Low-carbon transformation of petrochemical industry should balance three types of technologies

Develop carbon reduction, zero carbon and negative carbon technologies in stages

China has made a commitment to the world that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060
.
The petrochemical industry is a resource-based and energy-based industry, as well as one of the industries with relatively large carbon dioxide emissions.
It is imperative to actively promote the realization of the "double carbon" goal
.
However, there are many carbon reduction paths in the petrochemical industry, and there are many possibilities of coupling and mutual influence among the various emission reduction paths.
Each path not only depends on each other, but also restricts each other
.
Recently, the "Towards 2060 Carbon Neutrality - Low-Carbon Development White Paper of the Petrochemical Industry" jointly released by the Chinese Academy of Petrochemical Sciences and Deloitte China pointed out that in order to cope with the above problems, the low-carbon transformation of the petrochemical industry needs to rebalance three types of technologies: carbon reduction technology , zero carbon technology and negative carbon technology
.

The carbon emission intensity of petrochemicals is high, and various technologies are combined to reduce emissions

There are many paths to carbon reduction in the petrochemical industry
.
Energy efficiency improvement and technological process improvement can reduce carbon emissions in the production process to a certain extent, and material recycling can achieve carbon emission reduction in the whole life cycle to a certain extent, but these emission reduction methods are not enough to achieve net zero emissions
.
Although carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology is a key technology to achieve net zero emissions, its application scenarios need to be expanded urgently, and its technical economy still needs to be greatly improved
.
Therefore, the petrochemical industry needs to rebalance and explore a combination of technologies to reduce emissions
.

The sources of carbon emissions in the petrochemical industry mainly include direct combustion of fossil fuels, emissions from industrial processes, indirect emissions from the purchase of electricity and heat by companies, and emissions from supply chains
.
Among them, fossil fuels and industrial process-related emissions dominated, accounting for nearly 80%
.
Compared with steel, cement and other industrial industries, the total carbon emission of the petrochemical industry is lower, but the carbon emission intensity is relatively high, and the energy efficiency utilization rate is lower than the world's advanced level
.

From the analysis of emission sources, the petrochemical industry can reduce direct emissions by improving energy efficiency and process improvement, using alternative raw materials, etc.
, reducing indirect emissions by using green electricity, building a circular economy, developing and producing green and low-carbon products, and optimizing transportation and storage.
Reduce product value chain emissions, use CCUS to use carbon offset mechanisms, etc.
to help the petrochemical industry reduce carbon emissions throughout the life cycle
.

In 2025, carbon emission reduction technologies will be the main focus

At this stage to 2025, refined oil will still be the main product of terminal oil consumption
.
It is predicted that the domestic crude oil processing volume will reach 790 million tons in 2025.
At the same time, the consumption of refined oil products will reach its peak, and the output of chemical raw materials will increase significantly.
If no emission reduction measures are taken, the carbon emission of the petrochemical industry will reach 638 million tons
.
If enterprises actively take feasible carbon reduction measures such as energy efficiency improvement and hydrogen use efficiency improvement, considering the implementation rate of feasible carbon reduction measures of 70%, carbon emission reduction of 99 million tons can be achieved, and the industry carbon emission is about 539 million tons
.

At this stage, carbon reduction technologies can be focused on, including energy efficiency improvement, intelligent process efficiency improvement, short-process chemical production, component refining, process carbon reduction, process heating electrification and renewable energy heating, low-carbon infrastructure Chemical production, waste plastic chemical recycling, proprietary equipment to reduce process emissions,
etc.

Efficient utilization of energy resources is one of the ways to reduce carbon emissions, such as the use of heat exchange network integration optimization technology, steam power system optimization technology, low-temperature waste heat efficient utilization technology, hydrogen resource efficient utilization technology, and component refining technology
.

Among them, component refining is the preferred path to improve the efficiency of petroleum refining and reduce the energy consumption of oil refining
.
Traditional oil refining cuts petroleum into several fractions according to different boiling ranges, and the different fractions are further processed to produce petroleum products
.
In this process, some components in each fraction cannot be fully and reasonably utilized, and there is still room for improvement in the process selectivity and reaction efficiency of oil refining
.
The core of component refining is to use separation technology to separate the hydrocarbon components of crude oil or its different fractions, and then refine the separated components
.
Based on the centralized processing of similar hydrocarbon components, the selectivity of the reaction process can be greatly improved, the added value of products can be increased, and the carbon emissions during processing can be reduced
.
For a ten-million-ton refinery, using the concept of component refining for process reengineering can reduce carbon emissions by nearly 450,000 tons per year, reduce carbon emissions per 10,000 tons of output value by 0.
26 tons, and reduce carbon intensity by more than 10%
.

Achieve carbon peak in 2030 and develop zero-carbon technology

After 2025, with the continuous advancement of the "dual carbon" policy, the fuel function of petroleum will continue to weaken, and the improvement of people's living standards will drive the continuous increase in the demand for petrochemical raw materials, and the advantages of integrated refining and chemical enterprises will be further revealed.
Push China to peak oil demand around 2030
.

In order to achieve the overall goal of carbon peaking in the petrochemical industry in 2030, the upstream and downstream industry chains need to work together to plan industrial development scientifically.
The production technology of low-carbon intensity basic chemicals will strongly support and accelerate the realization of carbon peaking in the petrochemical industry, and at the same time prepare for the construction of a low-carbon industrial chain of the industrial system
.

At this stage, it is necessary to vigorously develop zero-carbon technologies, including bio-based fuels and lubricants, wind energy, solar energy, nuclear energy and other zero-carbon energy sources
.

Among them, bio-jet fuel, bio-diesel, and bio-based lubricants are typical bio-based fuel and lubricant technologies
.
Compared with fossil energy, bio-based oil products have unique advantages to achieve sustainable development, and can be integrated with modern transportation systems, which is of great significance in reducing dependence on fossil energy and greatly reducing the carbon footprint of product life cycle
.

Achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and apply negative carbon technology

With the accelerated popularization of fossil fuel substitution and electric vehicles, by 2060, oil consumption will gradually drop to less than 250 million tons.
Since oil is mainly petrochemical raw materials at this stage, the carbon emission intensity of ton of oil processing will increase significantly
.
At this stage, clean energy will be widely used in refineries, and negative carbon technologies such as CCUS and green hydrogen will gradually mature and be commercialized on a large scale
.

Negative carbon technologies include green hydrogen guarantee technology and CCUS technology
.

Water electrolysis hydrogen production technology and biomass gasification hydrogen production technology belong to the green hydrogen guarantee technology
.
Among them, the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis of water for hydrogen production uses water as a raw material, and converts water into hydrogen and oxygen driven by renewable energy electricity, with almost no carbon emissions
.
Compared with coal-to-hydrogen and natural gas-to-hydrogen, PEM electrolysis of water to produce 1 ton of hydrogen will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 20 tons and 10 tons, respectively
.

CCUS technology is one of the key technologies in the global response to climate change, because it can absorb and convert a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is considered to be an effective and necessary step to achieve carbon neutrality
.
CCUS technologies include carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide synthesis and utilization (such as synthesis gas, methanol), carbon dioxide biological utilization (such as seaweed cultivation), carbon dioxide geological utilization and storage (such as enhanced oil and gas extraction),
etc.

Among them, microalgae carbon fixation technology has very high application value
.
This is because, on the one hand, microalgae can achieve "addition", producing a large amount of biomass rich in fat and protein; on the other hand, they can achieve "subtraction", absorbing and fixing carbon dioxide released from fossil energy applications
.

Under the background of "double carbon", the petrochemical industry is facing the dual pressure of transformation and decarbonization, but at the same time it is also facing huge development opportunities under the new situation
.
Energy efficiency improvement, process enhancement, and efficient use of resources can not only reduce carbon emissions for the petrochemical industry, but also create huge economic value for enterprises and enhance their competitiveness
.
The use of renewable energy and the construction of a circular economy not only greatly reduce life cycle carbon emissions, but also provide new momentum for the high-quality development of the industry
.
Low-carbon product design and production, green hydrogen supply, and green hydrogen refining are typical low-carbon coupled development models between industries, which can fully contribute to the creation of low-carbon industrial chains and low-carbon supply chains in the whole society
.