How does the chemical industry pursue a low-carbon transition

The industry pattern is facing optimization, the new capacity of high-energy projects is limited, and the advantages of chemical enterprises with leading carbon emission control capabilities will become more and more obvious. On the one hand, the approval of new projects with high energy consumption will be stricter, and the new space for traditional projects will be greatly compressed. On the other hand, leading enterprises with leading carbon emission control levels use advanced processes and technologies to continuously optimize energy consumption, and expand high-quality production capacity through reduction and replacement, and the concentration and influence of leading enterprises will continue to strengthen.

A path to carbon neutrality

Starting from the leading practice at home and abroad, BCG summarized the three major elements of carbon neutral upgrading and transformation of chemical enterprises, namely strategic vision, emission reduction grasp and support system, and conducted in-depth discussion on several key emission reduction grasp.

Improve the level of operation. Through management optimization, equipment upgrading, technical transformation and process optimization, as well as energy cascade utilization and other ways to improve the operational efficiency of existing businesses, promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

Optimize the energy mix. Replacing traditional coal power with renewable energy is another key to carbon reduction. At present, there are five ways for Chinese enterprises to purchase renewable energy power: green certificate, direct investment, investment and construction of distributed energy projects, direct power purchase and market trading of distributed power generation. Enterprises should choose the appropriate green power consumption path according to their own conditions.

Raw material substitution. For chemical companies, there are challenges and opportunities to replace fossil raw materials with eco-friendly green raw materials (such as bio-based materials, recyclable materials).

Development and application of emerging technologies. Many chemical companies have also actively invested in the research and application of advanced carbon reduction and control technologies, including carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), electrolytic water hydrogen production, etc., but in general, the current technology is still immature and the utilization scale is still small.

Optimize product mix. Chemical enterprises should also analyze the development strategy of product structure optimization under the dual-carbon policy, and explore and evaluate the feasibility of the layout of green new products. Combine the market appeal of the product with the strategic matching degree of the enterprise, identify new product opportunities with high potential, and take green and low-carbon into important consideration.

Develop a circular economy. Circular economy is an important direction of low-carbon sustainable development. In the actual implementation process, it faces the key requirements of ensuring raw material supply, building cost competitiveness, adjusting operation mode, long-term persistence and establishing ecological cooperation system.

In addition, enterprises can also consider carbon trading and carbon sinks to achieve carbon control goals.

Looking forward to the future, with the trend of low-carbon development of the global industry, the carbon neutral transformation of chemical enterprises is not only the challenge of The Times they face, but also the opportunity to adjust their own business to improve competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. Enterprises should turn challenges into opportunities, and early layout is particularly critical. On the one hand, through energy efficiency improvement, process optimization, the use of clean energy and other ways to promote the existing business energy saving and carbon reduction. On the other hand, pay attention to and explore the development and commercialization of advanced carbon reduction technologies and models, and conditionally carry out small-scale pilot and deployment to prepare for low-carbon upgrading and transformation.