Refinery decarbonisation.

What,
when, how, and at what cost?
Fred Baars and Samiya Parvez Full article to be
Fluor B.V published in PTQ Q1 2023

T
he refining industry’s resolve to reduce exercise. While it is technically possible to
CO₂ emissions continues despite the decarbonise an oil refinery by e.g., capturing
current surge in energy prices. In fact, all CO₂ that is emitted or only using green
some of the measures may have become less hydrogen for firing or using electric heaters
expensive as green energy sources now cost powered by renewable electricity, making a
less in comparison to their fossil equivalents major dent in overall emissions is much harder.
than that before January 2022. At the same This can only be achieved by e.g., producing
time, development of new technologies more petrochemicals or using biomass as
continues unabated with reductions in the cost feedstock. At the same time the cost of
of items such as windfarms and electrolysers. revamping the refinery needs to be considered
The uncertainty with respect to how long with the only benefit being reduced CO₂ taxes
energy prices will stay high and/or if they will or other government grants, the monetary value
ever return to e.g., 2019-2020 levels remains. of which is subject to changing/developing
The Paris Agreement set ambitious goals with legislation. Uncertainties further reside in the
respect to reducing global warming. At the price of alternative feedstocks, energy sources
same time and in concertation with the Paris and/or green products.
agreement, governments have acted, as have Fluor has done a desktop study investigating
major oil and petrochemical companies. The the effects of a number of decarbonisation
European Commission has launched its ‘Fit options including energy efficiency
for 55’ programme which aims at a reduction improvements, fuels substitution, feedstock
in greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030 substitution and CO₂ capture and use. Fuel
relative to 1990 values. Most major oil and substitution entails the replacement of natural
petrochemical companies have set similar goals gas and grey electricity by green hydrogen and
with some aiming for net zero CO₂ emissions green electricity. It also includes e.g., changing
by 2050. steam turbines to e-motors.
Oil refineries are major consumers of energy Feedstock substitution is the (partial)
and hence emitters of CO₂, with complex replacement of crude oil by biomass and or mixed
refineries producing motor fuels refinery plastic waste from plastic recycling facilities.
emitting up to 0.2-0.3 ton of CO₂ per ton CO₂ capture and storage/use includes
of crude processed, only counting Scope 1 sequestering CO₂ in remote locations as well as
emissions. These emissions can double or triple converting CO₂ with green hydrogen to green
if a refinery is associated with petrochemical methanol, e-fuels or others (polycarbonates,
units. When considering the total CO₂ emissions urea).
of a fuels refinery, Scope 1 emissions are only Our reference case is a typical European
a fraction of total emissions while Scope 3 refinery processing 10 million ton per year of
emissions – related to the sale (and combustion) crude oil producing motor-fuels and having
of the refinery’s products – can be 95+% of total a delayed coker and hydrocracker as its main
Scope 1+2+3 emissions. conversion units. The refinery will continue to
Determining which roadmap to adopt to produce motor fuels in the immediate future.
decarbonise an existing oil refinery is a complex Table 1 shows the impact of the various

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 1
 sequestration and required infrastructure to
Decarbonisation Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3
transport the CO₂ to the appropriate storage
measures
field or massive application of green hydrogen
Energy efficiency   - including the construction of windfarms and
Fuel substitution   - electrical grid reinforcement will require more
Feedstock substitution ≈ ≈  time, planning, cross collaboration across the
CO₂ capture & use  -  value chain, and investment than replacing
an inefficient refinery heater, installing more
Table 1 Impact of decarbonisation measures on efficient heat exchangers, or constructing a unit
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions processing vegetable oil.
An example of a roadmap resulting in a 55%
decarbonisation measures on Scope 1, 2 and reduction in overall CO₂ emission by 2030 is
3 emissions. shown in Figure 2.
Feedstock substitution and most of the Compared to the previous Figure 1 it takes
CO₂ utilisation measures have the greatest into account a 50% reduction in electrolyser
contribution to Scope 3 emission reduction. cost, green electricity cost of 30 €/kWh, a 40%
Feedstock substitution may increase Scope 1 reduction in crude rate and 5.2 million ton-per-
and 2 emissions depending on the source of the year of HVO processing capacity.
supplemental utilities required, if any. Each roadmap is particular to the various
Depending on feed, product, and utility prices, decarbonisation options being considered and
the programme maps the decarbonisation the cost of feedstock, products and utilities. As
measures in order of increasing cost of CO₂ part of scenario planning multiple roadmaps
removal. An example is shown in Figure 1 need to be developed and evaluated considering
below. In this example, the refinery Scope 1 and risk, inherent uncertainties and cost before
2 emissions are reduced by 94%; overall CO₂ convergence to a final roadmap.
emissions are reduced by 18%. The details of the model including cost
The CO₂ abatement curve as shown in Figure and CO₂ reduction benefits of the individual
1 is the basis for developing a decarbonisation measures and further examples including key
roadmap. The roadmap considers the timeline takeaways will be presented in an article to be
for implementation of the technologies. CO₂ published in the PTQ Q1 2023.

200

150 Post-comb. CO2 capture

100
Green electricity
Cost, €/t. CO2

SMR pre-comb. capture

HVO (155 t/h) Furnace efficiency improvement

Figure 1 CO₂ abatement curve, based on 2019 West European prices. MPW: mixed plastic waste
pyrolysis unit (8 t/h feed capacity); HVO: hydrotreated vegetable oil unit (155 t/h feed capacity); SMR:
hydrogen plant based on steam methane reforming

2 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 35000 34000 Green electricity
Steam turbine E-motor
33800
CO2 emissions, KTA

HVO
(including ATR,
CO2 export
infrastructure etc.)
17400 SMR Pre-comb. capture
MPW
EC 16400
Electric heaters
15300 E-methanol
15000
2026 2027 2028 2029

Figure 2 Roadmap to achieve ‘Fit for 55’: a 55% reduction in overall CO₂ emissions by 2030. ATR:
autothermal reforming for H₂ production; EC: ethylene carbonate unit

Fred Baars is a Senior Process Director with over 35 studies and (pre-) FEED projects in the refining and
years of experience at Fluor B.V., Amsterdam, the petrochemical industry her more recent areas of
Netherlands. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical interest include technologies for sustainable hydrogen
Engineering from Delft, University of Technology, production, CCUS, and plastic recycling.
the Netherlands. His experience includes refinery
operations, process design and managing studies. He
was named a Fluor Fellow in 2005. LINKS
Samiya Parvez is a Process Engineer with over seven
years of experience at Fluor B.V., Amsterdam, the More articles from the following categories:
Netherlands. She holds a Master’s Degree in Chemical Decarbonisation of Petrochemicals
Engineering from Delft University of Technology, the Emissions Reduction
Netherlands. Having worked on a number of feasibility

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