritization in their decarbonization actions as proposed also in the latest IPCC assessment report:

1. Electrify wherever possible
2. If not, go to green hydrogen, and
3. Use CCS/CCU as the last resort.

All emission reduction pathways require significant build-up of renewable electricity to reach carbon neutral (or carbon negative) future. Wind and solar power are the only sources of energy that can be harnessed at sufficient scale to replace the usage of fossil fuels across industry, transport, and other key sectors. This means that we need to decarbonize the current electricity mix and build up new CO₂-free electricity generation four or five times more than what we have today. We have witnessed an incredible flux of investment to renewable power generation in recent years but that is not even closely enough to reach the targets.

Therefore, governments need to act decisively and allow more renewable energy generation to be invested into through predictable and smooth permitting and by making sure that electric infrastructure develops much faster than it has to date. We also need to harness all sources of flexibility to the power system, in production as well as consumption side.

Coolbrook has built a growing ecosystem spanning from technology partners to major industrial customers, leading universities, NGOs, and decision makers. Together with our partner ecosystem we are starting a Clean New Industrial Era. Instead of walking the talk, it is now time to run the talk of climate action!