In 2018, electricity accounted for only 20.4% of on-site energy use in the U.S. chemicals sector (Figure ), with the rest provided by combustion-derived heat. Energy efficiency trends in the industry have favored combined heat and power generation units, which generated 29% of electricity consumed by the U.S. chemical industry. The remaining electricity is purchased from the power grid (annual purchases of 147 TWh 11 ), a small footprint (~3% of the U.S. electricity demand) but will increase with industry electrification. Examining energy consumption in the U.S. chemicals industry reveals that electricity is used primarily as process energy (89% of the electricity use, Figure ) for heating/cooling, electrochemical reactors, machine drive tools and other process-related uses, or as non-process energy (11% of the electricity use) to power HVAC, lighting, and transportation systems, among other uses. Notably, electrified reactors (e.g., in chloro-alkali process or adiponitrile electrosynthesis) account for a relatively small share of the total electricity use (40 TWh, Figure ) as compared to energy use for process heating for reactions and separation processes (500 TWh in 2018 ). This reliance on fossil-derived energy for chemical production also translates into a process carbon footprint -for example, for ethylene and propylene production, fuel gas combustion for process heat accounts for approximately 40% of the life cycle GHG emissions . With this heavy reliance on fossil fuels as the primary energy, it is more economical to use heat than electricity because fossil-based electricity generation causes additional efficiency losses. As a result, there is growing industry interest in powering chemical processes with cost-competitive, variable renewable electricity (VRE) to leverage decarbonization efforts in the electric power sector, as exemplified by recent announcements related to the exploration of electrified steam crackers and electricity use for process heat for hydrogen production from steam methane reforming (SMR). Both approaches focus on directly substituting heat with electricity without changing the process chemistry, as in option A in Figure . Other pathways for electrified chemical processes (Figure ) include electrochemical production of hydrogen for process heat generation (option B), direct use of electricity for manufacturing of chemical products via electrochemistry (option C), and electricity-powered plasma reactors (option D).