A new EU analysis has mapped 563 demonstrator projects using market-ready or near-market techniques intended to cut pollution and improve efficiency in energy-intensive industries.
The screening covered more than 10 industrial sectors and looked at projects focused on decarbonisation, cutting emissions to air, water and soil, improving resource efficiency, and boosting circular economy performance such as greater use of secondary raw materials, the European Commission informed on Monday.
Decarbonisation was the main driver for 71% of the projects, while many also reported benefits linked to depollution and circularity, it added.
The most common technology priorities across the projects were hydrogen use, circularity and energy efficiency, with 40% classed as mature technologies at high “technology readiness levels” — a scale that indicates how close a technology is to being used commercially.
Innovation activity was primarily concentrated in western and central Europe.
Focus on steel and cement-related industries
The analysis found that demonstrator projects were most heavily concentrated in iron and steel, chemicals (including fertilisers), and cement, lime and magnesia, which together accounted for 65% of all identified projects.
Although chemicals ranked second by number of projects, the report examined iron and steel and cement, lime and magnesium oxide in more detail, citing the broader scope of the chemical sector.
Iron and steel and cement, lime and magnesium oxide together account for more than 40% of greenhouse gas emissions from EU energy-intensive industries and 9% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
The two sectors also account for 43% of all identified demonstrator projects, and their EU reference documents used to help set permit conditions for industrial emissions — known as Best Available Techniques Reference Documents — date from 2012 for iron and steel and 2013 for cement, lime and magnesium oxide and are due for revision.
The results were published in the first report from the EU Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE), launched in October 2024 and operated by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
