Page 138 - CW E-Magazine (16-4-2024)

Point of View

converted into, for example, virgin-like polymers. The lower carbon footprint is assessed by a ‘mass balance’ approach, which is a useful
way of allocating benefits of circularity to a fraction of the output.

Process innovations
Steam cracking is a very energy-intensive process that currently relies on thermal energy obtained by the burning of fossil fuels.
Electrification of the cracker is now being explored as a major means to lower the carbon footprint of olefins production. While an electrified
cracker has no meaningful CO emissions (provided the power source is renewable) on a continuous basis (some intermittent emissions do
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occur), the power requirements are sizeable – upwards of 900-MW for a large size ethylene plant – enough to power up a medium-sized city.
While there are several ways to convert electricity to heat required for cracking – resistance, induction, microwave and plasma – for
now resistive heating seems to be the most economical and practical. There are two major ways to go about it: direct impedance
heating, in which the current passes through the cracking unit; and indirect radiative heating, in which the current passes through resistive
modules and the heat radiates to the cracking coils.

Several collaborative efforts are ongoing to develop and scale up electrification technology. In one, SABIC, Linde and BASF have teamed
up. Another involves five European companies (Borealis, BP, Total Energies, Repsol and Versalis), while a third in the US has LyondellBasell,
Technip Energies, and Chevron Phillips Chemical.

While these are early days, the broad goal is to have a commercial scale operation sometime in the next decade, But major impacts
will only come when the retrofitting of existing units becomes possible, and that is further down the line.

Going nuclear
An interesting dimension in use of low-carbon energy – electric and thermal – is the possible deployment of nuclear energy to meet
the needs of large petrochemical complexes. In the US, the petrochemical company Dow, is partnering with X-Energy, a nuclear fuel &
power company, with the aim of deploying the latter’s small modular reactors (SMRs) that use a novel uranium-based fuel and are
inherently safe, at one of its sites on the US Gulf Coast by the turn of the decade. There is an excellent fit between the nuclear and the
petrochemical industries – in the supply and demand for thermal power and electricity with high reliability – and, if the effort is successful,
it could be a harbinger of more such projects.

Very recently (see news pages of this issue), Indian Oil Corporation announced that it too is eyeing SMRs as an energy source in a
partnership with Nuclear Power Corporation India Ltd. (NPCIL). These reactors are simpler in design, quicker to build, reliable in operation,
and given their inherently safe operations should clear regulatory hurdles much faster than the large units that currently are the mainstay
of India’s nuclear programme.
A recent report on energy options for India to meet ‘net-zero’ commitments has also stressed the role SMRs will play in the nation’s
decarbonisation efforts, and the energy-intensive petrochemical industry could lead the way down this path.

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)
CCS approaches aim to suck the CO out of point sources and lock it forever in underground reservoirs, depleted oil fields or even
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below the seabed. This approach is technologically feasible, though currently still expensive, and limited by the availability of reservoirs
where the CO can be pumped. Projects in the Middle East, North America and parts of Europe can benefit from access to reservoirs, and
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there have been some studies in India on the feasibility of sequestration.
Using this as one of the strategies, Dow recently announced that it is building the world’s first net-zero carbon emissions integrated
ethylene cracker (capacity: 1.8-mtpa) and derivatives site (with respect to scope 1 and 2 CO emissions) in Alberta, Canada – a site
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eminently suitable for carbon capture.
The journey has just begun
Given the size of the olefins industry, and the technological and commercial challenges, transitioning olefins production to a ‘greener’
more sustainable path, will be a slow and challenging process. It will require technology breakthroughs, strong & consistent policy
support, massive risk appetite and entrepreneurial zeal. It is no surprise, therefore, that the approaches are being made collaboratively,
and even amongst companies that compete in the marketplace.
Ravi Raghavan

138 Chemical Weekly April 16, 2024

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