Industry

Panasonic’s new US$4 billion battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, is designed to be a model of sustainability – it’s an all-electric factory with no need for a smokestack. When finished, it will cover the size of 48 football fields, employ 4,000 people and produce enough advanced batteries to supply half a million electric cars per year. But there’s a catch, and it’s a big one. While the factory will run on wind and solar power much of the time, renewables supplied only 34% of the local utility Evergy’s electricity in 2023. In much of the U.S., fossil fuels still play a key role in meeting power demand. In fact, Evergy has asked permission to extend the life of an old coal-fired power plant to meet growing demand, including from the battery factory. With my students at Wellesley College, I’ve been tracking the boom in investments in clean energy manufacturing and how those projects – including battery, solar panel and wind turbine...

Capturing carbon dioxide from the air or industries and recycling it can sound like a win-win climate solution. The greenhouse gas stays out of the atmosphere where it can warm the planet, and it avoids the use of more fossil fuels. But not all carbon-capture projects offer the same economic and environmental benefits. In fact, some can actually worsen climate change. I lead the Global CO₂ Initiative at the University of Michigan, where my colleagues and I study how to put captured carbon dioxide (CO₂) to use in ways that help protect the climate. To help figure out which projects will pay off and make these choices easier, we mapped out the pros and cons of the most common carbon sources and uses. Replacing fossil fuels with captured carbon Carbon plays a crucial role in many parts of our lives. Materials such as fertilizer, aviation fuel, textiles, detergents and much more depend on it. But years of research and the climate changes the world is already experienci...

Europe’s car-producing regions know that decarbonisation will hit the traditional car industry hard and result in thousands of job losses. For them, the name of the game now is how to limit the damage, and how the EU can help. A Committee of the Regions conference held in Brussels on 22 May brought together experts and industry players from the 36 regions of the ‘Automotive Regions Alliance’ – a group that focuses on how car manufacturing regions can navigate Europe’s decarbonisation journey. For these regions, the future of European car-making is critical. “The automotive industry … generates over 7% of EU’s GDP and around 13.8 million people work in it, creating important multiplier effects in supplier industries” explained Emil Boc, chair of the CoR’s commission for territorial cohesion policy and EU budget, and mayor of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoc. A just transition for car manufacturing...

As government leaders and climate negotiators gather in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate conference, an enormous challenge looms over the proceedings: decarbonizing the global industrial sector. Industry has accounted for over 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. It is the single largest emitting sector when accounting for its electricity use and heat generation. For countries to meet their goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, stopping emissions from carbon-intensive industries like steel, cement and chemicals is imperative. There are promising technologies and innovations that can drive decarbonization in industry: green hydrogen fuel made from clean electricity and water, energy efficiency measures across supply chains, and carbon capture, use and storage to name a few. However, these solutions have yet to be deployed at the speed and scale required to slow global warming. Global industrial emissions will need to fall by 25% by 2030 for the...

Lire cet article en français Vinyl chloride – the chemical in several of the train cars that derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 – can wreak havoc on the human liver. It has been shown to cause liver cancer, as well as a nonmalignant liver disease known as TASH, or toxicant-associated steatohepatitis. With TASH, the livers of otherwise healthy people can develop the same fat accumulation, inflammation and scarring (fibrosis and cirrhosis) as people who have cirrhosis from alcohol or obesity. That kind of damage typically requires relatively high levels of vinyl chloride exposure – the kind an industrial worker might experience on the job. However, exposures to lower environmental concentrations are still a concern. That’s in part because little is known about the impact low-level exposure might have on liver health, especially for people with underlying liver disease and other risks. As an assistant professor of medicine...