Revolutionary technologies and strategies for green and low-carbon industry processes

Carbon neutrality is a major national strategy to promote the energy and industrial technology revolution and reshape the industrial structure and human lifestyle. China is a world industrial power with a comprehensive and large-scale industrial system. Industrial processes are the primary areas of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in China, with steel, nonferrous metals, chemicals, and building materials being the primary sources of industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, industrial process carbon reduction is a sustainable, systematic, and complex long-term project. Compared with other industries, industrial carbon reduction is more complex and difficult. Therefore, realizing significant changes in industrial processes is arduous. We need to analyze industrial carbon emission sources and emission reduction paths, followed by in-depth theoretical, technological, and systematic innovation, to develop a technical roadmap and promote major application demonstrations. The analysis and calculation of industrial carbon emissions are relatively complicated. The boundary definition of carbon emission analysis and calculation in the system remains debating. First, it is imperative to identify the core production process and clear carbon emission accounting boundaries. In addition, the types and sources of raw materials and energy used in the factory production process should be clarified. Carbon emissions from industrial processes primarily come from direct and indirect carbon emissions. Carbon accounting requires collecting production activity data from various carbon sources in industrial processes, selecting and obtaining carbon emission factors, and referring to the corresponding emission source formula to measure carbon emissions. Different accounting boundaries can lead to significant differences in accounting data. Only by delineating clear boundaries based on needs and conducting classified statistics based on direct and indirect carbon emissions can industrial carbon emissions be calculated. To achieve green and low-carbon industrial processes, it is necessary to transform theoretical knowledge and research paradigms. Three transformation strategies are proposed: (1) Shifting from thermal carbon-driven to electric hydrogen-driven, with the key being process transformation, (2) shifting from semiempirical regulation to intelligent design, with the key being digital transformation, and (3) shifting from a single process to a coupled integration, with the key being system transformation. Eventually, sustainable development of low-carbon or even zero-carbonization in industrial processes can be realized by developing new-generation green and low-carbon transformative technologies, adjustment of industrial structure, and restructuring of technological processes. By analyzing the current situation and trends of the steel, nonferrous metals, chemical, and building material industries with high carbon emissions in industrial processes, three strategies and methods for low-carbon transformation are described, and key breakthroughs in industrial green and low-carbon transformative technologies are summarized. Based on the current status and future development trends of current industrial processes, suggestions and actions to speed up industrial transformation are outlined, and the development prospects of green and low-carbon industrial processes are predicted.