Germany’s chemicals sector, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, has only a very limited scope to replace the fuel with alternatives, it said a day after Europe’s top economy launched a major offensive to cut consumption. Chemicals firms account for 15% of natural gas consumption in Europe’s top economy and need around 135 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas each year, industry association VCI said, adding only 2-3 TWh could be replaced via heating oil and coal. “In the chemicals industry, gas is used to a large extent in energy generation in combined heat and power plants. In these highly efficient plants, process heat and electricity are generated in combination,” the VCI said. “Savings are only possible at sites where alternatives for generating process heat are still available. These can be old oil boilers or combined heat and power plants fired with coal.” The […]