Decarbonisation Technology - May 2024 Issue

Electrification as a pathway towards a green refinery To maximise and optimise electrification benefits, refineries should develop a scalable, individualised electrification strategy

Damien Feral Schneider Electric

D espite widespread decarbonisation (Forster, et al., 2023). While all industries are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, the oil and gas (O&G) sector’s efforts are under particularly intense scrutiny. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), O&G is one of the industries that must be decarbonised to reach global climate goals (Ashraf & Bocca, 2022). The sector accounts for 15% of total energy-related emissions, while oil refining alone represents 4% of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (1.59 gigatons of emissions) (Ma, et al., 2022). Regulatory policies, financial incentives, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations are key drivers of the sector’s decarbonisation. However, above all, the industry must make rapid and strategic changes to survive in a changing energy landscape with decreasing fuels’ demand. All these drivers have a role in a complex decarbonisation equation that no silver-bullet solution can solve. Instead, there are a number of different decarbonisation strategies that oil refineries implement in their pathway to a green refinery. efforts, CO 2 emissions – the main driver of global warming – are at a record high This article explores how electrifying refining and downstream processes can accelerate the journey towards decarbonised operations. It highlights why electrification is an effective decarbonisation solution, where refineries can electrify, and the potential challenges to overcome. Pathways to a green refinery Oil refining is a complex process that requires a high quantity of energy (a typical medium- complexity refinery with an average crude

capacity of 150 kbbl/d needs about 700-900 MW of thermal power and sometimes more than 50 MW of electricity, depending on its exact configuration) (Schneider Electric, 2024). The majority of its CO 2 emissions, typically more than 1 million tons of CO 2 (Scope 1 and 2) per year for an average refinery, come from the combustion of fossil fuels required for industrial heat (process heating and steam generation). In addition, direct process emissions are linked to specific processes, such as hydrogen production or coke burning in a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC). Refineries have a number of different decarbonisation initiatives that can be incorporated into their green strategy. However, there is no single best method for improving sustainability. Refineries’ decarbonisation strategies should be crafted based on factors such as their size, configuration, and the specific regulations they must meet. They can benefit from technologies that enhance their energy efficiency in the long run. For example, advanced digital solutions can help optimise their design and operations, as can more energy-efficient processes and equipment, such as new types of heat exchangers, electric process heaters and boilers, variable speed drives, and heat recovery systems. Low-carbon hydrogen will play a key role in producing lower carbon fuels when used as a chemical feedstock for refineries’ catalytic units or future synthetic fuels production with captured CO 2 . ‘Green hydrogen’ produced by low-carbon electricity via electrolysers is also an indirect way to electrify the processes’ energy demand by switching the combustible fuel in existing or revamped fired heaters to hydrogen.