Infographic: Targets for Decarbonizing Industrial Heat

The power industry and transportation sector both have taken large steps to reducing their carbon emissions, in the United States and around the world. Electricity from wind and solar farms is now less expensive than that from fossil fuels in many places, and the share of power renewable sources is increasing rapidly. Electric vehicles have also increasingly popular in many international markets and have made gains in the U.S.

The next frontier for decarbonization is also one of the most difficult. Industry accounts for around 30 percent of carbon emissions, mostly due to energy needed to provide heat to perform industrial processes. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), “The Hard Stuff: Navigating the physical realities of the energy transition,” examined the heat demand in several industries. The report found that processes require a vast array of temperatures, and while steel, cement, and chemical processing very high temperatures—and are consequently challenging to decouple from fossil fuel—industries that demand low or medium temperatures could be easier to decarbonize.

Let’s look at where the heat stacks up.