Industry News | The path of "greening" in the refining and chemical industry has been further clarified

"The refining and chemical industry is the pillar industry of the national economy, and great progress has been made since the reform and opening up. But while the industry is growing rapidly, it is also facing serious challenges. China's refining and chemical industry has high carbon emissions, accounting for about 5% of the country's total carbon emissions. The proposal of the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality has brought a very difficult task of energy conservation and carbon reduction to the refining and chemical industry." At the recent China Petroleum Refining Science and Technology Conference, Yang Weimin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, put forward the above views on the green transformation of the refining and chemical industry.

As a major carbon emitter, the carbon reduction situation in the refining and chemical industry is severe. Based on the characteristics of China's refining and chemical industry, a number of experts at the meeting pointed out a clear path for the green transformation of the industry.

First, the situation of carbon reduction is grim

"The refining and chemical industry mainly sources carbon emissions from refining and chemicals. In the field of oil refining, catalytic cracking, as an important means of lightening heavy oil, accounts for about 40% of the energy consumption composition of oil refining units, and has the highest carbon emission intensity, with more than 200 kg of carbon dioxide emitted for every 1 ton of crude oil processed. In the chemical industry, there are thousands of chemical varieties, and the production process has a high energy concentration and high emission intensity. Among the world's chemicals, 18 bulk organic chemicals account for 77% of the total chemical carbon emissions. Among them, the first is synthetic ammonia, the second is ethylene, followed by methanol, etc., as well as basic organic raw materials, and the carbon emissions in these fields are also relatively large." Yang Weimin said.

After the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality was proposed, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality", which clearly stated that in 2030, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption should reach about 25%, and by 2060, it should reach more than 80%.

Since then, relevant policies have further clarified the rigid requirements for low-carbon development in the refining and chemical industry. The Action Plan for Promoting Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction through Strict Energy Efficiency Constraints in Key Petrochemical Industries (2021-2025) proposes that by 2025, through the implementation of energy conservation and carbon reduction actions, the proportion of production capacity of refining, ethylene, synthetic ammonia and calcium carbide industries reaching the benchmark level will exceed 30%, the carbon emission intensity will be significantly reduced, and the green and low-carbon development capacity will be significantly enhanced.

"The refining and chemical industry should coordinate development and emission reduction to achieve synergies. This is also an urgent issue that major enterprises are currently facing before carbon peaking." He Shengbao, vice chairman of China Petrochemical Information Society, said.

Second, it is necessary to make efforts from raw materials, processes and products

Based on the current emission reduction situation, a number of experts at the meeting elaborated on the direction and path of green transformation and development of the refining and chemical industry from different perspectives. On the whole, there are three main pathways, namely low-carbon at the source, carbon reduction in the process, and carbon sequestration at the end.

"In the future, the refining and chemical industry will focus on raw materials, energy consumption, production processes, and products, and transform to a green, low-carbon, sustainable and high-quality development direction." He Shengbao clearly pointed out that "the composition of raw materials should be low-carbon and diversified, and in the future, there will be a diversified supply pattern of oil, oilfield light hydrocarbons, ethane, biomass, green hydrogen, waste plastics, carbon dioxide, methane and other raw materials, so as to promote the sustainable development of the refining and chemical industry." Energy consumption methods should be clean and electrified, energy-saving materials and processes should be broken through, and renewable energy sources such as green hydrogen and green electricity will become the main source of energy. The production process should be efficient and intelligent, and high-value refining technologies such as molecular refining, digital twin technology, and artificial intelligence technology should be combined to promote the efficient and intelligent transformation of the refining and chemical industry. The product structure should be characterized and refined, and the refining should be transformed from the production of fuels to materials and raw materials, and to the transformation of high-yield and high value-added chemical products, characteristic products and materials, so as to maximize the value added."

Yang Weimin also gave similar path suggestions, mainly including the efficient use of fossil resources, the greening of raw materials and the chemical utilization of carbon dioxide. "The transformation and development of China's refining and chemical industry has promoted the gradual increase in the total amount of refining by-product resources, such as dry gas, liquefied gas, as well as C4, C5, C9, etc., these resources are important raw materials for increasing the production of basic organic chemicals, and are an important way to achieve efficient utilization of fossil resources. In addition, biomass can be used to replace fossil resources, improve the degree of greening of chemicals and oils, not only does it not produce carbon dioxide, but it is also a carbon-negative technology, which is very beneficial to achieving carbon neutrality. Carbon dioxide is also expected to become an important carbon resource for the petrochemical industry in the future. With carbon dioxide as raw material, the production of oil, chemicals, olefins, and aromatic raw materials can theoretically be realized by designing a suitable reaction path and a suitable catalytic technology. However, at present, the economy needs to be further improved."

Third, technological innovation is the starting point

The key to the realization of the three paths lies in technological innovation. "More than 90% of chemical production processes involve catalysis. Catalysis can reduce the energy consumption of the reaction process, and realize directional conversion to reduce material consumption. Efficient catalytic technology is the key to promoting energy conservation, emission reduction and sustainable development of the petrochemical industry." Yang Weimin said.

Technological innovation at the raw material end also provides a strong starting point for the green transformation of the refining and chemical industry, such as crude oil direct to chemicals technology, chemical recycling technology, etc. For example, He Shengbao said: "The 'short process, low energy consumption' crude oil catalytic cracking process technology developed by PetroChina to produce low carbon olefins has overcome the technical problems of 'small molecules are difficult to crack and large molecules are easy to coke', and has developed a complete set of process technology with low investment, low energy consumption and high triene yield. The next step of this technology will provide technical support for the production adjustment of oil reduction and increase and oil reduction and special production of refining and chemical integrated refineries. ”

"In the next 10 years, we must accurately grasp the core key of science and technology in the transformation and development of the refining and chemical industry. Scientific and technological innovation is the foundation for achieving green, low-carbon and high-quality development, and it is necessary to aim at the key, stabilize the direction, continue to invest, give priority to demonstration and experiments, and achieve breakthroughs in core technologies such as core product processes and catalysts. He Shengbao further pointed out.

Source: National Development and Reform Commission