SNZR: Attractive technologies for industrial decarbonisation

Project Summary

Decarbonisation requires a combination of existing and developing technologies to make step change   reductions   in carbon   dioxide   emissions,   whilst   also   removing   carbon   dioxide   from   the   atmosphere. When  selecting  technologies  for  decarbonisation,  understanding  the  vast  landscape  of  developed  and  developing  technologies  is  essential  to  ensure  the  most  appropriate  are  selected  and  implemented  at  the  right  time.

Scotland’s  Net  Zero  Roadmap  (SNZR)  is  an Innovate  UK  funded  project.  Its aim is to develop a roadmap that sets out how Scottish industry can move towards Net Zero by 2045, based on exploring a number of decarbonisation scenarios.

Phase 1of the SNZR project aimed to develop a project plan and detailed proposal for the development of a decarbonisation roadmap for Scotland’s industrial cluster on its East Coast which covers many of the largest industrial sites across a range of sectors and 80% of Scotland’s industrial CO2 emissions.

This was done through understanding the scale of industrial CO₂ emissions in Scotland, identifying technology options to address these, the barriers to their implementation and the appetite for industry to adopt solutions.

NZTC delivered three reports with an overview of the technology options to address Scotland’s industrial emissions, barriers to their implementation, long-term cost reduction opportunities and developed a plan for further investigation in phase 2.

Key results:

After reviewing the key findings from stakeholder interviews, and through a screening exercise, the Net Zero Technology Centre was able to identify the priority technologies for industrial decarbonisation to be further investigated in phase 2. This included technologies for fuel switching, electrification, CO2 capture and hydrogen production.

This project delivered several key insights into technologies for industrial decarbonisation whilst providing an overview of many of the technical challenges and the most effective actions to be taken to aid in future cost reductions. This allowed NZTC to make decisions about which technologies to prioritise and further focus on in phase 2, which was further guided by understanding the viewpoints of industrial stakeholders (emitters and infrastructure owners).

Industry value:

SNZR will be an important part of our efforts to tackle climate change, by helping Scotland’s industry reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the target of net-zero emissions by 2045 in Scotland and 2050 in the UK as a whole.

SNZR  is  led  by  NECCUS  and  other  project  partners  are  Costain  Limited,  Doosan  Babcock  Limited,  Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Limited, Aker Solutions Limited, Wood Limited, Energy System Catapult  Limited,  Net  Zero  Technology  Centre,  Pale  Blue  Dot  Energy  Limited,  Optimat  Limited,  The  University of Edinburgh and The University of Strathclyde.