By Andrea Shalal and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy

Department on Monday announced $6 billion in federal funding to

subsidize 33 industrial projects in 20 states to cut carbon

emissions, saying the investment would support well-paying union

jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will unveil the awards

during a visit to a Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corp facility

in Middletown, Ohio, which will receive up to $500 million to

install two new electric arc furnaces and hydrogen-based

technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons.

Granholm said the initiative, the single largest industrial

decarbonization investment in U.S. history, would leverage a

total of $20 billion, including the companies' share of the

costs. Together, the projects are expected to eliminate 14

million metric tons of pollution each year, equivalent to taking

some 3 million gas-powered vehicles off the road, she said.

The Portland Cement Association, an industry group, said the

funding "is a welcome acknowledgement from the government that

America's cement manufacturers are taking ambitious and

significant steps toward reaching carbon neutrality."

Manufacturing of construction materials is a significant

source of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Production of

cement, the main ingredient of concrete, accounted for 7% of

global CO2 emissions in 2019, the International Energy Agency

estimates.

The awards come as President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection

campaign kicks into high gear, with the Democratic president and

other key officials traveling to battleground political states

to tout the administration's economic policies and job creation.

Granholm said the projects would slash emissions from

industries such as iron and steel, cement, concrete, aluminum,

chemicals, food and beverages, pulp and paper, which account for

about a third of U.S. carbon emissions.

Century Aluminum ( CENX ) will receive up to $500

million to build the first new U.S. primary aluminum smelter in

45 years in the Mississippi River basin. The project will double

the size of the current U.S. primary aluminum industry and avoid

75% of emissions from a traditional smelter.

The United States was the leading primary aluminum producer

in the world in 2000 but is now ninth with four U.S. smelters in

operation, down from 23 in 1993, said energy group SAFE.

"A new domestic smelter puts the U.S. back in the game

and reverses our dangerous, decades-long decline in primary

aluminum production," said Joe Quinn, director of the Center for

Strategic Industrial Materials at SAFE.

Dow Chemical will receive up to $95 million for a

U.S. Gulf Coast facility to use approximately 100,000 tons of

CO2 annually to produce key components of electrolyte solutions

needed for electric vehicle batteries, while Kraft Heinz ( KHC )

will get up to $170.9 million to upgrade and decarbonize

operations at 10 facilities, reducing annual emissions by more

than 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

ExxonMobil ( XOM ) won a $331.9 million award to enable the

use of hydrogen in place of natural gas for ethylene production

in Baytown, Texas for the key chemical feedstock in textiles,

synthetic rubbers, and plastic resins.

The Energy Department said nearly 80% of the projects are in

disadvantaged communities that had experienced years of

divestment.