Challenges and opportunities for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction of chemical industry

PAN Jiarong College of Chemistry, Sanxia University Yichang, Hubei Province, P R China

Abstract. Chemical Industry is an indispensible part of the whole pollution social brought economy. by the Environmental

material in construction industry, additives, lubricant, coolant used in products from the departments of foods, machines and refrigeration; but also the final goods consumed by people in their daily life, including chemical fiber, medicine, detergent, ink, adhesive etc.. However, the production, application and consumption of chemical products involve the noxious and poisonous chemical elements, leading to the serious environmental pollutions. Since the 1960s, serious industrial pollutions are mostly related to the process of chemical production, and the application and consumption of chemical industry.

chemical industry has been paid full attention. However the new challenge encountered by the chemical industry, which is GHG emission reduction, is not including CO2,but also including GHG other than CO2.Thus, the sustainable development of chemical industry must based on the attempts of controlling the emissions of conventional l poisonous pollutions, as well as accelerating the emission reduction of GHG to protect the global climate. Key Words: chemical industry, greenhouse gas (GHG) challenge 1. From controlling the reduction of poisonous chemical pollution to the innocuous GHG emissions As an important industrial department of national economy, chemical industry and economy development is closely linked with the improvement of peoples life quality. Chemical industry helps offers not only necessary means of production and intermediate products for other industrial departments, including chemical fertilizer and pesticide in agricultural industry, dyeing in the textile industry, coating
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emission

reduction,

opportunity,

Along with the conditions of ineffective control of conventional pollution, chemical industry has to face the challenges of global environmental issues: gases causing the ozone layer destruction caused by organic compounds CFC and HALON, CO2 and non-CO2 GHG emissions resulting in the global warming. Because of the regulations of international agreement (International trade sanctions) and economic incentives (providing economic and technical assistance to the developing countries), related chemical industry has experienced the innovations of technology and products, using HFC and PFC which is not harmful or comparatively much less harmful to the ozone layer, controlling emissions and use alternative

technology etc.. These innovations have made improvements adaptations. According to the Kyoto Protocol, besides CO2, there are still six non-CO2 GHGs: methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), 4 kinds of fluorine-containing gas (including HFCs), SF6 and NF3. Among those, CH4 and N2O are the already existing components in the nature, while HFCs PFCs SF6 and NF3 are the products of increasing human activities, especially the heavy chemical industry which consumes too much energy and uses oil, coal and other fossil fuels for the production of raw materials related enterprises. Because the for the large during the process of

consumption. Petrochemical, coal, chemical fertilizer, pesticide, plastic and other genera of heavy chemical industry is characterized by its requisitions of a lot of energy consumption. The energy consumption in the chemical industry of the U.S. is made up to nearly 1/4 of the total energy consumption of manufacturing industry of the whole America, 6.8% of the total energy consumption of its whole nation. In 2009, chemical raw materials and its products of China consumes 0.289 billions of tons of coal equivalent, making up to 14% of the total energy consumption of manufacturing industry, 10% of the total energy consumption of the whole industry nationwide. If the petrochemical, coking, chemical fiber, medicine, plastics and rubber industries are included, the energy consumptions is exceed 1/5 of that of the whole industry nationwide, 1/4 of that of manufacturing industry. Almost all the chemical materials and products need to consume large amounts of energy and electricity. Take the production of synthetic ammonia as an example, in 2000, 1.7 tons of coal equivalents is required to generate 1 ton of synthetic ammonia products; in 2009, even though the unit energy consumption has decreased, 1 ton of synthetic ammonia still requires of 1.55 tons of coal equivalents, 35% beyond the advanced world level.(See table 1)

consumption of fossil fuels is indirect ly associated with GHG emissions. Dragging HFCs and other GHGs into the list of emission reduction can help supervise and control the chemical product, which is undoubtedly a huge impaction to the chemical industry. Chemical industry is expected to make great efforts to deal with the new serious challenge of global environmental protection. 2. Fossil fuel consumption and GHG emissions in chemical production Most chemical processes involved in chemical production is in need of extremely high energy

Table 1 Energy consumption index of parts of the main chemical products in China and international comparison
China Advanced 2000 2005 2008 2009 world level Energy +% consumption Comprehensive consumption of energy crude oil 73 processing /kgce/t 33 31.1 118 114 108 106 2009 Gap

Comprehensive

energy

1125

1073

1010

976 629

347

35.6

consumption of ethylene /kgce/t

Comprehensive

energy

1699

1650

1581

1553

1000

553

35

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consumption of synthetic ammonia /kgce/t

Comprehensive

energy

1448

1351

1293

1250

43

3.3

consumption of diaphragm caustic soda /kgce/t

Comprehensive consumption of caustic

energy soda

1067

922

916

910

0.7

ion-exchange membrane /kgce/t

Comprehensive

energy

406

396

355

323 310 13 4.1

consumption of soda ash /kgce/t

Calcium /kWh/t

carbide

consumption

3475

3450

3440

3395 3000 395 11.6

Data Souse: The Ministry of industry and information; the Trade Association; Japan Institute of energy economics and Energy Economics Handbook of statistics, 2010; IEA, OECD national energy statistics, 2010.
3. Chemical products with nitrogen and fluorine The amount of CO2 emission in 2010 is 30.326 billion ton all over the world (IEA, 2012), while the non CO2 greenhouse gases contribute 11.702 billion ton (equivalent CO2 mass), which is about 27.8% of total greenhouse gases emission. Among them, methane contributes 7.194 billion ton (61.5% of non CO2 greenhouse gases); nitrogen oxide contributes 3.633 billion ton (31%); fluoride contributes 0.876 billion ton (7.5%). There are three main N2O sources during the development of Chinese industry: production processes of nitric acid, adipic acid and caprolactam. Currently, production process of nitric acid is a significant source of N2O in atmosphere, as well as that of chemical industry (IPCC, 2006). According to The second national assessment report on climate change, the fluoride emission during industrial process in 2005 is about 93~282 million ton equivalent CO 2 mass; with ideal technology and fond, the amount of fluoride emission has a potential to
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reduce 96~346 million ton relatively in 2020. In China, the totally amount of HFC emission in 2010 is about 130 million ton (50% of HFC-23 is destroyed by CDM), it will increase to 340 million ton in 2015 (suppose CDM stop in 2015 and no additional mechanism is implemented on HFC-23), and 450 million ton in 2020. As shown on table 2, the global warming effect of these compounds is 10 ~10 times larger than equivalent mass of CO2. They also have a long duration in atmosphere up to 50 thousand years. Based on the bond of Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the production and utilization of substances that deplete the ozone layer will be generally terminated after 2020. The emission of HFC, carbon fluoride and SF6 will increase significantly, which take the place of substances that deplete the ozone layer. These fluoride compounds are produced to protect the ozone layer, which is depressed by the consideration of global warming effect. On the other hand, these
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compounds are important to the national economy and society. The emission of HFC is mainly from cooling, air conditioner and heating pump. Substitutes without halogens include alkanes, NH3, CO2 etc. However, related technologies are underdeveloped. The second source of HFC is the polymer foam for insulation in buildings, transportations and pipelines, which is a fast growing source that replace the position of CFC. Existing substitutes include pentane and CO2. These substitutes have a lower global warming potential, but their insulation performance also reduced. Table 2 global warming potential (GWP) of carbon halogen compounds Types Formul as GWP 100 years CFCs bromo-triflu oro -carbon HFCs carbon fluoride sulfur hexafluoride Note: global warming potential (GWP) is the ratio of the warming effect of equal mass CO2. Reference source: IPCC [2000] Special report on emission plan, p265. Table 3 emission of fluoride compounds Unit: kilo ton/year substances layer HFC carbon fluoride SF6 Note: 1. Substances that deplete the ozone layer
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include CFC, HFC and substances bonded by Montreal Protocol. 2. Predictions based on representative values on IPCC A1 (development and globalization). Reference source: IPCC [2000] Special report on emission plan, p265. Non foam insulation material such as mineral fiber can be used. But this technology is inefficient in the aspect of economic. The productions of other industrial solutions, medical sol, aerosol extinguisher, semiconductor and non-insulation foams also need to use fluoride compounds that lead to the emission of HFC. Although there are some mitigation method, but there is no substitutes for medical production and extinguisher, which has no or low GWP. 4. Emission reduction of greenhouse gases in chemical industry Chemical industry is a fond and technology intensive industry with an average capital investment two times of other industries. A

in

Duration in atmosphe re 50~1700 65

CxClyF CBrF3

4000~93 00 5600

CHxFy CxFy SF6

140~117 00 65~9200 23900

5.6~48.3 2600~500 00 3200

research from US proposed that, comply the emission reduction requirement in Kyoto Protocol will cause a depression of US chemical industry as well as related commerce and employment. Without the international quota trading of carbon emission, the price of carbon will rise to 274 US dollar per ton and the price of oil will be doubled. The cost of chemical industry will significantly increase. Up to 2010, the chemical production in US will reduce 43 billion US dollar, which is 12.4% less than the estimation without emission reduction 2100 requirement. Chemical facilities with high 1 energy cost, such as bases, fertilizer and chemical mining, will be affected seriously. Exportation of chemical produced will decrease 1567.3 27% while the import will increase 11%. The 62.7 chemical industry in US will reduce 120-150k 14.5 staffs. Using CO2 or hydrocarbons to substitutes HFCs

1990 1864

2020 253

2050 21

that

deplete the ozone 6.4 17.4 5.8 517.9 23.2 7.3 1470.2 48.2 18.3

in cooling, insulation foam and extinguisher field, the cost of emission reduction is shown on table 4. These technologies under used have greatly difference in cost. As HFC just replaced the position of CFC, it is going to be replaced by other product. From this aspect, the challenge of environment protection that chemical industry must confront is variably and serious. Table 4 emission reduction cost of HFC substitutes (US dollar per ton carbon equivalent emission) substitutes HFC-134a used 1.4kg, recycled, 10 year 408-692 Note: 1. Assume the energy efficiency of current used compound and substitutes are equal; compared with current HFC system, the cost of every cooling equipment will increase 60-90 yuan; 4% discount. 2. Cost includes both producer part (25%) and consumer part (75%). Reference source: IPCC (2011) climate change in 2011, emission reduction, chapter 3. Due to the technological innovations and the improvements of administration, the GHG emission reduction of chemical industry has made instinctive achievements though there is no pressure of CO2 emission reduction. On the other hand, it is not simple for the emission reduction of the chemical industry. Since the mid-1980, in terms of the chimerical products, America had no further achievements of the reductions either of unit energy consumption or of the CO2 emissions. China's calcium carbide production, electricity consumption per ton of product is declining. Although there still exists big disparity with the international advanced
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level, but the magnitude of the decline is limited (see Table 1). In the past half a century, the energy consumption per unit of output of the chemical raw materials of caustic soda used in the production of a glass plate did fall, but compared with the international advanced level, further saving space is limited. On one side, GHG emission reduction has negative effects on the production of chemical industry, while on the other hand, positive effects on that can also be seen. Measures of emission reduction of GHG of chemical industry may bring benefits instead of adding costs. For instance, incensement of energy efficiency caused by heat and power cogeneration not only greatly reduces energy consumption, saving the cost of production, but also reduces the amount of CO2 emissions. Take Dow Chemicals Company as an example, since the heat and power cogeneration was taken into practice in 1990s, it helps the company reduce a great amount of energy costs and avoid 12.8 million tons of CO2 emissions. This company uses the chlorofluoromethane that has the low instead of the chlorofluoromethane that has the high potential for atmospheric warming. This newly developed insulation materials supply market, which is equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions by 3.7 million tons. CO2 emissions per ton from chemical products of Dow Chemicals Company s branches in Canada emissions decreased from 0.5 tons in 1991 to 0.2 tons in 1998. Whats more, the efforts and achievements of emissions reduction of Dow Chemicals Company are made without the relative environmental standards or pressure of emissions reduction. On the contrary, Dow Chemicals Company value the GHG emission reduction challenge as an opportunity, which means that if a company seizes the opportunity, it will become the first to occupy the commanding heights of industry with the international competition. That could be

for currently 3.2kg, not recycled, 10 year 84-212

substitutes modified 0.4kg, recycled, 10 year 840-28442 with less drain

for HFC-134a 2kg, not recycled, 10 year 136-436

assumed as the reason why such an old large-scale chemical company as Dow Chemicals Company can win every time and keep continuously developing in different challenges. In 1998, Dow Chemicals Company with another company invested to generate polymeric compounds with a variety of active acid from corn, which may produce renewable resources as the basis of carbohydrate plastics to replace fossil fuel based hydrocarbon plastics. Visionary companies are looking to the future. 5. Challenges and opportunities faced by the greenhouse gas emission reduction of chemical industry of China China's chemical industry is facing the problems of obsolete equipment, backward technology, and shortage of funds, exclusive system and lack of personnel. Any efforts relative to the improvement of energy efficiency or reducing GHG emissions is likely to encounter with different kinds of challenges. Backbone chemical enterprises in China should strengthen self-constructionwhich includes (1) Accelerate capital turnover and rapidly update obsolete equipment with low energy efficiency; (2)Improve the scale efficiency and reduce the energy consumption per unit of output; (3) Strengthen research and development, promote technological innovation and new product development, and realize the implementation of commercial production as soon as possible; (4) Make efforts on the technology introduction, absorption and development. In terms of international technology introduction, it is expected to put more efforts on digestion and absorption as soon as possible, to narrow the gap, and exceed the advanced countries to form competitive countries. advantage instead of always keeping the equal distance to follow other

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Dow Chemicals.2000.Company Quest for UNFCCC. Kyoto Protocol. Bonn. National Statistic Bureau of China, Statistic IPCC. 2000. Special Report on Emissions IPCC.2001.Climite Change Sustainability Dow Public Affairs. Michigan 4pp.

Yearbook of China, 2011. Scenarios. Cambridge University Press.599pp. 2001:Mitigation.Cambridge University Press IEA, World Energy Outlook. International Energy Agency, Paris.

PAN Jiarong, Professor of Chemistry. Worked with Sanxia University, teaching and supervising students for chemistry.

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