Carbon Emissions from U.S. Ethylene Production under Climate Change Policies

Abstract

This paper presents the results from a dynamic computer model of U.S. ethylene production, designed to explore implications of alternative climate change policies for the industry's energy use and carbon emissions profiles. The model applies to the aggregate ethylene industry but distinguishes its main cracker types, fuels used as feedstocks and for process energy, as well as the industry's capital vintage structure and vintage-specific efficiencies. Results indicate that policies which increase the cost of carbon of process energyssuch as carbon taxes or carbon permit systemssare relatively blunt instruments for cutting carbon emissions from ethylene production. In contrast, policies directly affecting the relative efficiencies of new to old capitalssuch as R&D stimuli or accelerated depreciation schedulessmay be more effective in leveraging the industry's potential for carbon emissions reductions.

Chemical Recycling of Plastics by Microwave‐Assisted High‐Temperature Pyrolysis

“…Chemical industry is one of major energy consumers and carbon dioxide emission sources. For example, the U.S. chemical industry accounts for 25% of manufacturing energy use and 2.6% of the country's carbon emissions 13. Currently, more than 90% of the raw materials for chemical industry are fossil feedstocks including crude oil, shale gas, and coal 14.…”

“…For example, the U.S. chemical industry accounts for 25% of manufacturing energy use and 2.6% of the country's carbon emissions. [13] Currently, more than 90% of the raw materials for chemical industry are fossil feedstocks including crude oil, shale gas, and coal. [14] Considering the dwindling fossil resources, global climate change, and increasing importance of sustainability, both chemical industry and academia have focused their interest on renewable resources.…”

Analysis of China’s olefin industry using a system optimization model considering technological learning and energy consumption reduction

“…We also carried out a sensitivity analysis of the discount rate for the four scenarios as illustrated in Table A5 in the appendix and we found changing the discount rate from 5% to 10% did not change the optimal results. [59]. Another study argued that carrying out global carbon taxes (at $65-130/t CO 2 ) could lead to the widespread use of biomass-based routes and thereby could halve the total CO 2 emissions from the global petrochemicals production in their study period [60].…”

Potential Challenges Faced by the U.S. Chemicals Industry under a Carbon Policy

“…One set of studies are largely qualitativethey don't quantify policy impacts on industry sectors, but include in-depth industry profiles, and evaluate different energy and climate policy options in light of industry analyses [3,12,13]. Another set of studies apply modeling tools in attempts to quantify these impacts [5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Among others, the latter category include Resources for the Future (RFF) ongoing studies aimed at understanding how carbon-dioxide charges affect industrial competitiveness, measured as impacts on operating costs, profits, and production output [5,15].…”

“…Only a few studies over the past decade have attempted to evaluate climate policies and their impact on the manufacturing sector, especially on energy-intensive industries, using dynamic modeling tools [16][17][18][19][20]. This study is a new addition to this small group.…”