Abstract
<jats:p>Industrial steam generation is the single largest source of fossil fuel consumption in the textile industry and a major contributor to its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. In Bangladesh, whose textile and ready-made garment (RMG) sector supplies more than 84% of national export revenue, the two sub-sectors together emitted approximately 6,044 Gg CO₂e in 2022, of which natural gas combustion in steam boilers accounted for about 81%. Converting fossil-fired steam generation to electrified alternatives is therefore one of the highest-leverage decarbonisation options available to the sector. This review synthesises evidence from peer-reviewed studies, techno-economic modelling, and institutional reports to evaluate the technical performance, economic feasibility, CO₂ abatement potential, and implementation barriers of six electrification pathways: electric resistance boilers, electrode boilers, high-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs), mechanical vapour recompression (MVR), solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP), and green hydrogen boilers, together with electro-thermal energy storage (ETES) as an enabling technology. HTHPs offer the lowest levelised cost of heat (LCOH), at roughly USD 12–30/GJ under current grid conditions with a coefficient of performance (COP) of 2.5–5.0, while electric boilers (95–99% efficiency) provide a technologically mature, drop-in option that is penalised by high electricity-to-gas price ratios. A distinctive feature of the analysis is a grid-carbon-intensity break-even framing, which shows why heat pumps, but not electric boilers, already cut emissions against Bangladesh's present grid (around 550–650 gCO₂/kWh). A phased, grid-aligned roadmap combining near-term HTHP deployment, waste-heat recovery, and thermal storage, followed by full electric-boiler and hydrogen deployment as the grid decarbonises, could eliminate more than 90% of process-heat GHG intensity by 2050. Financial access gaps, grid-reliability constraints, and the absence of carbon pricing are identified as binding barriers, for which targeted green financing, buyer-driven incentives, and efficiency mandates are proposed as enabling conditions.</jats:p>