Just as process safety and cybersecurity used to be viewed as expenses before users understood and added up their benefits, the same goes for sustainability. To change minds and convince potential participants that going green can improve productivity and profitability at the same time, the Digital Manufacturing and Cybersecurity Institute staged its third “Win-win of sustainability” workshop on Aug. 13 at its Chicago headquarters.
“It’s natural for sustainability to combine with manufacturing growth and profitability for an economically viable future,” says Billy Bardin, PE, global climate transition director at Dow and MxD board chair. “It just takes some new ways of measuring with digital transformation and sustainability analytics that can include carbon-reduction with business practices.”
Berardino Baratta, CEO of MxD, reports that its 22,000-square-foot facility on Goose Island near downtown Chicago contains more than $300 million worth of manufacturing equipment, which its 310 members, partners and other clients use for collaborative R&D, problem-solving workshops and testbeds, and demonstrations and training. It concentrates on predictive analytics and maintenance, agile, resilient supply chains, cybersecurity, digital fingerprinting, augmented reality (AR) and digital twins.
MxD just celebrated its 10th anniversary as one of 17 Manufacturing USA sites launched following the 2008 recession to improve U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. “We aim to give U.S. manufacturers a secure digital backbone, which will enable them to can collect data from their processes more easily, and use it to make their businesses more effective and successful,” adds Baratta. “MxD empowers workforces by convening a digitalized ecosystem of advanced technology innovations and adaptations. We presently has about 180 projects in our portfolio, which can digitally transform their own ecosystems. Sustainability used to be thought of as an obligation, but we see it as an opportunity to revolutionize and transform your business.”
Overcoming myths and assumptions
In the event’s keynote address, Katheryn Scott, market analysis engineer in the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DoE)’s technology transitions office, presented ample evidence that sustainability can generate billions of dollars in revenue for participants in addition to reducing carbon footprints and hitting net-zero emissions targets. DoE’s five primary decarbonization pillars are energy efficiency, industrial electrification, law-carbon energy, carbon capture, and external activities like recycling, which it tracks in eight industrial sectors, including chemicals, refining, iron and steel, food and beverage, cement, pulp and paper, aluminum and glass.
However, even if all contemplated sustainability efforts are carried out, Scott reported they’d only address 1% of current emissions. She added full decarbonization will require $700 billion to $1.1 trillion by 2050. Plus, several myths about sustainability must be overcome, such as:
- “Sustainability technologies aren’t ready” isn’t true because many could be deployed immediately in the DoE’s eight industrial sectors;
- “Investment doesn’t cancel carbon” isn’t true because investing in net-positive decarbonization technologies now could achieve 15-20% abatement and prevent 800 billion tons of CO2 emissions for existing assets in sectors like oil and gas and cement; and
- “Users don’t know where to start” isn’t true because each industry has multiple pathways to achieving commercial liftoff of sustainability projects and programs.
“Approximately 27% of CO2 emissions from the chemicals sector, about 14% of emissions from refining, and 32% from cement could be abated with net-positive, decarbonization levers,” says Scott. “Europe already gets 50% of its energy for cement production from alternative sources, while the U.S. only gets 15% from alternative sources. There are pathways like this for all eight sectors, but there are adoption challenges, and users have questions about how to make sustainability work for their businesses. However, adopting sustainability isn’t a technical problem. It’s a willingness problem. The good news is that achieving net-zero targets can be done, and there are ways for companies, people and their governments to pursue a sustainable future.”
Many of these challenges and solutions for all eight industrial sectors are detailed in the DoE’s 117-page Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Industrial Decarbonization overall report, which was published in September 2023 and is downloadable here.
By-sector support for sustainability
To further jumpstart and assist these efforts, Scott reports the recently enacted U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has made $6 billion in funding available for about 30 sustainability projects. She adds that DoE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is likewise tracking more than $20 billion in federal and private investments to transform advanced but hard-to-abate sectors by:
- Solidifying a first-mover advantage for U.S. industries with low- and net-zero carbon manufacturing processes;
- Substantiating the market for clean products with high-impact, replicable solutions; and
- Building broadly shared prosperity for U.S. workers and their communities.
These investments are expected to prevent 14 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, reduce criteria air pollutants by 85% across 28 projects, and create tens of thousands of jobs, including 19 projects committed to using union labor. Breaking out one sector, iron and steel has six projects and a $1.5 billion federal investment that’s expected to avoid 2.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. Its individual projects include:
- Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corp. that received $500 million to work on hydrogen-ready electricity for its melting furnace in Middletown, Ohio. The company also received $75 million to use electrified induction to upgrade a steel-slab, reheat furnace in Lyndora, Pa.;
- SSAB that received $500 million to develop electrolytic hydrogen for zero-emissions steel production in Mississippi and Iowa;
- Vale USA that received $283 million to develop low-emission, cold-agglomerated, iron-ore briquette production; and
- U.S. Pipe and Foundry Co. that received $75.5 million to replace a coke-fired furnace in Bessemer, Ala., with electric induction melting furnaces, and reduce carbon intensity of pipe production by 73%.
“In short, there are great opportunities for decarbonization, and for making money with sustainability, too,” adds Scott.
