Decarbonizing Industry Through Electrochemical Processing
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • 10:00 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. CT
Achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require new approaches to chemicals and materials manufacturing, whose two sources of emissions—direct emissions from fossil feedstocks used in the manufacturing process, and indirect emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels to generate process heat—represent up to 28% of global emissions.
Converting incumbent thermochemical processes that use fossil fuel-derived process heat to electrochemical processes that use carbon-free electricity would make a significant impact on industry emissions and energy efficiency, but many technological hurdles remain. Solutions will require cutting-edge discovery science, scalable technology development, and the convergent expertise and resources of industry, government, and academia.
In this webinar, experts discussed the market and technological drivers for transitioning thermochemical processes to electrochemical, summarized the areas of greatest need in R&D, and surveyed a few of the most promising scientific and technological frontiers. The webinar featured a live tour of the state-of-the art facilities and technologies available to industry partners at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, including its newly expanded Materials Engineering Research Facility.
George Crabtree, Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, kicked off the conversations on several questions: What impact on emissions can we expect from converting thermochemical to electrochemical processes, in the short and long term? What are the key technology gaps that determine scalability and profitability? What type of R&D is needed to close these gaps, and what teams can we assemble to accelerate progress?
Paul Kearns, Director of Argonne National Laboratory, welcomed U.S. Representative Bill Foster of Illinois’ 11th Congressional District who provided opening remarks.
Experts included:
- Antoine Allanore, Associate Professor of Metallurgy, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Wei Cai, Energy Transformation Technology Leader, GE Research
- Megan Clifford, Associate Laboratory Director for Science & Technology Partnerships and Outreach, Argonne National Laboratory
- Joe Cresko, Chief Engineer in the Advanced Manufacturing Office, U.S. Department of Energy
- Runeel Daliah, Senior Analyst, Lux Research
- Laurel Harmon, Vice President of Government Relations, LanzaTech
- John Hryn, Group Leader for Emergent Materials and Processes, Argonne National Laboratory
- Di-Jia Liu, Senior Chemist, Argonne National Laboratory
- Kate Peretti, Technology Manager in the Advanced Manufacturing Office, U.S. Department of Energy
- Jeffrey S. Spangenberger, Group Leader for Materials Recycling, Argonne National Laboratory
- Brian Storey, Director of Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery Program, Toyota Research Institute
- Pingping Sun, Principal Energy Systems Analyst, Argonne National Laboratory
View the agenda and speaker biographies.