Will EICDA carbon fee apply to industrial emissions, eg, cement mfg?

I realize we don't know what will be in the future EICDA, but is the expectation that the carbon fee would be assessed on industrial mfg emissions, eg, making cement is coal-intensive.  Thank you

5 Replies
Brett Cease
3894 Posts

Thank you @Linda Lancaster for the great question! I'm copying @Richard Knight to see if we can help you out with more specifics. This resource is also a great reference: 


 

Thanks, Brett.  

The reason I ask is that Sublime Systems in Somerville, MA is a start-up company trying to commercialize a new low-carbon method of making cement.  Their process is electro-chemical and can be done at "ambient temperatures" which I take to mean somewhere around room temp.

They are venture funded, and looking for gov grants to help them get through the period where their product is not price competitive with conventional cement production. 

It seems to me a carbon fee would help equalize the prices of low-carbon and conventional cement - a dirty process which uses coal fired kilns to heat limestone to 1500C.


Best, Linda

@Brett Cease
Brett, Thanks for the link to faqs. From the faqs, I learned that the coal used by cent plants to fuel their kilns would be assessed a carbon fee, which would increase mfg costs of cement.

eicda would also provide refunds to plants that capture and sequester co2.  Therefore a cement plant could invest in equipment to capture co2, not sure how much this would increase costs, though refunded carbon fees would partially offset them.

rick, does this make sense?  I would like to tell sublime systems how eicda would impact their competitiveness with convential cement plants.

thanks, Linda 

Hi @Linda Lancaster. You've got that right. A traditional cement plant would have to pay the carbon price on the coal it uses, and it could apply carbon capture technology, but that would be a significant added cost. Sublime's process on the other hand doesn't use coal, so a carbon price would help them compete economically with high-carbon traditional cement production. And that's one of the purposes of a carbon price – to spur innovation and investment in and demand for low-carbon alternative technologies.

Thanks, Dana.  I've passed this information on to Sublime Systems.

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