For a net-zero future, it’s necessary to redesign oil refineries

NOAA Breaking record: atmospheric carbon dioxide levels jump again. The European Commission, European Commission and the European Commission are working together to achieve global energy prosperity: terawatt challenge

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Source: The refinery of the future

Oxide-Zeolite-Based Syngas Catalysts: The Role of Carbon Dioxide Capture in Impact of Global Warming

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Climeworks. On Power. The Future of Energy and Synthetic Kerosene: a discussion with Eelco Vogt and Bert Weckhuysen

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Source: The refinery of the future

A review of the renaissance of the Sabatier reaction and catalytic processes for making diesel and jet fuel from ethanol

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Source: The refinery of the future

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Source: The refinery of the future

The Climeworks Challenge and Prospects for Hydrogen Storage in the Next Generation of Low-Cost Energy Technologies: Prospects and Challenges

Climeworks. Climeworks takes another major step on its road to building gigaton DAC capacity. Climeworks is excited to announce a groundbreaking on the Mammoth.

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The United States Energy Information Administration (DUKES) and the Global Photovoltaic Power Potential by Country: The Refinery of the Future

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is in charge of energy information. Capacity factors for utility scale generators primarily using non-fossil fuels. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has an annual electricity report.

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Source: The refinery of the future

GE Renewable Energy. Haliade-X Offshore Wind Turbine and the IRENA Conference on Sustainable Development and the Future of Nuclear Power in France

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory carried out a manufacturing cost analysis for the Proton Exchange Membrane Water Efficientzers.

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Source: The refinery of the future

U.S. Geological Survey releases 2022 list of critical minerals (int. J. Energy Res. 45, 894-896)

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Source: The refinery of the future

A new plastics economy: The future of plastics. A. Winiwarter et al. An atomistic understanding of hydrogen production by molten copper

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Source: The refinery of the future

Mapping Global Chemical Flows: From Fuels to Chemical Products. It’s the Environ. Chemistry 2030: a Plan for the New Millennium

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Design and implementation of a hydrocarbon cracking catalytic reactor and a large scale electrically heated hydrogen membrane-based production unit in Canada

A review of a Joule-heated catalytic reactor toward decarbonization. There is an engineering firm named “Assumptions Eng.” Au 4, 4–21 (2024).

A modular reactor with electrical resistance heating is used for hydrocarbon cracking. AIChE J.68, e17542.

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The workings of refineries are little known to most people outside the oil and gas industries, yet are essential to the global economy. Liquid fuels used in transportation include diesel, petrol and jet fuel. Chemicals and synthetic materials are provided by refining, which makes up most of today’s consumer and health-care goods. By mid-century, a plan was laid out for decarbonizing oil refinery capacity by Vogt and Weckhuysen. They acknowledge that the cost and scale of the necessary transition are “staggering”. Their vision should be looked at. They need to take it seriously.

Demand for carbon-based transportation fuels is expected to be about one-third of today’s levels under a net zero scenario. Such fuels will be needed in part to satisfy future energy needs in Africa, Asia and Latin America as countries there continue to develop economically. Fuel use in aviation, which is difficult to change, is going to increase as tourism continues to grow. Some projections forecast less demand for conventionally produced fossil fuels, but all scenarios suggest that alternatives to the production of such fuels are needed.

In the not too distant future, we don’t know what the world will look like. Fewer refineries might be needed in the future. Some researchers have proposed that ammonia could be produced without the emission of CO2 and used as a fuel for internal combustion engines used in long-distance shipping. The ammonia would need less refinery capacity than it would require, due to the large amounts of energy needed to produce it.

Cost is a third question. Building alternative refinery capacity at large scales won’t come cheap. The obstacles here are more for decision makers than they are for technology. Replacing one oil refinery with technology compatible with net-zero goals is estimated to cost between 14 billion and 23 billion. They estimate that the total cost of converting the world’s refining capacity by 2050 would be between €320 billion and €520 billion per year.

The community knows that it will be hard to reach them before it is too late. A short period of technological change isn’t enough to cover the scale of change. We must take the next step, following the advice of the authors and developing processes that ensure we hit net- zero targets as soon as possible.