Electrification Potential of U.S. Industrial Boilers and Assessment of the GHG Emissions Impact

Schoeneberger, Carrie; Zhang, Jingyi; McMillan, Colin; Dunn, Jennifer B.; Masanet, Eric

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1189936/v1

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At present, there are case studies missing but several companies offer electrical boilers for food manufacturing (e.g., Fulton Boiler Works, UK; LAARS Heating Systems Co., USA). In addition, a recent analysis concluded that especially the food sector has a high potential for electrification of boilers in the United States (Schoeneberger et al., 2022).…”

Section: Electrical Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Großmann

Hinrichs

Weiß

2022

Comp Rev Food Sci Food Safe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The utilization of heat is one of the foundations of modern food processing. At present, boilers that operate on fossil fuels are still dominating the generation of hot water, steam, and hot air in the food industry. In light of sustainability goals and carbon taxes as well as international efforts to reduce the dependence on natural gas, new technologies are needed to lower the greenhouse gas emissions related to thermal processing of foods. This review discusses important technologies that could serve as a replacement for conventional fossil fuel boilers in the future. These technologies are based on electricity, geothermal energy (direct/indirect use), and electricity to hydrogen conversion and include fuel cells, microturbines, engines, electrical boilers, heat pumps, radiation, and use of geothermal energy. The majority of these technologies are already available for implementation at larger scales and emissions are generally lower compared to burning fossil fuels. At present, major obstacles, such as low fossil fuel prices, still exist that prevent the widespread adoption of more sustainable heating technologies. However, the direct transformation of electrical energy and utilization of geothermal energy for heating purposes seem promising and should be more frequently installed in the future, whereas the use of H 2 obtained through electrolysis as a transportable source of energy may also serve as a source of thermal energy where it is useful to generate electricity and heat on the production site or where the availability of electricity is limited.

show abstract

Section: Electrical Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Großmann

Hinrichs

Weiß

2022

Comp Rev Food Sci Food Safe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hence this study assumes a linear trend, as shown in Figure 11, to achieve the aforementioned targets. Schoeneberger et al (2021) estimate that the U.S. boiler population consists of approximately 38,500 units with a total cumulative capacity of 490 GW input. As per their estimates, the total industrial boiler capacity has increased by approximately 6% in recent years compared to the level in 2005 (EEA, 2005;Schoeneberger et al, 2021).…”

Section: Co 2 Emissions In Industrial Boilers and Electricity Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schoeneberger et al (2021) estimate that the U.S. boiler population consists of approximately 38,500 units with a total cumulative capacity of 490 GW input. As per their estimates, the total industrial boiler capacity has increased by approximately 6% in recent years compared to the level in 2005 (EEA, 2005;Schoeneberger et al, 2021). Nearly half of the total number of boilers are less than 3 MW capacity however, these small boilers account for only 5% of the total capacity.…”

Section: Co 2 Emissions In Industrial Boilers and Electricity Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For comparison with the EEA analysis in 2005 (EEA, 2005), Schoeneberger et al (2021) have broadly classified industrial sectors into the following six: chemicals, paper, food, refining, primary metals, and "other" sectors. Using their results, this study assumes that the boiler capacity distribution of a) primary metals are representative for aluminum, foundries, and iron and steel manufacture, and b) paper sector for forest products manufacture.…”

Section: Industrial Boiler Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Electrification of Boilers in U.S. Manufacturing

Zuberi¹,

Hasanbeigi²,

Morrow³

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Decarbonization of the industrial heat demand through electrification where low/no-carbon electricity is used can contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. In U.S. manufacturing, thermal processes account for approximately 75% of the total final energy demand, of which nearly 17% was consumed by conventional industrial boilers for steam generation in 2018 (this does not include boilers for combined heat and power -CHP). Steam is generally used in industry to regulate temperatures and pressures in industrial processes, dry products, strip impurities from process fluids, etc. Although all kinds of energy sources such as fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear, and electricity can generate steam, fossil fuels'-fired boilers are dominant in U.S. manufacturing. Electric boilers, which are a mature technology, have a small market share for steam generation in the global and U.S. industry (approximately 2% in U.S. manufacturing) due to several techno-economic reasons.This study aims to: a) examine the boiler energy demand in the U.S. industrial sectors both at the national-and state-level, b) quantify the potential opportunity to electrify the U.S. industrial boiler systems at the national-and state-level, and c) identify the barriers and drivers for the wide-scale application of electric boilers and provide insights for proposals to overcome the barriers. This work employs a bottom-up approach to investigate the sector-level and state-level techno-economic potentials of deploying electric boilers for steam generation in U.S. manufacturing up to 2050.The results show that the electrification of industrial boilers in all the U.S. industrial sectors, except for the iron and steel sector, can initially lead to an increase in annual CO 2 emissions by around 43 MtCO 2 compared to the 2018 baseline. However, boiler electrification is projected to result in over 195 MtCO 2 per year reduction in CO 2 emissions in 2050, as shown in Figure ES.1. This significant decrease in CO 2 emissions in the future is projected as the consequence of the higher adoption of renewable electricity or grid decarbonization between 2018 and 2050.

show abstract

Electrification Potential of U.S. Industrial Boilers and Assessment of the GHG Emissions Impact

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Technologies for sustainable heat generation in food processing

Electrification of Boilers in U.S. Manufacturing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About