Including chemical companies such as Dow and ExxonMobil, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $6 billion investment in industrial decarbonization

On March 25, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $6 billion in funding for industrial sector emissions reduction projects, the most expensive investment in industrial decarbonization in U.S. history.

The $6 billion will fund 33 industrial projects, including seven chemical projects under construction by Dow and ExxonMobil. Seven chemical projects received a total of 1.212 billion US dollars (about 8.8 billion yuan) in funding. The details are as follows:

ExxonMobil Betown olefins plant carbon reduction project received $331.9 million in funding. The project will retrofit the Beytown ethylene plant in Texas with a new burner technology that will use hydrogen instead of natural gas in high-temperature combustion equipment. The retrofit will allow up to 95% of clean hydrogen fuel to be used, reducing the plant's current carbon emissions by half.

Orsted A/S will receive $100 million in funding to build an e-methanol plant on the Texas Gulf Coast. With an annual production capacity of 300,000 tonnes of e-methanol, the plant will have a carbon footprint reduction of 80% or more compared to traditional production methods. e-methanol will be used as a fuel in transportation industries such as maritime transport.

BASF plans to develop a project in Freeport, Texas, that uses plasma gasification and renewable energy to convert liquid by-products into syngas, which is used as a low-carbon feedstock for its Freeport plant. BASF expects to replace natural gas with plasma gasification and renewable energy sources, which can reduce CO2 emissions at BASF's Freeport plant by about 90 percent. The project will receive $75 million in funding.

LanzaTech and T.EN Stone &Webster Process Technology will receive up to $200 million in funding for a project on the U.S. Gulf Coast to produce sustainable ethylene using renewable energy and carbon dioxide. The project converts captured carbon dioxide into ethanol and ethylene through the application of biotechnology-based processes and green hydrogen.

The chemical production electrification and heat storage project, led by Ashland's subsidiary ISP Chemicals, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Electrified Thermal Solutions (ETS), will receive $35.2 million in funding. The project plans to replace natural gas boilers with electric heating, thereby reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with steam production at Ashland's chemical plant in Calvert, Lankentucky, by nearly 70 percent.

Dow will receive $95 million in funding to build a plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast to produce electrolyte solutions for lithium-ion batteries. The project will capture up to 100,000 mt/year of carbon dioxide from ethylene oxide production and use it to produce the basic components of the electrolyte solution.

Eastman Chemical is building a project to recycle ethylene terephthalate (PET) in Longview, Texas, with up to $375 million in funding. The plant will use methane depolymerization technology to decompose waste PET into dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol. The plant plans to combine thermal energy storage with on-site solar power generation to decarbonize process heating operations and reduce the carbon intensity of the product by 70% compared to fossil virgin PET.

The goal of funding these projects is to reduce CO2 by more than 14 million tonnes per year, equivalent to the net emissions of 3 million gasoline vehicles in a year.

The U.S. Department of Energy said the seven selected chemicals and refining projects demonstrate how the chemical and refining industry can turn its carbon intensity from a headwind to an advantage. These projects plan to upcycle captured carbon into value-added products, produce high-quality fuels and materials from recycled products, and replace fossil fuels with high-heat processes that decarbonize fuels.