Decarbonisation Technology - May 2024 Issue

share physical infrastructure, such as a large network of hydrogen. Electrification as an accelerator for reducing refineries’ CO2 emissions Process electrification – using low-carbon electricity to meet process energy needs that have traditionally been met with fossil fuels – is an effective solution for reducing the oil and gas industry’s GHG emissions. A recent study from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s (OGCI) Energy Efficiency workstream has found that it is possible to decarbonise the majority of refineries’ Scope 1 and 2 emissions by powering some equipment with electricity (generated from low- carbon sources), rather than fossil fuels (OGCI, 2021). OGCI represents 12 of the world’s largest O&G companies (collectively accounting for around 30% of global O&G production) to help guide the industry’s response to climate change. Electrification allows refineries to incorporate more renewable energy into their energy mix (for example, from solar, wind, or biogas) produced on-site or remotely (via power purchasing agreements, PPA). They can also participate in electrical grids’ stability or flexibility mechanisms. In addition, refineries can potentially lower emissions by replacing gas combustion processes with electrically powered ones. This change can make a positive environmental impact because the actual share of electricity in the energy mix of an average refinery is around 5% to 10%, and sometimes more than 20% of natural gas is imported to complement the internally generated fuel gas (Concawe, 2019). Electrification is already central to many industries’ climate change mitigation strategies. For example, the steel industry has adopted electric arc furnaces. O&G companies are electrifying their operations on floating production storage and offloading (FPSO), offshore, and downstream assets by making changes like replacing gas turbines with motors and using electric boilers instead of gas-fired ones. The concept of all-electric LNG plants that can minimise emissions and increase energy efficiency is also gaining interest. Many refinery processes can be electrified A typical refinery’s electrification potential is dependent on multiple components, including its

FCC renery Hydrocracker renery

Process furnaces

Utlities

Hydrogen plant

FCC

Emissions from combustion

Emissions from combustion + direct from the process

CDU 18.4%

VDU 6.4%

O sites 11.7%

FCC 21.7%

Hydrogen 20.6%

Sulphur recovery 0.6%

Hydrotreating 5.3%

Alky/Isom 5.5%

Cat. reformer 9.8%

Including utilities (steam etc) distributed across the process units.

Figure 1 Oil refining’s typical sources of CO2 emissions Source: (Concawe, 2019)

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) solutions are progressively scaling up and will allow the capture of hard-to-abate and/or process emissions. Besides the typical amine process to capture CO 2 molecules, CCUS solutions also require low-carbon electrical power to address the compression and transport needs of the molecules at the lowest carbon intensity. Eventually, it may be mutually financially beneficial for industries in a cluster to work together on large-scale projects that meet their common objectives and challenges. For example, they could share the development and infrastructure costs of creating large-scale solutions like renewables, green hydrogen, or other decarbonisation projects. They may also