IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i5p837-d98883.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the Vulnerability of an Energy Intensive Sector to the EU ETS under a Life Cycle Approach: The Case of the Chlor-Alkali Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Isabel Garcia-Herrero

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

  • Maria Margallo

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

  • Jara Laso

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

  • Raquel Onandía

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

  • Angel Irabien

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

  • Ruben Aldaco

    (Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros, s/n., 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain)

Abstract

The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which is a cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change, has been criticised by its effects on the competitiveness of intensive energy demanding industries, and in particular, of the chlor-alkali sector. The main chlorine application in Europe is the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from ethylene dichloride (EDC) as intermediate. Since chlorine is mainly traded in terms of derivatives, the aim of this work is to assess the vulnerability of the European chlor-alkali industry to chlorine replacement by imported EDC. An Energetic, Economic and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (EEESA) methodology is proposed based on the main variables affecting EDC production. Moreover, the influence of the EU ETS compensation measures and the emission allowance price in the current (mercury, diaphragm and membrane) and emergent (oxygen-depolarized cathodes (ODC)) technologies is studied. The most vulnerable scenarios become mercury and diaphragm technologies due to energy consumption. However, the salt price dependency on the quality requirements substantially influences the EEESA results. This analysis also shows the importance of hydrogen valorisation, whose major impact is observed in ODC scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabel Garcia-Herrero & Maria Margallo & Jara Laso & Raquel Onandía & Angel Irabien & Ruben Aldaco, 2017. "Measuring the Vulnerability of an Energy Intensive Sector to the EU ETS under a Life Cycle Approach: The Case of the Chlor-Alkali Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:837-:d:98883
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/837/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/837/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu, Suiran & Tao, Jing, 2009. "Economic, energy and environmental evaluations of biomass-based fuel ethanol projects based on life cycle assessment and simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(Supplemen), pages 178-188, November.
    2. Oestreich, A. Marcel & Tsiakas, Ilias, 2015. "Carbon emissions and stock returns: Evidence from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 294-308.
    3. James B. Bushnell & Howard Chong & Erin T. Mansur, 2013. "Profiting from Regulation: Evidence from the European Carbon Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 78-106, November.
    4. V., Oikonomou & A., Flamos & S., Grafakos, 2010. "Is blending of energy and climate policy instruments always desirable?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4186-4195, August.
    5. De Jonghe, Cedric & Delarue, Erik & Belmans, Ronnie & D'haeseleer, William, 2009. "Interactions between measures for the support of electricity from renewable energy sources and CO2 mitigation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4743-4752, November.
    6. Hossein Mousazadeh & Alireza Keyhani & Hossein Mobli & Ugo Bardi & Toufic El Asmar, 2009. "Sustainability in Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of a Combined Photovoltaic and Electric Multipurpose System for Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(4), pages 1-27, November.
    7. Lehmann, Paul & Gawel, Erik, 2013. "Why should support schemes for renewable electricity complement the EU emissions trading scheme?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 597-607.
    8. Marc A. Rosen & Hossam A. Kishawy, 2012. "Sustainable Manufacturing and Design: Concepts, Practices and Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-21, January.
    9. Andrea Kollmann & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Why Does Environmental Policy in Representative Democracies Tend to Be Inadequate? A Preliminary Public Choice Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(12), pages 1-25, November.
    10. Sorrell, Steve & Harrison, David & Radov, Daniel & Klevnas, Per & Foss, Andrew, 2009. "White certificate schemes: Economic analysis and interactions with the EU ETS," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 29-42, January.
    11. Lund, Peter, 2007. "Impacts of EU carbon emission trade directive on energy-intensive industries -- Indicative micro-economic analyses," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 799-806, September.
    12. V. Oikonomou & C. Jepma, 2008. "A framework on interactions of climate and energy policy instruments," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 131-156, February.
    13. Konidari, Popi & Mavrakis, Dimitrios, 2007. "A multi-criteria evaluation method for climate change mitigation policy instruments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6235-6257, December.
    14. Helm, Dieter, 2014. "The European framework for energy and climate policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 29-35.
    15. Mohamad Monkiz Khasreen & Phillip F. G. Banfill & Gillian F. Menzies, 2009. "Life-Cycle Assessment and the Environmental Impact of Buildings: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-28, September.
    16. Branger, Frédéric & Quirion, Philippe, 2014. "Would border carbon adjustments prevent carbon leakage and heavy industry competitiveness losses? Insights from a meta-analysis of recent economic studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 29-39.
    17. Parra, David & Zhang, Xiaojin & Bauer, Christian & Patel, Martin K., 2017. "An integrated techno-economic and life cycle environmental assessment of power-to-gas systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 440-454.
    18. Tom Kuhlman & John Farrington, 2010. "What is Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(11), pages 1-13, November.
    19. Masih, Mansur & Algahtani, Ibrahim & De Mello, Lurion, 2010. "Price dynamics of crude oil and the regional ethylene markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1435-1444, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wissawa Malakan & Sarawut Thepanondh & Akira Kondo, 2022. "Modeling of Inhalation Health Risk of Volatile Organic Compounds in the Vicinity of Maptaphut Petroleum and Petrochemical Industrial Estate, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Leopold Prendl & René Hofmann, 2021. "Case Study of Multi-Period MILP HENS with Heat Pump and Storage Options for the Application in Energy Intensive Industries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-21, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Spyridaki, N.-A. & Flamos, A., 2014. "A paper trail of evaluation approaches to energy and climate policy interactions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1090-1107.
    2. Thema, Johannes & Suerkemper, Felix & Grave, Katharina & Amelung, Adrian, 2013. "The impact of electricity demand reduction policies on the EU-ETS: Modelling electricity and carbon prices and the effect on industrial competitiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 656-666.
    3. del Río, Pablo, 2010. "Analysing the interactions between renewable energy promotion and energy efficiency support schemes: The impact of different instruments and design elements," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4978-4989, September.
    4. Clò, Stefano & Battles, Susan & Zoppoli, Pietro, 2013. "Policy options to improve the effectiveness of the EU emissions trading system: A multi-criteria analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 477-490.
    5. Pablo Río, 2014. "On evaluating success in complex policy mixes: the case of renewable energy support schemes," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 47(3), pages 267-287, September.
    6. Fang, Sheng & Lu, Xinsheng & Li, Jianfeng & Qu, Ling, 2018. "Multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis of carbon emission allowance and stock returns," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 509(C), pages 551-566.
    7. Antimiani, Alessandro & Costantini, Valeria & Kuik, Onno & Paglialunga, Elena, 2016. "Mitigation of adverse effects on competitiveness and leakage of unilateral EU climate policy: An assessment of policy instruments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 246-259.
    8. Zeng, Yingying, 2017. "Indirect double regulation and the carbon ETSs linking: The case of coal-fired generation in the EU and China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 268-280.
    9. Oskar Lecuyer & Ruben Bibas, 2011. "Combining climate and energy policies: synergies or antagonisms?," Post-Print hal-00801917, HAL.
    10. Koch, Nicolas & Basse Mama, Houdou, 2019. "Does the EU Emissions Trading System induce investment leakage? Evidence from German multinational firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 479-492.
    11. Yinpeng Liu & Xiangyun Gao & Jianfeng Guo, 2018. "Network Features of the EU Carbon Trade System: An Evolutionary Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    12. Lecuyer, Oskar & Bibas, Ruben, 2011. "Combining Climate and Energy Policies: Synergies or Antagonism? Modeling interactions with energy efficiency instruments," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 120049, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    13. Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & de Preux, Laure B. & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2014. "On the empirical content of carbon leakage criteria in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 78-88.
    14. Li, Youwei & Liao, Ming & Liu, Yangke, 2023. "How does green credit policy affect polluting firms' dividend policy? The China experience," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    15. Mohamed Abubakr & Adel T. Abbas & Italo Tomaz & Mahmoud S. Soliman & Monis Luqman & Hussien Hegab, 2020. "Sustainable and Smart Manufacturing: An Integrated Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    16. Fabio Zagonari, 2018. "Coherence, Causality, and Effectiveness of the EU Environmental Policy System: Results of Complementary Statistical and Econometric Analyses," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(1), pages 1-29, May.
    17. Benoît Chèze, Julien Chevallier, Nicolas Berghmans, and Emilie Alberola, 2020. "On the CO2 Emissions Determinants During the EU ETS Phases I and II: A Plant-level Analysis Merging the EUTL and Platts Power Data," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 153-184.
    18. Jaehyung An & Jinho Lee, 2018. "A Newsvendor Non-Cooperative Game for Efficient Allocation of Carbon Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, January.
    19. Wang, Tan & Gong, Yu & Jiang, Chuanwen, 2014. "A review on promoting share of renewable energy by green-trading mechanisms in power system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 923-929.
    20. Wenbin Lin & Alun Gu & Xin Wang & Bin Liu, 2016. "Aligning emissions trading and feed-in tariffs in China," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 434-455, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:837-:d:98883. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.