Transforming the Process Industries through Electrification: Challenges and Opportunities

For the more than 70 years, the process industries have provided essential fuels and materials for global growth. Increased manufacturing production comes with substantial environmental impact. Reducing environmental impact through process electrification, carbon capture, and other emerging technologies would require large changes throughout the process industries. We review opportunities and challenges related to electrification, focusing on technical, operational, and economic considerations. We conclude that electrification could completely eliminate scope 1 CO₂emissions, increase product quality, and reduce the equipment size and cost. On the other hand, it calls for a significant expansion of power generation capacity, as well as new paradigms for process design and operations.