Decarbonizing the Chemical Industry: Integrating Renewable Energy, Advanced Materials, and Economic Feasibility Pathways

The chemical industry is among the most energy-intensive and carbon-emitting sectors globally, accounting for a significant share of industrial CO₂ emissions. With the urgent need to meet climate targets, decarbonization of chemical processes has become a strategic priority. This transition requires not only the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources but also the integration of innovative technologies and sustainable materials. Emerging solutions—such as high-temperature heat pumps, power-to-gas systems, biomass conversion, and industrial symbiosis—offer promising pathways toward a low-carbon economy. Furthermore, advances in energy storage, electrification, and process optimization, including AI-driven tools are becoming important in addressing renewable electricity intermittence, biogenic CO2 management and distributed energy systems. This Research Topic provides a multidisciplinary platform to explore these developments and their potential to reshape the chemical industry for a sustainable future.

This Research Topic seeks to address the complex challenge of decarbonizing the chemical industry through the integration of renewable energy systems, sustainable materials, and advanced engineering solutions. It aims to explore a wide array of technologies including high-temperature heat pumps, thermochemical and biological biomass conversion routes, waste heat recovery, energy and mass storage systems, full electrification, and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) for chemical production. A key focus is the evaluation of these decarbonization pathways using thermodynamic, economic, and environmental performance metrics to assess their feasibility and scalability.

Recent advancements in biogenic CO₂ utilization, AI-driven optimization, and digital process control have opened new avenues for process efficiency and emissions reduction. The goal is to identify integrated and economically competitive solutions that minimize fossil resources dependence, while enhancing circularity and industrial symbiosis. This collection encourages the development and application of systems-level modeling, life-cycle analysis, and techno-economic assessment to support the chemical industry transition.

We welcome submissions of Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, and Perspectives that explore innovative strategies for decarbonizing the chemical industry through renewable energy and material integration. Contributions may address technological, economic, and environmental aspects across various sectors and scales. The Research Topic is open to experimental, computational, and theoretical studies, as well as interdisciplinary approaches combining chemical engineering, systems analysis, and AI-based process control.

Areas of focus include, but are not limited to:

• Chemical, refinery, and petrochemical processes
• Biorefinery, food, and pharmaceutical industries
• Process synthesis, design, retrofit, and intensification
• Heat and water integration, energy savings, and waste valorization
• Power-to-X technologies and industrial symbiosis
• Lifecycle assessment and techno-economic analysis
• Authors are encouraged to highlight scalable and economically viable solutions with potential for industrial implementation.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Renewable Energy Integration, CO₂ Utilization, Biomass Conversion, Power-to-X, Electrification, Techno-economic Assessment

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.