In a move to reduce carbon emissions in the industrial sector, the U.S. Department of Energy has selected 33 projects to share up to $6 billion to take steps to address carbon levels in what it calls “difficult to decarbonise’, such as cement and concrete, and iron and steel.
Announcing the winning projects on March 25, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the program represents “the largest investment in industrial decarbonization in U.S. history.”
The DOE said the projects, which involve building new facilities or upgrading existing ones, will reduce the equivalent of more than 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
The Inflation Reduction Act, also called the Climate Act, provides $5.47 billion of the federal total; the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act will fund the other $489 million.
When private sector funding is added in, the DOE estimates that the total funding for the projects exceeds $20 billion.
In demand
The agency did not immediately release the funding. The sponsors of the selected projects will begin negotiations with the DOE to review the budget and other aspects of their plans.
Interest in the grants was high. The DOE said it reviewed 411 “concept papers,” which requested a total of more than $60 billion in federal funds.
Seven of the 33 projects are in the chemical and refining sectors, six in cement and concrete and another six are iron and steel production facilities. Also selected were: five projects in aluminum and other metals; three in food and beverages; three in the glass industry; two in project-heat; and one in pulp and paper.
Danish company Orsted, known in the United States for developing offshore wind power, will win $100 million for a Texas Gulf Coast project that would make up to 300,000 metric tons a year of “e-methanol,” what is done of green hydrogen produced from the new land-based wind and solar energy combined with captured carbon dioxide. The product would be used for marine and aviation fuels and chemicals, which are now produced using fossil fuels, the company added.
Of the winners, five projects received the largest allocation, a maximum of $500 million.
Two possible recipients of this level of subsidy are in the cement and concrete industry:
Heidelberg Materials US Inc. was chosen for a cement plant decarbonization project in Mitchell, Ind. The company said the project would “capture, treat and prepare for storage or use approximately two million tonnes of CO2 per year”.
“This substantial federal funding will help create the first large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage at a cement plant in the US,” said Chris Ward, president and CEO of Heidelberg Materials North America, in a statement.
The National Cement Co. of California Inc. was selected for its net zero cement plant in Lebec, California.
Two others chosen to negotiate $500 million in grants are in the steel sector: SSAB Americas, which proposed a hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions steelmaking project in Perry County, Miss., and a possible expansion of its existing facility in Montpelier, Iowa, this would include greater use of renewable energy. The company is the North American unit of the Swedish steel company SSAB
Chuck Schmitt, president of SSAB Americas, said in a statement: “We see strong interest in sustainable products in the marketplace and this project provides a critical opportunity to solidify a first-mover advantage for the American industry.”
Boost of the aluminum sector
Also on the $500 million list was Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corp. for an electric and hydrogen-ready melting furnace facility, a hydrogen-ready and electric melting furnace facility in Middletown, Ohio. The company said its plans call for replacing an existing blast furnace at its Middletown works with a hydrogen-ready direct reduced iron plant and two 120MW electric melting furnaces. These furnaces “would feed molten iron into the existing infrastructure that is already on site,” he added.
The company also said the project would create 1,200 construction trades jobs at the peak of construction.
The other potential $500 million awardee is a proposal by Chicago-based Century Aluminum Co. for a “green” aluminum smelter that would be “a huge win for the nation’s primary aluminum industry and the broader US economy…”. Jesse Gary said in a statement.
With the funding, Century plans to build what it says is the first new U.S. primary aluminum smelter in 45 years that, when completed, would double the size of the current U.S. primary aluminum industry.
The company hopes to build the smelter at a site within the Ohio/Mississippi River basins that it says would create more than 5,500 construction jobs.
