The Biden administration is making a historic investment in cutting carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industries in the United States. With plans to spend up to $6 billion on new technologies, the administration aims to tackle the significant contribution of industries like steel, cement, chemicals, and aluminum to global warming.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced on Monday that the Department of Energy would fund 33 projects in 20 states to test methods for reducing emissions from factories and industrial plants. This initiative is being hailed as the single largest industrial decarbonization investment in American history.
One of the projects receiving funding is Constellium, an aluminum producer, which will build a cutting-edge aluminum casting plant in West Virginia that runs on cleaner burning hydrogen fuels. Kraft Heinz, a food manufacturer, will install electric boilers and heat pumps at facilities across the country to generate heat without burning fossil fuels. Cleveland-Cliffs, a steel manufacturer, will retire a coal-consuming blast furnace in Ohio and replace it with electric furnaces that use scrap and hydrogen to produce steel.
While these projects may only make a small dent in emissions, Granholm emphasized the goal of demonstrating new technologies that can rapidly scale up and set a new standard for clean manufacturing. Heavy industry accounts for a significant portion of the nation’s emissions, and finding cost-effective solutions has been a challenge.
The Biden administration’s approach focuses on funding innovative technologies rather than imposing strict regulations on industries like steel and cement. By creating a market for low-carbon industrial materials and supporting projects like Sublime Systems, a startup developing cleaner cement production methods, the administration aims to drive the adoption of sustainable practices in the industrial sector.
The funding for these projects comes from the Energy Department’s Industrial Demonstrations Program, supported by recent bipartisan legislation. The selected projects will undergo further negotiations before receiving final funding, with a focus on technologies like thermal energy storage that can utilize renewable electricity for industrial processes.
As President Biden’s national climate adviser Ali Zaidi noted, these projects showcase the diverse range of technologies available to decarbonize the industrial sector. With a focus on innovation and collaboration, the administration is working towards a cleaner, more sustainable future for American industries.
