The manufacturing processes of the Dutch ceramic plants are energy intensive with high temperatures. Most heat is generated by firing natural gas, which causes CO2 emissions. According to the Dutch Climate Agreement, the ceramic plants need to abate their CO2 emissions by 2030. This study intends to provide an analysis of applicable decarbonisation options from a techno-economic perspective. The most cost-beneficial decarbonisation options are analysed by marginal abatement cost curves and evaluated by a business case analysis. The results show that in 2030 a combination of industrial heat pumps, green gas from onsite digestion and CCS are most cost-beneficial and can theoretically abate the total CO2 emissions by 96%. However, uncertainties are present and the supply of feedstock and fuels should be considered in the decision-making process. Next steps for research could be applying a socio-technical approach or a detailed case study of one or more plants.

Due to a global increase in food consumption and shipping, and regional developments like exploitation of the Vaca Muerta oil field, the port of Bahía Blanca in Argentina sees an opportunity to increase its activities. Therefore, a new container terminal will be constructed in the port of Bahía Blanca that can handle 500,000 TEU per year. This terminal is expected to be competitive to the container terminals in the port of Buenos Aires, which currently are Argentina’s market leaders in container handling. In addition, a shorter entry channel and deeper draft makes the port of Bahía Blanca more attractive than the port of Buenos Aires. Currently, it is unknown whether an increase in container throughput can be attracted from industries in the province of Buenos Aires. This province extends from Buenos Aires to Bahía Blanca, 650 km south of Buenos Aires. Next to that, it followed from qualitative interview sessions that all freight transport in the province is done by truck. As a result, roads are heavily congested during harvest season and for this reason container transport by train is preferred. Other reasons for choosing train as transport modality are the competitive location within the rail network of the port of Bahía Blanca and sustainable character of rail transport.