University Challenge
Challenge 4 – Sustainable and decarbonized industry
Globally, the industrial sector accounts for about 37% of energy consumption, with natural gas being the most consumed fuel, followed by electricity. It is responsible for about 25% of CO2 emissions, this percentage includes direct emissions generated by industrial processes as well as indirect emissions associated with the electricity consumed. In Europe, the manufacturing sector accounts for about 30% of final energy consumption and about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions.
These are the areas in which you can develop your proposals, you can choose more than one.
Hard-to-abate industries, such as the petrochemical, cement, iron and steel, glass, and ceramics industries
What strategies and technologies do you propose to reduce emissions in the hard-to-abate industries such as the petrochemical, cement, iron and steel, glass, and ceramics industries?
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Automobile industry
What strategies and technologies do you propose to reduce emissions throughout the automobile industry's value chain?
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Decarbonization of industry
What alternatives do you propose to decarbonize the industry without losing its competitiveness?
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Digitalization
What strategies do you propose that are based on AI (Artificial Intelligence), machine learning, or other digital systems, that contribute to an efficient and decarbonized industry?
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Food, paper, and cardboard industries.
What strategies and technologies do you propose to reduce emissions in industries such as the food and paper and cardboard ones?
Tecnology
What technological solutions do you propose to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, which also reduce energy consumption in industrial processes?
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The global economy faces the challenge of transforming and decarbonizing all sectors, including the industrial sector.
The European Union's challenge is to achieve total decarbonization by 2050. To achieve this, it has launched the European Green Deal. Within this framework, it has recently launched the Net Zero Industry Act, which aims to expand the development of technologies that are key to achieving climate neutrality and to address the competitiveness of European industry versus the U.S.-driven Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The most energy-demanding industrial sectors are the chemicals and refining, cement, and food industries. They are followed by iron and steel, and the paper industry.
Depending on the type of industry, different policies and technologies will have to be applied, responding to the complexities of decarbonizing their industrial processes and energy use. The solution is not a general one, since it is not the same to decarbonize an industry that requires intensive energy consumption to meet its thermal needs as another where the option of electrification may be more viable.
The scenarios suggest that current technologies will not be able to meet the decarbonization targets, so it will be necessary to develop innovative technologies and solutions on a large scale.
It's simple, the first thing to do is to register in Open Room to create a team. At the end of the registration phase, with the teams already formed, you can start to elaborate the proposals for the challenges of your choice.
What if I don't have a team?
You can still register, we will assign you to a team already created at the end of the registration phase.
What are the deadlines?
What should your team's proposal include?
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