Low-Carbon Energy for Industry

Mark F. Ruth, Colin McMillan, Parthiv Kurup

March 14, 2019

JISEA Annual Meeting
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 2

Industrial Energy Use

Credit: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/

• 29% of global 

energy use

• 36% of global CO2 

emissions

U.S. Industrial Energy 

Use Composition

• 82% Manufacturing

• 9% Mining

• 5% Construction

• 4% Agriculture
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 3

• Industry is 

heterogenous

• Majority of the energy 

required is for heat

• Heat is less fungible 

than electricity

– Temperature

– Quantity

– Transmission limitations

Challenges for Low-Carbon Uses in Industry

Source: Adapted from S. J. Davis et al., Science 360, eaas9793 (2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9793
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 4

Thermal Energy is a Need

• Process heat consumes about 

51% of U.S. industrial energy 

demand

• Heat integration is very 

common within facilities but 

cross-facility heat integration 

and valorization could provide 

new opportunities

• Low-carbon sources that meet 

quality requirements and are 

economic is a key challenge

Source: Colin A. McMillan, Mark Ruth. “Using facility-level emissions data to estimate the technical potential 

of alternative thermal sources to meet industrial heat demand” Applied Energy, V. 239, (2019) p.1077-1090, 
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 5

We are starting 

to identify 

geothermal 

(geo), small 

modular 

nuclear (SMR), 

and solar 

integrated 

process heat 

(SIPH) 

opportunities

Matching Demand to Thermal Generation Options

Source: Colin A. McMillan, Mark Ruth. “Using facility-level emissions data to estimate the technical potential 

of alternative thermal sources to meet industrial heat demand” Applied Energy, V. 239, (2019) p.1077-1090, 
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 6

Demands are distributed across the U.S. 

Identifying Opportunity Locations

County-level industrial heat demand 100°C – 400°C

Source: Colin A. McMillan, Mark Ruth. 

“Using facility-level emissions data to 

estimate the technical potential of 

alternative thermal sources to meet 

industrial heat demand” Applied Energy, 

V. 239, (2019) p.1077-1090, 
JISEA—Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis 7

Matching Resource with Demand (SIPH Example)

Fresno, CA example

Industries such as Fruit and Veg 

clustered together in good thermal 

potential areas and with nearby 

available land

Central Valley provides good resource 

and industry proximity

Kurup and Turchi, “Initial Investigation into the 

Potential of CSP Industrial Process Heat for the 

Southwest United States”, NREL, 2015

Use the NREL System 

Advisor Model (SAM) and 

other analysis tools, to 

model systems (e.g. solar 

IPH) and determine 

potentials

McMillan et al., “Generation and Use of Thermal Energy in the 

U.S. Industrial Sector and Opportunities to Reduce its Carbon 

Emissions”, NREL, 2016
Thank you!

www.nrel.gov

This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, 

LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by U.S. 

Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of Strategic Programs and Fuel Cells 

Technology Office. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. 

Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges 

that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce 

the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.

www.JISEA.org

mark.ruth@nrel.gov

NREL/PR-6A20-73552