Honeywell will achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 to promote China's "dual carbon" transformation

At present, responding to global climate change and protecting the earth's environment are becoming the focus of social concern. Since China put forward the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" in 2021, it is taking steps towards a zero-carbon era.

In this process, the application of sustainable technologies will accelerate the transformation of the green economy, promote the transformation of the energy system, and play a key role in promoting the realization of China's dual carbon goals and the requirements of energy conservation and emission reduction in the 14th Five-Year Plan.

The reporter of "China Business Daily" learned from Honeywell that Honeywell is helping China's "dual carbon" goal and sustainable and high-quality development through a series of locally-based technological innovation and promotion.

"With more than 100 years of experience in sustainability, energy conservation and emission reduction, Honeywell is committed to providing a wide range of industrial technologies and digital solutions for the sustainable development of modern society, and we have always believed that technological innovation is the only way to a sustainable future." Yu Feng, President of Honeywell China, said that Honeywell is committed to implementing the concept of sustainable development in China, strengthening local innovation, and working with partners to promote the implementation of low-carbon technologies, so as to jointly create a more low-carbon, efficient, safe and healthy sustainable future.

Optimistic about China's energy transition

The proposal of the "dual carbon" strategic goal reflects China's responsibility and actions to address climate change and solve the climate crisis. At the same time, as the world's largest emitter, China will need to achieve a huge transition from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in half the time of developed countries, and the pressure to reduce emissions is huge.

The reporter learned that judging from China's carbon emission data in 2020, the task of carbon emission reduction is very arduous: carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced by more than 80% to achieve carbon neutrality. Therefore, changing China's energy structure and increasing the production and utilization of renewable energy is one of the important ways to achieve carbon neutrality and carbon peak. By 2060, the share of renewable energy use will increase from the current 15% to 85%.

In this process, green and low-carbon energy development is the key. The energy industry is the main battlefield and main position to promote the green and low-carbon development of energy, and the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry is an important path and inevitable choice to achieve the "double carbon" goal.

Talking about China's energy transition, Yu Feng said: "The first characteristic of China's energy and environmental transition is its large size, whether it is cars, buildings, steelmaking, power generation, China is several times or more than many countries. The second characteristic is that China, as a developing country, is in a stage of rapid economic development, and unlike many developed countries in Europe and the United States that have implemented multi-year emission reduction policies, China needs to achieve emission reduction targets while ensuring economic development. ”

Opportunities often coexist with challenges. In the process of China's energy transition, it is inseparable from the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and all parties in society. In this regard, Yu Feng said that environmental issues, energy transition and climate change are common challenges faced by the whole world, as well as huge challenges and opportunities for China's green and low-carbon transformation, which will further enhance the attractiveness of the Chinese market to foreign companies such as Honeywell. Combined with Honeywell's familiarity with the Chinese market and the experience and knowledge accumulated from nearly 90 years of working with Chinese customers, Honeywell is optimistic that the "dual carbon" goal will drive a series of technological innovations and product development. At the same time, Honeywell also sees that some industries in China, such as energy, aviation, construction, chemical and other industries, have market prospects for green development.

It is reported that Honeywell actively implements the development strategy of "East Serves the East, East Serves the World" in China. With years of development and accumulated experience in the Chinese market, we can help China's green and low-carbon development. In 2021, Honeywell committed to achieving carbon neutrality across all of its operations and facilities by 2035. In April, Honeywell further strengthened its sustainability commitment by including indirect carbon emissions from its value chain into its emissions reduction targets. As a digital industry high-tech company with more than 100 years of practical experience in sustainability and energy conservation, Honeywell has targeted solutions for industries that generate two-thirds of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and can fully support the development of a circular economy and promote the energy and environmental transition.

Technological innovation drives the low-carbon transition

The "dual carbon" goal brings challenges to reducing emissions to industries with high energy consumption and large carbon dioxide emissions, such as petrochemicals, aviation, construction, traditional equipment manufacturing, etc., and also fosters development potential for technological innovation and application.

At present, the technical directions of the low-carbon center mainly include: new energy, recycling of renewable resources and materials, technologies to improve hydrocarbon conversion efficiency and reduce energy consumption, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies, and green hydrogen applications.

Among them, the petrochemical industry has become one of the key industries for carbon neutrality transformation and upgrading, including technologies to improve hydrocarbon conversion efficiency and reduce energy consumption, CCUS and non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emission reduction. The proposal of the "dual carbon" goal will undoubtedly force the petrochemical industry to eliminate backward production capacity, accelerate technological upgrading, and optimize the industrial layout of the park. Refining and chemical enterprises that focus on efficiency, safety, environmental protection and sustainable development will be more competitive.

According to Liu Maoshu, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies Group in the Asia Pacific, China's petrochemical industry is still full of opportunities in the future under the spur of the "dual carbon" goal.

"We believe that the petrochemical industry can start from the following aspects to achieve green and low-carbon development: on the one hand, we should attach great importance to the innovation of process technology and process equipment. On the other hand, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of intelligent factories. Liu Maoshu said that with the launch of China's "dual carbon" strategy, more and more companies have begun to think about how to achieve emission reduction goals through technological upgrades. This does not mean that we have to abandon the original technical route, but it is important to add some new technologies on the basis of the original technical route to achieve the emission reduction target. To this end, Honeywell put forward the concept of "refinery of the future" in 2019, actively helping petrochemical enterprises to achieve refining and chemical transformation and refining integration, meeting the needs of refineries to invest in the construction of clean fuel production capacity, so that the output of petrochemical products can reach more than 70%.

Liu Maoshu gave reporters an example: "Honeywell's UOP Kellert thermal oxidation furnace combustion technology uses an advanced cyclone combustion process, combined with advanced low-nitrogen and low-carbon combustion technology, which can be used to remove nitrogen-containing waste from production waste. At present, Honeywell is using Honeywell's UOP thermal oxidizer technology in the project of Sunon Chemical's Tongling plant to help the treatment unit of Sunon Chemical's Tongling plant discharge liquid and remove metal dust from the exhaust gas, so that nitrogen oxides can be discharged up to the standard. ”

In addition, Honeywell and Donghua Energy will build a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production base with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons in Maoming City, Guangdong Province, relying on the Ecofining process, to build the world's largest sustainable aviation fuel production base with food waste oil as the main raw material.

It is reported that the Honeywell Ecofining process uses Honeywell green aviation fuel produced by the conversion of gutter oil, fat and grease. The use of food waste oil and animal fats as feedstock can reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by about 80% compared to conventional fuels.

Donghua Energy will combine the existing petrochemical industry chain foundation to create a new type of green petrochemical industrial production, and link up with the aviation industry to help promote carbon emission reduction in the aviation industry.

Relying on the local area to help the "double carbon" goal

Founded in 1885 and with a history in China dating back to 1935, Honeywell has been implementing the strategy of "East for the East" and "East for the World" for many years, driving growth through local R&D innovation and manufacturing procurement. At present, all of Honeywell's operations have settled in China, and Shanghai is Honeywell's headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region.

Previously, Honeywell had pledged to achieve carbon neutrality for both direct emissions (Scope 1) and indirect energy emissions (Scope 2) by 2035. This year, Honeywell has committed to setting emissions reduction targets that include other indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 3) from the value chain, guided by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

In 2021, Honeywell announced the establishment of the Low Carbon Center of the Honeywell (China) Co., Ltd. Sustainable Development Research Institute, focusing on the development of low-carbon technologies and market demand, using Honeywell's innovative products and technologies as the engine to promote the development and implementation of low-carbon solutions in the Chinese market, and help customers achieve sustainable development and China's goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality".

Yu Feng mentioned that Honeywell is accelerating the introduction of advanced technologies developed abroad into the Chinese market (such as hydrogen production, refrigerants, blowing agents, etc.), and working with Chinese partners to develop products and technologies suitable for the local market. Honeywell is committed to combining the specific needs of the Chinese market with the company's existing technology into products and solutions with local intellectual property rights that can be applied in China.

According to reports, as an ideal alternative to HFC products, Honeywell's innovative hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) technology helps customers reduce their carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency without degrading the performance of the final product, and the Solstice series of low GWP refrigerants, blowing agents, propellants and solvents are widely used around the world, and have so far helped reduce more than 260 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is equivalent to reducing the potential emissions of more than 56 million vehicles for a whole year.

In addition, green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy as the energy source for hydrogen production, has become an important part of the future energy system. In March 2022, China issued the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)", which clearly mentioned that the focus will be on the development of renewable energy hydrogen production. By 2035, a hydrogen energy industry system will be formed, and a diversified hydrogen energy application ecosystem covering transportation, energy storage, industry and other fields will be built. The proportion of hydrogen produced from renewable energy in final energy consumption has increased significantly, which plays an important supporting role in the green transformation and development of energy.

In this regard, Liu Maoshu said that at present, the application of green hydrogen technology in the power industry has begun to be valued. As an important direction of sustainable energy transition, Honeywell sees the development of green hydrogen technology. Honeywell's UOP Polybed PSA system uses a dedicated adsorbent to remove impurities from hydrogen-containing gases at high pressures, recover hydrogen and purify it to more than 99.9% to meet the refining needs of enterprises.

He mentioned that in April 2022, Honeywell released the next generation of green hydrogen technology and its important proton membrane technology, and will implement this technology in China as soon as possible.
Honeywell will achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 to promote China's "dual carbon" transformation

Honeywell will achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 to promote China's "dual carbon" transformation

Honeywell will achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 to promote China's "dual carbon" transformation

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