Since the beginning of industrialisation in the middle of the 19th century, the basic materials industry as the backbone of industrial production has been based on the availability of fossil raw materials (e.g. iron ore and lime) and energy sources (today oil derivatives, natural gas and coal) as important location factors. The rapid transition to a circular economy, which is necessary to achieve sustainability goals, and the simultaneous restructuring of the energy system towards CO2-neutral technologies are fundamentally changing both location factors. The inevitable transformation of the industrial system by 2050 is disruptive and therefore requires simultaneous infra-structural and technological adaptation.

A fundamental and unavoidable trend here is the decentralisation of production. This is a consequence of the local availability of the materials to be recycled and helps to avoid transport-related CO2 emissions. The simultaneous decentralisation of power generation through renewable energies must be taken into account in the infrastructural and technological implementation.

A second trend is the decarbonisation of industrial processes by switching to electricity- or hydrogen-based technologies. This is characterised by the substitution of fossil fuels with electrical energy in process heat generation, for example through the use of heat pumps. Similar to the heat transition for residential buildings, it can be assumed that the use of heat pumps will also have to increase significantly in industrial processes by 2050. However, unlike in the residential building sector, high-temperature heat pumps are required here, the development of which is nowhere near as advanced as that of conventional heat pumps.

The switch to electricity-based processes results in a significant increase in electrical energy requirements and thus an increasing load on the energy grid. However, it can be assumed that the latter can be reduced through distributed generation and consumption. On the one hand, grid expansion costs can be reduced and, on the other, smaller process units offer greater potential for demand-side management and can therefore contribute to grid stabilisation.

This innovation pool project looks at the "Industrial Transformation 2050" from the perspective of the infrastructural and technological redesign of energy-intensive basic materials and processing industries. Interactions between the distribution networks for energy, materials and CO2 are being analysed. To this end, methods and models are being developed that link future material cycles (base metals, cement, carbon carriers) and their necessary infrastructures into an overall system. With regard to energy requirements, an analysis of the expected increase in electrical energy through technological change and its potential for flexibilisation is being developed using prototypical processes. Scenarios will be developed and evaluated on the basis of techno-economic analyses with geographical localisation of future energy-intensive industrial locations.