When I think about manufacturing and heavy industry, macaroni doesn’t usually come to mind.
But just like cement producers and glass manufacturers, factories that make Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Kraft mac and cheese and other name-brand foods have a big carbon footprint. And that’s why they’re among manufacturers set to split $6.3 billion of newly awarded federal funding for 33 emissions-reducing projects.
Ten Kraft Heinz factories will use their funding to decarbonize their process heat systems using electric heat pumps and boilers, and install solar panels, biogas boilers, and energy storage to power it. A paper facility will implement a new technology that can improve the energy efficiency of the papermaking process. And iron and steel facilities will integrate hydrogen into their projects, among other projects at chemical, metal, and concrete producers.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the projects are all meant to develop “replicable” and “scalable” technology that can eventually be implemented at manufacturing facilities around the world.
Also in federal clean energy funding this week: $475 million will go toward building solar and energy storage systems at former Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia coal mines, as well as gold and copper mines in other states.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
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