which allows the feasible continuation of operations with an economically attractive scheme. The new configuration includes the following elements that are the basis of a feasible, technically sound, and financially beneficial transition: • The production of the existing, traditional refinery is reduced to a level of 80% in order to continue production, with the production of e-fuels making up the remaining 20% for an acceptable investment. • A methanol-dimethyl ether (DME)-oligomerisation unit, which consumes CO 2 captured from the hydrogen
CO 2 emiss i ons (MTPA)
Unit
Description
Capacity (kBPD)
CDU1 HVU1 LNHT HNHT HCU HTD ISOM
Crude atmospheric distillation unit
80 33 34
90,242 52,534 166,679 85,070 255,209 101,644 229,778 166,751 32,326 -576,000
Vacuum distillation unit VGO hydrocracking unit
Light naphtha hydrotreating unit Heavy naphtha hydrotreating unit Distillates hydrotreating unit Light naphtha isomerisation unit Heavy naphtha reforming unit
5
13
8 5
REFOR SATGAS
12
Saturated gas unit Synthetic fuel unit Standard diesel Total process units Jet A1
4
SFU
Jet
3.615 1.916
604,233 503,496 1,107,729
HMU
Hydrogen production unit
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Hybrid case total CO 2 emissions
Table 2 Hybrid case – unit capacity and CO2 emissions from each process unit
manufacturing unit (HMU) (‘blue’ hydrogen unit of the refinery), as well as an electrolysis unit to produce ‘green’ hydrogen is considered in the analysis. See new refinery process configuration online: bit.ly/4cHVcsW The new configuration for the refinery provides the following interesting insights: • Overall CO 2 by-product is reduced, as the refinery load has been reduced to 80%. • The CO 2 from the traditional hydrogen reformer
unit (otherwise one of the main CO 2 emitting units in any refinery) is captured and used. • The shortfall in jet fuel and diesel from the load reduction on existing units is now produced by the synthetic fuels unit, using the captured CO 2 combined with low carbon intensity blue and green hydrogen. The criteria for sizing the synthetic fuels unit (SFU) was to cover the production of jet fuel with SAF and use 100% of the CO 2 captured from the HMU. The new configuration for the refinery provides the unit capacity and products slate, as seen in Table 2 . The emissions of CO 2 now have been reduced in a very interesting range.
120%
100%
80%
60%
2,500,000
40%
2,000,000
20%
1,500,000
0
1,000,000
500,00
Base case
Load reduction no synthetic
Load reduction synthetic
0
Base case Load reduction no synthetic
Load reduction synthetic
Figure 5 Comparison of products from the base and hybrid cases (before and after the synthetic fuels capacity is added)
Figure 6 Comparison of CO 2 emissions from the base and hybrid cases
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