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22 years are left until the German target for climate neutrality should be reached. For the industrial sector, this implies a fundamental change and an acceleration of emission reduction, as from 2000 to 2021 the sector has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by only 13% (ERK, 2022). For the large structures, plants and assets that are characteristic for the energy intensive industrial sectors, the timespan implies no room for delay. One sector facing particular challenges is the chemical industry. Here, fossil resources are used not only for energetic purposes but for feedstock as well, in the petrochemical industry in particular. The efforts made in the petrochemical sector thereby not only affects the sectors own emissions, but the chemicals value chain at large, including the management of end-of-life products. The dependency on energetic resources for material use also means that there is a particular connection from the chemical industry to the energy system at large, which also entails special consideration.
The chemical industry also has a particular relevance to the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Rhine-Ruhr-Area (ARRRA) which hosts several large petrochemical clusters in Germany as well as the Netherlands and Belgium, with complexly interlinked production chains. In reaching the climate targets, these regions especially face significant changes and may have the opportunity to position themselves as frontrunners for industrial transformation. That is, if a successful strategy can be found.
In the recent years, numerous scenario analyses and roadmaps have been released drawing out pathways for chemical industries to develop in line with national and international climate targets. This can entail mapping of technological options, important prerequisites, particular challenges as well as important opportunities and timeframes. This meta-analysis summarizes and compares the findings of some of the most recent previous works at the national, European and global level. As the goal is to investigate the various strategic options and development paths for Germany and the ARRRA, it has a particular focus on roadmaps for Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It takes a quantitative as well as qualitative approach, looking both at resource and production volumes, different emission reduction strategies relative importance, as well as policy recommendations and other important framework conditions. A particular focus is put on the use of non-fossil feedstocks to reduce emissions.
The petrochemical industry is among the most relevant sectors from an economic, energetic and climate policy perspective. In Western Europe, production occurs in local chemical parks that form strongly connected and densely integrated regional clusters. This paper analyzes the structural characteristics of the petrochemical system in Germany and investigates three particularly distinct clusters regarding their challenges and chances for a transition towards climate-neutrality. For this, feedstock and energy supply, product portfolios and process integration as well as existing transformation activities are examined. We find that depending on their distinct network characteristics and location, unique and complex strategies are to be mastered for every cluster. Despite the many activities underway, none of them seems to have a strategic network to co-create a tailored defossilization strategy for the cluster - which is the core recommendation of this paper to develop.