Conference Agenda

The United States government has committed to achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy by 2050, a goal that aligns with the global objectives of the Paris Agreement. This international accord seeks to limit the rise in global temperatures to no more than 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century. To meet this ambitious target domestically, the U.S. must accelerate the adoption of advanced energy-efficient technologies and focus on decarbonizing critical sectors, including power, transportation, buildings, and industry. Achieving these goals requires a multifaceted approach, incorporating electrification, fuel substitution, and the scaling of renewable energy systems alongside the deployment of innovative energy storage solutions.

Electrification will be especially vital for decarbonizing the building and industrial sectors. In these areas, energy use remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, which contribute significantly to carbon emissions. In addition to transitioning to renewable-powered electric systems, increasing energy efficiency in industrial processes and residential applications can help reduce overall energy demand, paving the way for a sustainable energy future.

The power and transportation sectors, which collectively account for 54% of total U.S. GHG emissions—29% from the power sector and 25% from transportation—have already established decarbonization strategies. Despite these efforts, the scale and complexity of these sectors pose significant challenges. For example, the vast infrastructure of the power sector requires coordinated upgrades to integrate renewable energy and improve grid reliability. Similarly, the transportation sector’s diverse vehicle types and modes necessitate tailored solutions, such as electrifying light-duty vehicles and transitioning to alternative fuels for heavy-duty trucks, airplanes, and ships. Meeting the 2035 and 2050 decarbonization targets will require innovative approaches and large-scale deployment of clean technologies across these sectors.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector, which contributes 23% of U.S. GHG emissions, presents unique difficulties in achieving decarbonization. Many industrial processes rely on high-temperature heat or chemical reactions that are challenging to electrify or replace with low-carbon alternatives. Examples include cement production, steelmaking, and chemical manufacturing, which often involve emissions-intensive activities. Overcoming these challenges will necessitate the development and scaling of technologies that are currently in the early stages of innovation or are not yet widely understood. For instance, hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and bio-based fuels are promising options but require further research, optimization, and commercialization to make meaningful contributions to industrial decarbonization.

Addressing these challenges calls for advanced methodologies to evaluate and guide the adoption of emerging technologies. One such approach is forward-looking life cycle assessment (LCA), which assesses the environmental impacts of technologies over their entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. Forward-looking LCAs consider not only the current performance of technologies but also their potential for improvement over time, including process optimization and efficiency gains. These assessments are particularly valuable when combined with insights from integrated assessment models (IAMs), which provide scenarios that account for dynamic interactions between energy, economy, land use, and climate systems. By harmonizing socioeconomic and environmental pathways, IAMs enable a more comprehensive understanding of how new technologies will perform in future energy systems.

To facilitate such analyses, researchers have developed the Life-cycle Assessment Integration into Scalable Open-source Numerical models (LiAISON) framework. This open-source tool is designed to integrate prospective LCA with IAM outputs, allowing for a detailed examination of how emerging technologies interact with future energy system contexts. LiAISON accounts for non-linear relationships between the scaling of specific technologies and broader system dynamics, providing insights across multiple environmental metrics. This capability makes it a powerful resource for evaluating the long-term sustainability of decarbonization strategies.

The LiAISON framework has already been applied to assess the environmental impacts of various hydrogen production methods in the United States. By combining data from IAMs such as IMAGE and GCAM, researchers conducted comprehensive LCAs under different scenarios. These analyses provided valuable insights into the trade-offs associated with different hydrogen production pathways, helping to identify those with the greatest potential for decarbonization. Currently, the framework is being extended to a case study on industrial heat supply in the U.S., focusing on strategies to reduce emissions from this critical sector.

Decarbonizing industrial heat supply involves several approaches, including electrification, energy efficiency improvements, and the adoption of alternative fuels. Electrification entails replacing traditional fossil fuel-based heating systems with electric systems powered by renewable energy sources. For example, heat pumps and electric boilers can provide low-carbon heat for industrial processes. At the same time, enhancing energy efficiency across industrial systems can reduce overall heat demand, further supporting decarbonization goals. These measures are particularly important for high-emission industries like cement and steel, where transitioning to low-carbon heat solutions is critical for reducing the sector’s environmental footprint.

Preliminary findings from the industrial heat case study highlight the comparative environmental impacts of various technologies. For example, concentrated solar power (CSP), heat pumps, fossil fuels with CCS, and bio-based sources exhibit lower global warming potential (GWP) than natural gas (NG), making them promising options for reducing emissions. In contrast, technologies such as DAC-to-fuel, ammonia, hydrogen, and electrified heating currently show higher GWP than NG. Beyond GWP, NG generally performs better across other environmental indicators, such as eutrophication, toxicity, particulate matter exposure, and water depletion, with solar being a notable exception.

However, the outlook for these technologies changes when viewed through the lens of long-term climate policy scenarios. Under the SSP2 RCP2.6 scenario, which incorporates ambitious climate targets and policy interventions, all alternative heat sources achieve GWP parity with NG by 2050. This transition is driven by the decarbonization of energy systems and the declining carbon intensity of fuels and technologies over time. For example, DAC-to-fuel systems, ammonia-NG mixtures, resistive heaters, and hydrogen heat sources, which have higher GWP in 2020, are projected to reach parity within three decades. These findings emphasize the critical role of policy-driven pathways in accelerating the transition to low-carbon industrial heat solutions.

The LiAISON framework not only facilitates detailed analyses of specific technologies but also provides a foundation for broader applications. By integrating additional scenarios from IAMs and open-source life cycle inventory databases, the framework can be used to explore a wide range of decarbonization strategies and assess their environmental impacts across multiple dimensions. This flexibility makes it a valuable tool for policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders seeking to identify sustainable pathways to net-zero emissions.

In conclusion, achieving net-zero GHG emissions in the U.S. by 2050 will require coordinated efforts across all sectors of the economy. While the power and transportation sectors have made significant progress in outlining their decarbonization strategies, the industrial sector presents unique challenges that demand innovative solutions and forward-looking analyses. Tools like the LiAISON framework are essential for evaluating the long-term sustainability of emerging technologies and guiding their integration into future energy systems. By leveraging such tools and implementing robust climate policies, the U.S. can achieve its net-zero goals while supporting global efforts to combat climate change.

Steel production is one of the largest sources of industrial greenhouse gas emissions globally. Many of these emissions are associated with the use of blast furnaces, which convert iron ore into steel using fuels like coal, coke, and natural gas. Electrification of the steel industry, through the use of electric arc furnaces, in conjunction with direct reduction of iron ore via hydrogen, can significantly reduce the GHG emissions per unit of steel produced. However, both electrification and the production of hydrogen by electrolysis are significant consumers of electricity. Here, we consider a case study of the electrification of the steel industry in the state of Indiana. Indiana is the largest steel-producing state in the US, and is home to a number of blast furnace and electric arc furnace facilities. Expanding this electrified steel infrastructure would require an expansion in electricity production capacity in Indiana and surrounding states. To account for this increase in electricity demand, we model the eastern interconnection of the US electricity grid with increased electricity demand using the NREL ReEDS capacity expansion model. We estimate the electricity required to produce steel under multiple hydrogen electrolyzer operating conditions like pressure, temperature, and current density. We also consider uncertainty associated with the electricity required for the direct reduction of iron ore into iron. Using this information about projected grid load, we consider multiple possible grid futures. We find that in all scenarios, there is a net reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions over a 30-year time horizon. However, in some scenarios when electrification is adopted rapidly, there is a net increase in grid emissions in the first few years of operation. We see the largest emissions reductions in scenarios where wind generation technology costs fall more rapidly, and the lowest emissions reduction in the scenario where low-carbon electricity generation technologies continue on current cost trends.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act marked a watershed investment in clean hydrogen through the funding of Hydrogen Hubs and the establishment of the 45V tax credit. The policies in these acts tie the economic and environmental pillars of sustainability together by requiring clean hydrogen to meet certain greenhouse gas thresholds to obtain funding. Green hydrogen, hydrogen produced from electrolysis using renewable electricity, quickly became a complicated policy problem. For a green hydrogen producer to claim use of low-carbon electricity, it must meet requirements for incrementality, time matching, and deliverability. The goal of these policies is to ensure that green hydrogen is using low-carbon electricity (deliverability and time matching) and is increasing low-carbon electricity deployment rather than utilizing existing generation and taking it off the grid (incrementality). The IRS has recently finalized these requirements as they pertain to the 45V tax credit [1].

Several studies have used energy system models to evaluate the impact of these policies on both the emissions and costs associated with hydrogen production [2,3]. The studies utilize energy system optimization models to map out the existing energy system and determine the costs and emissions associated with the introduction of hydrogen production, given the policy constraints. However, they tend to have low spatial resolution and exogenously determine the hydrogen load requirement, making them incapable of assessing site and size viability. Further, low spatial resolution limits their ability to adequately assess the new policies, most significantly deliverability.

In this work, we use data from the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) and the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) to approximate prospective industrial hydrogen demand at county-level resolution for process heat as well as for chemical processes in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States. We will generate forecasts using historical GHGRP and MECS data combined with differing levels of hydrogen penetration into various sectors of industry, with optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The projects will provide insight into optimal siting and sizing for clean hydrogen production. Regions with high viability will be assessed for cost and mitigation potential of hydrogen production, which can then be used in conjunction with existing energy cost to evaluate the abatement cost associated with hydrogen use.

1. Credit for Production of Clean Hydrogen and Energy Credit, 90 FR 2224, 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/10/2024-31513/credit-for-production-of-clean-hydrogen-and-energy-credit

2. Michael A. Giovanniello, et al., The Influence of Additional and Time-Matching Requirements on the Emissions from Grid-Connected Hydrogen Production, Nature Energy, 2024.

3. Wilson Ricks et al., Minimizing Emissions from Grid-Based Hydrogen Production in the United States, Environmental Research Letters, 2023.

The growing global interest in hydrogen as a clean energy carrier has sparked a renewed focus on its potential to drive a sustainable energy transition, particularly in the electricity generation sector using fuel cells. However, the sustainability of the produced electricity would depend on the how sustainable and efficient the underlying hydrogen production process is?, also depends on the associated supply chain issues particularly the logistical complexities and risks associated with hydrogen storage and transportation (short or long distance) irrespective of the production method. Motivated by these considerations, we propose an Si+ based hydrogen production technology integrated with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system for electricity generation.

The proposed Si+ route (using virgin Si+ and recycled Si+) is an in-house developed technology by our industrial partner EPRO Advance Technology Limited in Hong Kong, built upon the principles of design thinking, advanced process integration capabilities, and smart control mechanisms. This enables on-site hydrogen generation, as well as optimized production and utilization, thereby reducing the operational complexities and risks associated with hydrogen storage and transportation.

In this study, we present the technical evaluation (via experimental studies) and environmental sustainability results of 1 kWh electricity generation (via life cycle assessments) with the proposed integrated system under different operational and system design settings. These focus on heat and by-product recovery, as well as system expansion for the recovery products. Additionally, we have conducted an analysis by formulating case studies from a business establishment point of view for this technology, considering different regions (Berlin, Scotland, Beijing) as the sites of operation where hydrogen and electricity will be produced, and the raw materials required would be shipped from Mainland China. We have also compared our results with electricity production from hydrogen produced via various pathways.

Our results reveal that there exists a strong potential for hydrogen produced from the Si+ (virgin and recycled) pathway to drive the hydrogen-based electricity systems towards sustainability and can play a significant role in power sector development, considering the existing power system architectures like microgrids, smart grids, and nano-grids.

Achieving a Net Zero electric grid requires deep decarbonization across all energy technologies, including solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind. A major fraction of renewable electricity’s carbon footprint arises from manufacturing power-generating equipment. Although electrified processes in manufacturing can be decarbonized through cleaner grids, high-temperature and direct-emission activities remain challenging.

In this study, we distinguish and quantify the contributions of electricity-, heat- (fuel), and process-related emissions in the life cycles of PV modules and wind turbines. Leveraging the Earthster LCA software, we traced these flows throughout the entire manufacturing chain. Preliminary results show that, depending on the grid mix, over half of the embodied carbon footprint originates from electricity consumption. We also consider how material decarbonization and circularity approaches could address remaining combustion and process emissions. Finally, we underscore the need for comprehensive updates to Life Cycle Inventories for wind and solar technologies to enhance completeness and improve geographic and technological correlations.