>The world now produces annually about 4.5 billion tons of cement, 1.8 billion tons of steel, nearly 400 million tons of plastics, and 180 million tons of ammonia.
The upside of not trying to replace that ‘required’ fossil fuel is that in a couple of centuries there won’t be a humanity left that needs them?
It is important to not only talk about power plants when talking about the energy transition. Today the cement, steel, plastic and ammonia industries requires fossile fuels. But they can replace fossile fuels using electrification, green hydrogen and biofuels. Let us talk about them in detail:
**Cement:** Requires energy for heat (a lot) and a surprising amount of energy for grinding. The grinding mills are already today run with electric energy, heat is usually generated by gas today. You can either use electriv ovens or (more likely since technologically easier) green fuels. This could be either hydrogen or biogas.
**Steel:** Traditional blast furnaces require coal. This is the big boss of the energy transition and alternatives won’t be the stzandard until in the late 2030s or early 2040s. The most promising technology is direct reduction using hydrogen where the first plants will go online at about 2025. But already today, large quantities of steel are recycled in electric arc furnaces which only require electricity.
**Plastics:** Production of plastics requires (usually short) carbon-based molecules such as ethane. They can be produced from oil and gas but this is not the only way to synthesize them. There are alternative ways using organic matter in the form of biofuels. Currently, we are already producing a sufficient amount of biofuels for the needs of our chemical industry, but we rather burn them in cars and power plants. Cars can go electric and power can come from other sources, so in the next decades, our biofuel production will pivot towards providing basic materials for the chemical industry.
**Ammonia:** In order to produce ammonia (using the Haber process) you need hydrogen and nitrogen (air). Today, hydrogen comes from methane, that is natural gas. In the future, hydrogen will be produced from electrolysis using excess power from wind and solar energy. This will kill two birds with one stone: On the one hand, it will gives us some sort of long-term energy storage (albeit with 40% efficiency), on the other hand it will supply ammonia production plants with hydrogen.
So, while fossile fuels are essential in today’s modern world, in all of the four materials mentioned, there are alternatives.
They *currently* require fossil fuels. There, fixed the title for you.
All these processes can be adapted so not a single drop of fossil fuel is ever required anymore. And it will be completely done within 30 years, probably less.
Is there a point to reposting this article that is over a year old? Even more so it is quite incorrect
On top of that, this is an energy sub reddit, so its quite off topic to begin with
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>The world now produces annually about 4.5 billion tons of cement, 1.8 billion tons of steel, nearly 400 million tons of plastics, and 180 million tons of ammonia.
The upside of not trying to replace that ‘required’ fossil fuel is that in a couple of centuries there won’t be a humanity left that needs them?
It is important to not only talk about power plants when talking about the energy transition. Today the cement, steel, plastic and ammonia industries requires fossile fuels. But they can replace fossile fuels using electrification, green hydrogen and biofuels. Let us talk about them in detail:
**Cement:** Requires energy for heat (a lot) and a surprising amount of energy for grinding. The grinding mills are already today run with electric energy, heat is usually generated by gas today. You can either use electriv ovens or (more likely since technologically easier) green fuels. This could be either hydrogen or biogas.
**Steel:** Traditional blast furnaces require coal. This is the big boss of the energy transition and alternatives won’t be the stzandard until in the late 2030s or early 2040s. The most promising technology is direct reduction using hydrogen where the first plants will go online at about 2025. But already today, large quantities of steel are recycled in electric arc furnaces which only require electricity.
**Plastics:** Production of plastics requires (usually short) carbon-based molecules such as ethane. They can be produced from oil and gas but this is not the only way to synthesize them. There are alternative ways using organic matter in the form of biofuels. Currently, we are already producing a sufficient amount of biofuels for the needs of our chemical industry, but we rather burn them in cars and power plants. Cars can go electric and power can come from other sources, so in the next decades, our biofuel production will pivot towards providing basic materials for the chemical industry.
**Ammonia:** In order to produce ammonia (using the Haber process) you need hydrogen and nitrogen (air). Today, hydrogen comes from methane, that is natural gas. In the future, hydrogen will be produced from electrolysis using excess power from wind and solar energy. This will kill two birds with one stone: On the one hand, it will gives us some sort of long-term energy storage (albeit with 40% efficiency), on the other hand it will supply ammonia production plants with hydrogen.
So, while fossile fuels are essential in today’s modern world, in all of the four materials mentioned, there are alternatives.
They *currently* require fossil fuels. There, fixed the title for you.
All these processes can be adapted so not a single drop of fossil fuel is ever required anymore. And it will be completely done within 30 years, probably less.
Is there a point to reposting this article that is over a year old? Even more so it is quite incorrect
On top of that, this is an energy sub reddit, so its quite off topic to begin with