\u00a9 iStock\/ugurhan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nGreen chemistry approaches are of increasing importance. Is enough being done to ensure newly-developed chemicals are designed to reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances? How would you like to see industry focusing more on sustainable chemistry across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal?<\/h3>\n There are, of course, the 12 principles of green chemistry \u2013 including design for energy efficiency, use of renewable feedstocks, and design for degradation, amongst others \u2013 all of which are important and interesting in their own right.<\/p>\n
At Cefic, over the last year or so we have offered a series of green and sustainable chemistry \u2018boot camps\u2019, hosted by John Warner, one of the founders of green chemistry and Chief Technology Officer of Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry. These boot camps provide the opportunity for experts in our member companies to learn about green and sustainable chemistry (the latter of which, although difficult to define, is a much broader concept than green chemistry alone) directly from Warner, and to discuss how this concept could influence the innovation taking place in their own companies.<\/p>\n
In a recent webinar that I was involved in with Warner, he made an interesting statement. He said: \u201cGreen chemistry is what the technology is; sustainable chemistry is what the technology does.\u201d And so, when you take a sustainable chemistry approach, you need to look at the way the products are stored and distributed and, indeed, how they are being used by your customers. Furthermore, sustainable chemistry also looks at what happens to the product at the end of life and perhaps how interesting materials can be recovered so that they can be reused in other industrial processes, and so on.<\/p>\n
Sustainable chemistry is also linked to the European Green Deal via the so-called \u2018Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability\u2019. Within this, at Cefic we are interested in elements such as \u2018safe and sustainable by design\u2019. We are thus looking at the design of our products \u2013 and, of course, safety has always been central in our product development process. However, it should also be noted that the functionality of a product also needs to be considered here \u2013 that is, how the products are being used by customers downstream \u2013 because this has bearing on how sustainable it will be.<\/p>\n
If the impact of chemicals on health is a very important issue, other impacts also have to be acknowledged. For instance, if an alternative product is developed which may be safer in terms of health, it could use much more energy during the manufacture process or the use phase, or more water, meaning that the \u2018safe by design\u2019 concept is impaired. The broader concept of \u2018safe and sustainable by design\u2019 is the way to go.<\/p>\n
Given that there is just 30 years left for the European society and industry to implement the necessary massive changes in energy transition and business models, what role will Cefic continue to play? Where would you like to see innovations emerge that can help with this?<\/h3>\n As an association representing the European chemical industry, we will certainly continue to highlight the key contributions of our industry to modern life. Indeed, we feel that communicating the value of the chemical industry and the impact that it has on the everyday lives of citizens as well as the European economy through its involvement in almost all value chains is of paramount importance if the sector is to get the recognition it deserves.<\/p>\n
The Cefic Molecule Managers report from last year called for a more sustainable economy and a more sustainable society. As such, the points raised by the EU in the context of the Green Deal did not take us by surprise because the two are quite similar. For our own report, we included an eight-point communication summary, within which we highlighted climate neutrality, the circular economy, and the increasing concerns of citizens and society for the impact of products on the environment, amongst others. However, while the Green Deal also acknowledges these areas as being of importance, the question of how to achieve the necessary goals remains indistinct. As previously mentioned, the scale of the required transformation is not only unprecedented, but it also needs to happen in a short period of time. As such, in parallel to this high level of ambition, we must be equally ambitious in terms of innovation \u2013 and, indeed, in terms of scaling these innovations up.<\/p>\n
To take the energy transition as an example once more: a key technology in the transformation of the energy landscape will be hydrogen. But if this is to be achieved sustainably, then the production process needs to use low- carbon or zero carbon energy. Given this link therefore to renewable electricity, hydrogen is something we need to look at from a chemical standpoint.<\/p>\n
Another technology that should be mentioned once more is chemical recycling, and perhaps more specifically, the chemical recycling of plastics. Today, just 15% of EU-collected plastic waste in the EU finds its way back into the EU plastic market. Mixed or contaminated plastic waste is currently burned in an incinerator, ends up in a landfill or litters our streets and waterways. Chemical recycling is the only technology available today that can treat this type of waste. The chemical industry is committed to further improving this technology.<\/p>\n
CCU is important for the chemicals industry because we need carbon; the vast majority of the products we create, such as polymers and plastics, contain carbon, and due to the fact that we expect the mix of feedstocks to evolve moving forwards, as already discussed in regard to biomass, linking with CCU may provide the answer we need in terms of how to acquire it sustainably.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, we must combine all these different options and technologies to reach the end goal; there is no single solution.<\/p>\n
How does digitalisation fit into this mix, as this could have a significant impact on business models and the way the industry works?<\/h3>\n Cefic is involved in SPIRE, which brings together cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, minerals and ores, non-ferrous metals, steel and water sectors, several being world-leading sectors operating from Europe with the mission of ensuring the development of enabling technologies and best practices that will contribute to a resource efficient process industry.<\/p>\n
Some time ago, working with SPIRE, we began developing a new roadmap, and within the vision for this you will find the numerous technologies that are key to the partnership and, indeed, in supporting the transformation to 2050, many of which we have already discussed, such as electrification, the use of CCS and CCU, the use of different feedstocks, hydrogen, and so on. Alongside this, we also identified two core technology enablers, one of which is digitalisation, which will help the industry to better manage its processes, to improve energy efficiency, to accelerate the design of new materials, to speed up research and development, etc.<\/p>\n
Moreover, digitalisation can also be linked to the circular economy in terms of digital tools which enable the tracing of products and substances along the value chains.<\/p>\n
Thus, digitalisation is a key enabler for the transformation we are working towards, and it is certainly a key enabler for the chemical industry, and all the different sectors that come together in SPIRE reached the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
The second enabler is industrial symbiosis, which highlights the importance of different sectors working much more closely together. This can have clear benefits. For example, a by-product or waste stream from one industry can be a feedstock for another. This is the case, for instance, with the huge CO2 emissions from steel mills which, if they can be captured, could be used as a feedstock for the chemical industry.<\/p>\n
Industrial symbiosis was also highlighted in the Molecule Managers report, where we suggested that by 2050 the delineation between different sectors are going to become increasingly blurred, perhaps to the point that it will be much more difficult to tell whether a business belongs to one previously-assigned sector or another.<\/p>\n
Finally, how successful is Europe\u2019s chemical industry today?<\/h3>\n The European chemical industry remains a success story with a stable turnover over the last 10 years of around \u20ac550 billion, year on year. However, what is perhaps more important is that there is a trade surplus, and while this may fluctuate a little it stands at around \u20ac45bn. There are not that many industrial sectors in Europe that have this, and so keeping the chemical industry thriving in Europe is central to a thriving European economy.<\/p>\n
The future transformation of the sector, and indeed of Europe generally, is linked to maintaining a strong chemical industry. If we want to achieve what is called by some as \u2018technology sovereignty\u2019, then we need to ensure that we remain in control of the key technologies, many of which we have discussed. Within that, the chemical industry has a central role to play.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cefic\u2019s Executive Director for Innovation, Pierre Barthelemy, spoke to The Innovation Platform about the clear role of the chemical industry in enabling Europe to meet its climate goals, as well as other areas ranging from green chemistry to the importance of digitalisation. Founded in 1972, Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, is the voice of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,24429],"tags":[763,529,19351],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
European chemical industry: Increasing sustainability and digitisation<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n