Decarbonisati n

November 2021

Technology
Powering the Transition to Sustainable Fuels & Energy

SITE EMISSIONS: COP26 SPECIAL

NEW METRIC FOR
COMPETITIVENESS
HYDROGEN:
DECARBONISATION POTENTIAL
OF STEAM CRACKERS SUPERFUEL?
1
 Where energies make tomorrow

Accelerating the
energy transition for
a better tomorrow
Technip Energies is a leading engineering
and technology company for the energy
L N G
transition. We offer leadership positions
in LNG, ethylene and hydrogen, as well as LNG and Sustainable
growing market positions in sustainable Low-Carbon LNG Chemistry
chemistry, CO2 management and Onshore and Biofuels, biochemicals,
offshore liquefaction circular economy
carbon-free energy solutions.

Through an extensive technology,

products and services offering, we
bring our clients’ innovative projects
to life while breaking boundaries to
CO H2
accelerate the energy transition to a 2

low-carbon society.
Carbon-free Decarbonization
energy solutions
Energy efficiency, blue
technipenergies.com Green hydrogen, hydrogen, CCUS1
offshore wind, nuclear
1CCUS : Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage
Contents November 2021

5 Play a leading role in the energy transition

Robin Nelson

9 Transformational potential for climate change mitigation

Stephen B. Harrison sbh4

16 Site emissions become a new metric for competitiveness

Alan Gelder Wood Mackenzie

20 Decarbonisation of steam crackers

Jim Middleton Technip Energies

27 First principles of energy transition - Part 2

Jean-Gaël Le Floc’h, Mel Larson, Darren York and Robert Ohmes Becht

33 Hydrogen: potential superfuel?

Chuck Baukal, Bill Johnson, Michel Haag, Gilles Theis and Matt Whelan
John Zink Hamworthy Combustion, a Koch Engineered Solutions Company

36 Green hydrogen: a possible path towards a low carbon future

Dr Himmat Singh Scientist ‘G’ & Prof (Retd)

43 New low carbon methanol production approach

Dan Barnett BD Energy Systems, LLC

47 A low carbon alternative to HFO

Jack Williams Quadrise Fuels

50 Well to wake and beyond

Susan Brownlow Words for Industry

55 How advanced process control can support decarbonisation

Martin Gadsby Optimal Industrial Technologies

58 Find opportunities to decarbonise with pinch technology

David Hart Energy Intelligent Solutions

62 Challenges and opportunities of achieving sustainable operations

Antonio Pietri Aspen Technology

66 Leverage digitalisation for sustainable operations

Dr Pratap Nair Ingenero

71 Moving to a more sustainable future with Coriolis technology

Meha Jha and Julie Valentine Emerson

77 Monitoring technology for ethylene crackers and SMRs

James Cross AMETEK Land

83 Role of gas analysis in clean air strategies to reduce emissions

Matt Halsey Servomex

87 The need for custody transfer in the hydrogen industry

Danny Knoop ABB

90 Capturing green opportunities

Marcel Suhner Sulzer Chemtech

91 Decarbonisation through innovation

NEUMAN & ESSER GROUP compressor solutions

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 1
ENGINEERED FOR YOU

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© 2021 Koch Engineered Solutions. All rights reserved.

 W
elcome to the second issue of
Managing Editor Decarbonisation Technology, a digital
Rachel Storry magazine that focuses on the policies,
editor@decarbonisationtechnology.com strategies and technologies powering
tel +44 (0)7786 136440 the transition to sustainable fuels and energy.
First of all, we would like to thank all our readers
Business Development Director for their valued support and overwhelmingly positive
Paul Mason response to our launch issue, which shows there is a
info@decarbonisationtechnology.com keen interest in searching for answers to some of the
tel +44 844 5888 771 biggest challenges our industry has yet to face.
The release of our second issue coincides with
Managing Director
the start of 26th UN Climate Change Conference
Richard Watts
of the Parties (COP26), which will bring parties
richard.watts@emap.com
together to determine the actions required to meet
Graphics the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN
Peter Harper Framework Convention on Climate Change. One
objective of the summit is to strengthen the National
Circulation Determined Contributions (NDC), the commitments
Fran Havard by governments, to mitigate climate change. A second
objective is to further define some of the measures
needed to accelerate climate action.
This issue focuses on the energy transition and
shares progress in the deployment of technologies
that are driving the transition in oil and gas. Several
EMAP, 10th Floor articles discuss the policy recommendations needed
Southern House to accelerate investment in renewable feedstocks,
Wellesley Grove, hydrogen and alternative fuels, as well as carbon
Croydon CR0 1XG capture and usage. Energy efficiency measures
present some of the short-term opportunities to
reduce emissions, as do new analytical techniques
and measurement tools.
We are also pleased to announce our series of
Decarbonisation Technology Summits, which will
explore the cutting edge of global decarbonisation
technologies, solutions and supporting
infrastructures. Turn to page 70 for more information
on these events.
As always we hope you will find this issue both
interesting and informative. Register HERE to receive
your regular copy, and to contribute to future issues,
please send any editorial suggestions to
editor@decarbonisationtechnology.com

Cover Story
Oil​refinery​and​petrochemical​plant, with
natural​ gas​ storage​ tank
©2021. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise –
without the prior permission of the copyright owner. The opinions and views expressed by
the authors in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher and while
every care has been taken in the preparation of all material included the publisher cannot be
held responsible for any statements, opinions or views or for any inaccuracies.

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 3
LH 2
 COP26 SPECIAL
Play a leading role in the
energy transition
Transformation of the energy system must support the development of renewable
electricity and fuels, while progressively reducing the demand for fossil fuel
Robin Nelson
I
n the lead-up to the 2021 COP 26 meeting
in Glasgow, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) Working
Group 1 released their latest report on the
physical science basis of climate change, as
a contribution to the IPCC sixth Assessment
Report. The Summary for Policy Makers
concludes that it is “unequivocal that human
influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean
and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the
atmosphere, ocean cryosphere and biosphere
have occurred”.1
The United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report
provides a yearly review of the difference
between where greenhouse emissions are
predicted to be in 2030 and where they should
be to avoid the worst impacts of climate
change. The 2020 Emissions Gap Report found
that, despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions caused by the COVID-19
pandemic, the world is still heading for a
temperature rise in excess of 3ºC this century,
far beyond the Paris Agreements goals of
limiting global warming to well below 2ºC and
pursuing 1.5ºC.2
IPCC and UNEP conclude that it is highly
probable that we will pass the 1.5ºC limit before
2030. Unless all sectors of society including
governments, cities, local authorities, and
businesses act decisively there is little chance
of changing the trajectory to remain below 2ºC
by 2050.
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Time to transform
The World Business Council for Sustainable
Business Development (WBCSD), in its updated
Vision 2050, 3 stresses that now is the “Time
to Transform” to deliver both the Climate
Action and the UN Sustainable Development
Goals. The WBCSD vision describes nine
pathways for businesses to play a leading
role in this transformation, one of which is the
transformation of the energy system.
Whilst we must recognise the
interconnections between energy and the other
Sustainable Development Goals, the focus of
Decarbonisation Technology is on what the oil
and gas sector can and is doing to bring about
the energy transition.
The International Energy Agency (IEA),
in their World Energy Outlook 2020,
highlights that while the energy transition
has made progress over the last decade, a
full implementation of their IEA Sustainable
Recovery Plan is necessary to change the
longer term trajectory and meet the targets of
the Paris Agreement.4
The IPCC states that to stay within the
world’s remaining carbon budget we must
stop exploiting fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas).
The need to ensure we deliver the energy for
heating/cooling homes and workplace, for
cooking, for the movement of goods and people
shows that this is currently impractical and so
even with the best will from the forthcoming
COP it is likely to remain a longer term target.
5
 Hydrogen in 2020
Virtually all grey,
emitting 830
GHG emissions
Mtpa CO2eq
Production 70 Mtpa
Existing grey Reduced
production carbon H2
c. 11 kg CO2/ ≤ 6 kg CO2/
kg H2 kg H2
Figure 1 Stepping stones based on the carbon intesity of hydrogen
Source: WBCSD 2021, Policy Recommendations to Accelerate hydrogen deployment for a 1.5ºC Scenario
The energy transition must be a managed
transition that supports the development of
renewable electricity and fuels, and progressively
reduces the demand for fossil fuels.
Renewable electricity
In developing countries, energy demand is
growing. More investment in renewable electricity
generation is needed both for burgeoning cities
and for more rural areas which lack an electricity
supply. In mature economies the focus is on
renewable electricity production along with
measures to increase the penetration of electric
vehicles. Even the most ambitious targets for
electric vehicle roll-out are only likely to achieve a
measurable reduction in global carbon emissions
in the latter half of this century.
The reality is that the majority of the world’s
cars, trucks, aeroplanes, and ships will continue to
require liquid or gaseous fuels. In many northern
hemisphere countries, gas is the main means of
heating homes in the colder winter months. The
IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario includes
a much faster deployment of clean energy
technologies but also envisages the operation
of existing carbon-intensive assets in a very
different way.5 Technologies which can reduce
emissions now and over the next 2-3 decades
will buy the time needed to develop and deploy
longer term solutions on a global scale.
The oil and gas industry understands this
and is developing lower carbon fuels. Refinery
feedstocks increasingly include different biofuel
6 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Hydrogen in 2050
Consistent with a
net-zero society
Production
potentially
Production
800 Mtpa
Low- Ultra low- Net-zero Negative
carbon H2 carbon H2 carbon H2 carbon H2
≤ 3 kg CO2/ ≤ 1 kg CO2/ on life-cycle <0
kg H2 kg H2 basis
Carbon intensity of hydrogen
New production/consumption
components, recycled waste, and captured
carbon. Refiners are also investing to reduce
the energy consumed (and therefore carbon
emissions generated) during the production of
the fuels, lubricants, and chemical feedstocks. At
the same time, gas producers are decarbonising
gas streams by converting the methane to
hydrogen and capturing the CO2. Many of the
technologies needed are available now, but of
course new innovations designed to further
improve efficiency and to bring down costs in
the future will be welcome.
Hydrogen production
Hydrogen is used in most of the processes to
upgrade refinery oil streams to useful products.
Hydroprocessing includes hydrocracking,
desulphurisation, dearomatisation, and
denitrogenation processes and hence hydrogen
production units are present in most refineries.
As we look to decarbonisation technologies,
hydrogen assumes even more importance.
Some question why hydrogen is needed
as renewable electricity powering electric
engines is more efficient. Hydrogen can be
complementary to pure electric power as
it provides an alternative to batteries for
renewable energy storage (for instance,
in offshore deep water wind installations).
Hydrogen can be used as a portable fuel in its
own right, to power hydrogen engines or for use
in fuel cells. Furthermore, as already mentioned
above, hydrogen can be used as a fuel to turn
captured CO2 into renewable, hydrocarbon fuels
for harder to decarbonise transport systems
such as marine and aviation. It is also valuable as
a route for the decarbonisation of whole sectors
of the chemicals and metals industries. The
issue with hydrogen so far has been the scale
of production and the economics. Innovations
in hydrogen production are therefore of great
interest in the production of low carbon liquid
and gaseous fuels.
A recent publication from WBCSD on Policy
Recommendations to Accelerate Hydrogen
Deployment for a 1.5ºC Scenario is a clear
example of the importance of progressive
decarbonisation.6 This paper illustrates how
it is possible to grow hydrogen capacity from
70 Mtpa in 2020 to 800 Mtpa by 2050 whilst
reducing the carbon intensity for hydrogen
production from approximately 6kg CO2 eq/kg
H2 today to 1kg CO2 eq/kg H2 by 2050, given the
right policy support to encourage investment.
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage is too often
dismissed. It is a technology proven at scale,
initially in several oil and gas production sites
and more recently in downstream refining
and petrochemical operations. In 2021, Ineos
Grangemouth7 announced a multi-million dollar
investment in carbon capture and storage
from its petrochemical operations. Further
innovations are extending carbon capture
such that the CO2 is not just stored but reused.
For example, recently Repsol and Petronor8
announced two projects that combine captured
CO2 with green hydrogen (hydrogen produced
from the electrolysis of water using renewable
electricity) to produce net-zero emissions fuels.
These examples show that carbon emissions to
the atmosphere can be reduced in the near term.
Share knowledge and experiences
Whilst refiners are employing a myriad of
innovations in refineries that result in emissions
reductions now and in the near term, the wider
world is largely ignorant of these. It is in the
interests of all involved in the industry to share
the work it is doing throughout the lifetime of
a project from the planning and investment
phases, through the commissioning phase, but,
most importantly, the operational phase, with
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
evidence of the efficiency gains and carbon
savings achieved.
Decarbonisation Technology can help by
sharing these stories with a wider audience,
going beyond those inside the industry to reach
the politicians, their advisers and ultimately
the public. This will be valuable in changing
the debate away from one of blaming the
oil and gas industry to one of encouraging
a spirit of cooperative partnership between
all stakeholders, vital in driving a rapid
transformation to a net-zero global economy.
Establishing priorities
Societal priorities and politics are important
factors that influence the technologies that will
be deployed in the next decade. However, it is
important for technology providers and users
to create options for consideration, and to
challenge the priorities. Stabilising the climate
is one of three goals (along with protecting
biodiversity and respect for human rights)
common to the whole global community,
hence the COP process. Urgency is critical and
as such any technology that can contribute
and be deployed at scale quickly must be
supported. Thus, in the near term, carbon
capture from industrial processes should be
supported, even as capacity for direct CO2
capture from the atmosphere is developed.
Similarly, hydrogen production from existing
nuclear power plants should be supported as a
zero carbon, lower cost option. 9,10
Some of these solutions may not be preferred
in the longer term, but such preferences should
only be made once the alternative is technically
and commercially ready at scale. Bans on fossil
fuels or sanctions against energy companies
could result in higher prices and supply
crises, which in turn could create a negative
public perception about climate action.
Carbon pricing mechanisms can and should
be used as a means of progressively driving
the energy transition whilst ensuring energy
supply security.
VIEW REFERENCES
Robin Nelson
7
Optimizing combustion for
a greener tomorrow.

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Our Thermox® WDG-V combustion analyzer is field-serviceable and monitors

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© 2021, all rights reserved by AMETEK, Inc.

 COP26 SPECIAL
Transformational potential for
climate change mitigation
A broad review and some specific implications for the oil and gas sector
Stephen B. Harrison
sbh4
Non-linear, non-reversible, unpredictable
trajectory calls for widespread, urgent action
The pace of climate change is exponential and
many of its effects will be irreversible. The thawing
tundra in Siberia is generating a layer of dry
combustible material on the forest floor – tinder
for wild-fires that destroy beneficial trees and
generate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with no
useful energy capture.
Due to climate change, flooding, drought, and
starvation will be inevitable, as will increased levels
of poverty in many locations. Both Madagascar
and Zambia are reporting their worst droughts in
over 40 years, with consequential food shortages,
famine, and thousands of premature deaths.
The finger of blame is clearly pointing at climate
change and urgent action is required to reduce
CO2, methane, and F-Gas emissions from many
industrial sectors, including oil and gas processing.
There are enough solutions out there to create
hope and enable the positive changes that are
required. COP26 must be a platform to raise
awareness of the issues, stimulate education
about the solutions, and propose policy
frameworks that stimulate implementation and
international collaboration.
Price of prevention is less than the cost
of catastrophe
The business case for prevention is clear at a
conceptual level, and a myriad of technologies
exists. Many can readily be implemented if
there is enough inspirational corporate action,
the right regulatory environment, and visionary
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
political leadership. COP26 is the platform
where the consequences of climate change
must be presented impactfully and effectively.
And the outcomes from the meeting must be
transformative, collaborative, international
solutions for immediate implementation. There
is a price to be borne, but failure to act will cost
the earth.
Policy leadership ahead of COP26 is coming from
several directions. As an example, India could force
oil refineries and urea fertiliser plants to use green
hydrogen as a portion of their hydrogen production
under draft plans sent for cabinet approval by the
Indian Government’s Power and Renewable Energy
minister, RK Singh. This is proposed as the first
stage of a national plan to secure a leading role for
green hydrogen in the energy transition.
Methane emissions reduction has also been in
focus in the run up to COP26. On behalf of the
European Union and the United States, European
Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, and
President Biden used the Major Economies Forum
on Energy and Climate (MEF) to announce the
‘Global Methane Pledge’ on the 18th of September.
It will be launched at COP 26 in November, in
Glasgow. Several other nations have already
signalled their support, and countries joining the
Global Methane Pledge will commit to a collective
goal of reducing global methane emissions by at
least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
To monitor and implement progress, countries
that have committed to the pledge must move
towards best available inventory methodologies
to quantify methane emissions, with a particular
9
focus on high emission sources. Delivering on the
Pledge would reduce warming by at least 0.2°C
by 2050. Major sources of methane emissions
include oil and gas, coal, agriculture and landfills.
Of these sectors, the greatest potential for short-
term methane abatement by 2030 is within the
energy sector.
Oil and gas sector can rise to the challenge
Energy usage in industrial, domestic and
transportation is responsible for an overwhelming
proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. The
oil and gas sector is fundamentally an energy
business, and it will therefore be integral to the
transformation to climate neutral energy vectors
and efforts to minimise the impact of fossil
fuel usage.
Conversion of natural gas to blue hydrogen
and low carbon ammonia or methanol is one
value chain that the midstream and downstream
sectors are in pole position to lead. But methane
emissions must ruthlessly be eliminated.
Additionally, CO2 released with methane from
the reservoir and CO2 generated from the energy
requirements of gas processing and liquefaction
must also be mitigated.
Blue hydrogen relies on capturing the CO2 that is
released from the reforming process chemistry and
capturing the post-combustion CO2 emissions from
the fired burner that is used to generate the heat
energy, which is required to drive the reforming
reactions forwards towards hydrogen production.
Whether the CO2 is then utilised or sent for
permanent underground storage or mineralisation
is of secondary importance – the first stage of the
process relies on carbon capture.
There may be latent concerns about classical
CCS with underground CO2 storage, but the idea
of CCS as 'Carbon Capture and Something' begins
to turn the focus towards capturing the carbon,
thus leaving the next steps open. At the very
least that approach may get some traction behind
carbon capture, whilst the debate about the long-
term storage mechanism can take place in parallel
to constructive action.
Displacement of coal fired power generation
with pipeline natural gas or LNG is another area
where the midstream sector will most likely be
busy for the coming decades. LNG can connect
energy producers and consumers. Through its
transportability it creates international inter-
10
dependence and stimulates trade. Amongst
the range of clean energy vectors, such as low
carbon hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, all fall
short of LNG when it comes to volumetric energy
density, which is the important factor for long-
distance shipping.
Whilst the CO2 emissions at the power plant from
gas fired electricity generation are significantly
less than coal, only a tiny amount of methane
leakage would give the gas fired option an equally
damaging greenhouse gas footprint. It is essential
to consider the full lifecycle analysis of fuels
production, distribution, and utilisation.
Going underground
CCS is also an established technology. In Europe,
more than 20 years ago, Equinor commenced
capture and sequestration of CO2 on the Sleipner
West field in the Norwegian sector of the North
Sea. The components of a CCS scheme, from
the absorption tower to the multi-stage CO2
compressor with integrated drying system, are
highly developed. Beyond Norway, CCS has also
been used in Australia, Canada and the United
States for many years.
The use of safe, permanent underground CO2
storage in saline aquifers, depleted oil and gas
reserves for CCS schemes is an area where
midstream and upstream operators can rise to the
decarbonisation challenge. The expertise that has
been used to explore and drill for oil and gas can be
applied to developing CCS reservoirs. Furthermore,
the associated pipeline transmission infrastructure
is likely to be adaptable to become the backbone of
a CO2 disposal network.
Most existing CCS schemes are point to point,
meaning that one carbon capture location such
as an ammonia plant SMR is connected to one
underground geological CO2 storage location. This
simple model will transition to more complex ‘hub
and cluster’ schemes where CO2 will be captured
from several plants and fed into a feeder network
connected to a long-distance transmission
pipeline. This will mirror the existing natural gas
pipeline grids.
Sub-surface technologies can also be used for
mid-term and long-term storage of energy gases.
To add flexibility to integrated energy systems in
the future where reliance on variable renewable
energy will increase, long-term, high-capacity
energy storage will be essential to balance
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Ten transformational policy proposals and discussion points for COP26
 Clean up existing processes in parallel to developing the new clean energy infrastructure. As
priorities, support investment in reduction of leaks and emissions of natural gas and other methane
sources such as landfill sites.
 Implement carbon capture on existing CO2 point sources with a projected operational life of more
than 15 years.

Place more emphasis and urgency on CO2 capture, collection, and logistics infrastructure and
business model development.
 Tax ‘the problem’ with an international CO2 emissions tax at a fixed rate, with a clear
implementation and ramp-up timeline would be the fairest mechanism, which would also allow for
clear planning and investment.
 Use funds derived from national and international taxation to support transformational research,
such as the use of direct air capture for the simultaneous capture of CO2 and methane from the air.
 Implement a review of practices in agriculture and the food supply chain and stimulate the
necessary research into new techniques.
 Focus on tighter control of F-Gases production because release to atmosphere is difficult to monitor
due to the diverse range of domestic applications.
 At a policy level, shift the debate away from picking between apparently competing good ideas, e.g.
battery electric vehicle (BEV) vs fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) or green hydrogen vs blue hydrogen.
 Motivate with a combination of hope and urgency. Current climate conditions indicate that the 1.5°C
and perhaps 2°C targets will be overshot and the timeline for climate neutrality is variable around the
world. COP26 must maintain the focus on achieving alignment to tougher targets and rapid action.
 Visionary, blame-free collective international action is required and COP26 programmes must
recognise this.

seasonal changes in energy supply and demand.
Underground hydrogen storage, or UHS, is ideal
for this application.
Currently, two UHS pilots are planned in Germany
and the Netherlands in 2021-2022. The North
Sea and its nearby onshore region could also be
an attractive choice for energy system integration,
where CO2 could be injected into oil and gas
reservoirs and aquifers to generate blue hydrogen
from local natural gas resources. Offshore wind
power generation is being installed at Giga Watt
scale, enabling green hydrogen production.
The green and blue hydrogen can be stored
in multiple UHS salt caverns, thereby fully
harnessing natural resources above and below
the ground in the region. The North Sea Energy
programme and the Zero Carbon Humber project
are planning to use this region capability for a
sustainable energy system.
It is possible to use underground hydrocarbon
resources to produce hydrogen through in-situ
gasification. This technology has the potential
to be commercialised internationally due to the
large volumes of oil resources globally. Instead
of extracting crude oil from the underground
fossil energy resources, in-situ gasification in the
underground fossil fuel reservoir can be applied to
create low carbon hydrogen.
To produce pure hydrogen, gas separation is
achieved by installing a downhole membrane.
Hydrogen is extracted from the production well,
and since the carbon monoxide and CO2 gases
and other hydrocarbons remain underground, the
process simultaneously results in underground
CO2 storage.
Carbon capture is at the root of all CCS or
CCUS technologies
During glass, lime, cement, and refractory products
making, CO2 emissions are unavoidable. This is

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 11
 CO2 lean CO2 rich
flue gas flue gas
CO2 lean
amine
CO2
rich
CO2 rich
flue gas
solvent
CO2 rich
amine
Amine-wash rotating
Amine-wash with tower contactor disk contactor
A selection of CO2 capture processes based on absorption
because the sands and minerals used contain
CO2, which is released during the melting and
calcination processes. These mineral processing
industries must live with the fact that this geogenic
CO2 is generated, even if heating from renewable
electrical power or hydrogen is used to replace
fossil fuel fired burners. However, there are many
things that can be done to mitigate CO2 emissions
to the atmosphere. Decarbonisation may be
‘difficult’, but it will be possible.
Due to the geogenic CO2 emissions, part of the
decarbonisation solution in glass making and
other mineral processing industries must therefore
include ‘carbon capture’. Disposal of the captured
CO2 in underground reservoirs may become an
important service and new business model for the
oil and gas sector. CCS schemes that they operate
can become the CO2 sink for these industrial
CO2 emitters.
Refinery steam methane reformers (SMRs)
consume natural gas to make hydrogen. The vast
majority make grey hydrogen and emit CO2. In
the long term, this can be mitigated with ‘green’
hydrogen production using electrolysers fed with
renewable electricity or reformers fed with biogas.
In the short term, retrofitting carbon capture to
SMRs to make so-called ‘blue hydrogen’ will make
a step change reduction to CO2 emissions and take
a big step towards carbon neutrality.
SMRs are used to produce more than half of
the world’s hydrogen today. ATRs are also used
extensively for syngas production. They tend
to operate at a slightly higher pressure and the
product is richer in carbon monoxide than the
gases produced on an SMR. Fine-tuning of blue
hydrogen production technology will, in part,
come from a detailed understanding of the energy
12
CO2 lean CO2 lean
flue gas flue gas
CO2 lean CO2 lean 20%
flue gas methanol NaOH(aq)
CO2 lean
solvent
CO2 CO2
CO2 lean rich rich
flue gas
flue gas flue gas
CO2 rich Na2CO3(aq)
methanol
Methanol wash Mineralisation
and chemical feedstocks required in any scheme.
Both SMRs and ATRs can be combined with
downstream shift reactors to optimise production
of hydrogen or syngas.
The H2H Saltend project is focused on producing
hydrogen for industry, power, and ammonia.
The major advantage of using an ATR would
be the scale that can be achieved, with a high
carbon capture rate and high energy efficiency.
Operating pressure, and therefore product
gas delivery pressure, is another aspect that
differentiates SMRs and ATRs. The ATR can
operate at a higher pressure, which is a benefit if
hydrogen must be injected into a high-pressure
gas pipeline for transmission to cities in Yorkshire
and beyond.
Turquoise hydrogen, biochar & solid carbon
Turquoise hydrogen is produced by methane
pyrolysis (also known as methane splitting or
cracking) and is another pathway to produce
low carbon hydrogen. Methane pyrolysis is
endothermic, meaning that it requires heat
energy to convert methane to hydrogen and solid
carbon. There are different options for the heat
supply. Indirect heating using burners fuelled by
hydrogen or natural gas as a fuel is one option.
Indirect electrical heating or direct heating with an
electrical plasma are also possible.
A question that arises from methane pyrolysis
with hydrogen as the target is: what happens
with the various forms of solid carbon that are
produced? If turquoise hydrogen production
becomes a mainstream pathway to hydrogen,
the amount of solid carbon produced will greatly
exceed demand from current applications. If
carbon black becomes abundant at low cost, it
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Nitrogen Flue gas to Superheated
FGD/SCR/CCS as required steam
Air Heater
Air separation
unit
Oxygen High pressure
Natural gas + hydrogen steam

Fired
heater
Sulphur removal
Hydrogenation

ATR

Prereforming Dry syngas

Catalyst
bed
Final cooling
& separation

Raw
Steam syngas Condensate
Fuel Waste heat
Air boiler Boiler feed water

ATR process flow sheet for syngas production

might find additional application as a soil improver photosynthesis in plants, where the CO2 is
in agriculture. converted to starchy hydrocarbons.
The use of biochar and wood acid (produced in Various mechanical direct air capture (DAC)
a sustainable way from gasification or pyrolysis processes have been developed to simulate the
of wood) as alternatives or supplements to action of plants and remove CO2 from the air. A DAC
conventional fertilizers in rice paddies is reported facility rated at 1 million tonnes of CO2 capture per
to reduce N2O emissions by more than 50%. As year does the equivalent work of 40 million trees.
an additional benefit, methane emissions are With such huge potential, it is no surprise that a
reduced by more than 30%. Additional research massive amount of development activity has taken
in these areas and subsequent education and roll- place to research, scale up, and commercialise these
out of such programmes to change agricultural technologies in the past decade.
practices is an area the international community One of the attractions of DAC is that CO2 can be
can focus on at COP26 and other forums for recovered close to where it is required for EOR. The
climate change prevention. use of DAC to remove CO2 from the air can also be
used to offset CO2 emissions from certain aspects
Direct air capture of CO2 and methane of oil and gas processing that are very difficult
CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere has to decarbonise. For example, amine wash CO2
been through industrial and human activity. recovery systems operate most cost-effectively at
CO2 removal is mainly through biological up to 96% of CO2 removal from the flue gas. The

CO2 depleted air

CO2
CO2 CO2
depleted
Air Gas flow channel
air
Ferrocene electrode Air CO2
CO2 CO2 depleted
Air depleted Air
Spray tower air
air
Quinone electrode
CO2 Air
Air Air Gas flow channel
depleted
CO2 CO2 rich solution air
Climeworks Verdox Carbyon
Carbon engineering
A selection of technologies for direct capture of CO2 from air (DAC)

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 13
5(ish)% residual CO2 emissions from ATR and CCS
for blue hydrogen can be offset in some way (e.g.
BECC or DAC).
Furthermore, of great interest to the
downstream sector, production of e-fuels could
be a major application of CO2 from DAC in the
future. In the simplest case, captured CO2 and
hydrogen from an electrolyser are synthesised to
methanol. Methanol acts as a hydrogen carrier
and remains liquid under ambient pressure and
temperature. Thus, the storage and transport of
methanol is much easier and cheaper than liquid
or compressed hydrogen distribution.
Whilst several commercial DAC technologies for
atmospheric CO2 removal exist, there is not yet one
that has been implemented for methane capture
from the air. It would be a good idea to capture
these gases in parallel, since a major energy
consumer in the system is the power requirement
to drive the fan that moves air through the
equipment. Using this power once to remove both
gases would perhaps be the most efficient way to
reverse the historical damage that has been done
from CO2 and methane emissions.
Electrification of industrial processes will
play a leading role
Heat pumps are common for space heating. They
use ambient air or soil as a heat sink and produce
heat at about 50°C, which is ideal for heating
buildings. High temperature industrial heat pumps
(HTIHPs) are based on a similar operating principle
and have been recognised for their potential to
generate steam for process heating in the food,
brewing, sprits distillation, paper making and
chemicals sectors. An HTIHP requires a heat sink
at a temperature of between 60°C and 120°C to
generate steam. Waste heat is widely available
from many processes at these temperatures.
From a sustainability perspective, HTIHPs are
attractive for steam generation because they do
not create CO2 greenhouse gas emissions for boiler
operation. This is because the combustion of fossil
fuels is not required. However, the heat pump must
be supplied with renewable electrical power for
the full environmental benefits to be realised.
The electrification of industrial processes will
only be climate neutral if the power is generated
using renewable technologies. Wind, solar, and
hydro-electric power dominate here. Geothermal
and biomass-based power generation are also
relevant. So-called ‘green’ hydrogen can be
produced through the electrolysis of water
using renewable power. Reforming of biogas or
gasification of biomass can also yield ‘green’ or
renewable hydrogen.
There is the possibility that renewable power
generation in the future will far exceed the total
level of electricity production today. Imagine that
all existing power from all sources is produced by
renewables, plus a similar amount of power is used
to generate hydrogen, and an additional third of the
total is used to drive CO2 and methane reduction
equipment. For example, DAC technology to
reverse the damage of the past and return the air to
sustainable levels of these greenhouse gases.

Vapour Vapour
Compressor
Fan

Evaporator

Heat from Heat for warmth

ambient air Condensor and hot water

Refrigerant gas
recirculates within 1kW of electrical power
the system applied to the fan and
compressor can yield
Liquid and Liquid between 3 and 5 times the
vapour amount of heat energy
Expansion valve

Heat pumps can generate warmth for space heating from ambient air, or higher temperatures for steam
generation from waste process heat

14 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Hydrogen
Hydrogen ad-mixing FCEV/FCEB
Wind Fuel cell into natural Synthetic fuels
gas pipeline via Fischer Tropsch

Desulphurisation
Hydro power of fossil fuels
Gas turbine

Upgrading
Hydrogen biofuels
storage/
distribution

Electricity
grid
Battery Biomass Methanol
Gasification

Invertor
Rectifier

Ammonia
Other end use
Metals refining
Solar PV Hydrogen electrolyser

Electrolysis can convert renewable electricity to hydrogen, which can be used as a low carbon energy
vector, as a reducing agent for steel making or to synthesise e-fuels, methanol, and ammonia

Methane monitoring and emissions
mitigation matters
According to the European Pollutant Release and
Transfer Register (E-PRTR), refineries in Europe
that reported data to the public domain emitted
between circa 100 and 2000 tonnes of the
greenhouse gas methane per facility in 2017. The
E-PRTR also reveals that methane emissions from
gas pipelines, terminals, processing stations, and
offshore platforms are in the range of 100 to 1200
tonnes per year per facility.
Natural gas leaks during extraction, storage,
and transport are estimated to total in the order of
9 million tonnes per year in the USA alone. Natural
gas is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas that
traps 56 times more heat than carbon dioxide over
a 20-year period. In addition to the greenhouse
warming potential of these methane emissions
and the lost opportunity to provide valuable
energy to consumers, methane is a flammable gas
and intensive leaks present a safety risk. So, for a
host of reasons, methane emissions monitoring is
a ‘must’.
Elimination of methane emissions from landfill
sites is also essential. Technologies exist to capture
landfill methane, which can be used as an energy
vector or be converted to hydrogen using a reformer.
F-Gases – low tonnage, high climate impact
The Paris Agreement on climate change sets
a framework for the control of greenhouse gas
emissions. It has been a catalyst for many efforts
related to decarbonisation. Interestingly, it does not
explicitly mention CO2 once. It also does not mention
methane, N2O, nor fluorinated hydrocarbons (known
as F-Gases), which are all potent greenhouse gases.
However, in recognition of their potentially harmful
impact, legislation has been implemented around the
world to focus on the processing and use of F-Gases,
such as Regulation (EU) No 517/2014.
Refrigerant gases are used in the oil gas sector
for process chilling and to support liquefaction of
hydrocarbons. A transition to low GWP F-Gases
or so-called ‘natural’ refrigerant gases such as CO2
or ammonia in mechanical refrigeration cycles will
be essential to ensure sustainable refining and gas
processing operations.
Stephen B. Harrison
sbh@sbh4.de

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 15
Site emissions become a new
metric for competitiveness
Sites must be competitively strong and low emissions to be sustainable as these
provide cashflow to support both investment and returns to investors
Alan Gelder
Wood Mackenzie
Global oil demand growth is to stall then
demand is to fall
The energy transition is under way, with the
global community increasingly focused on
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Recent
policies, such as the EU’s Fit for 55 proposal, are
increasingly focused on decarbonising key sectors
of the economy, reducing the demand for refined
products. Compared to Wood Mackenzie’s base
case outlook, such proposals are a downside risk
in the mid-2030s and beyond.
In the near term, global oil demand is recovering
from the pandemic and we are expecting global
oil demand to exceed 2019 levels in Q3 2022.
Despite 2017 being the peak in global sales
of internal combustion engine passenger cars,
growing global populations, rising urbanisation,
and increasing economic activity continue to drive
oil demand higher, with our energy transition
scenario projecting oil demand to peak at near
108 million b/d in the mid-2030s.
The outlook for the refining sector is one
of muted recovery. Despite recent capacity
rationalisation, new sources of supply outpace
demand growth. Refinery utilisations and margins
will improve, but not repeat recent highs. Once
global oil demand has peaked, the refining sector
faces sustained capacity rationalisation. The
refining outlook is not totally bleak, as the demand
for petrochemicals is expected to grow through to
2050, supporting greater integration as a way of
capturing volume and value growth.
The refining sector is challenged by the
energy transition as demand for its traditional
products is set to fall. Growth opportunities lie in
petrochemicals and low carbon liquid fuels (either
16
biofuels or synthetic e-fuels), both of which are
core competencies of refiners, who safely operate
large-scale continuous chemical transformation
processes. While evolving their product mix,
refiners also need to decarbonise operations.
Emissions reduction is key to achieve our
net-zero ambitions
Refining is an energy-intensive sector and its
emissions account for around 3% of global energy
sector CO2 emissions. Around 80% of these
refinery emissions are from fuel combustion to
support chemical transformation and treating
reactions. Emissions are very site specific, but in
general the more sophisticated the refinery (as
measured by Nelson Complexity), the higher the
carbon emissions, as the greater the chemical
transformation of low value products into
transport fuels and petrochemical feedstocks.
Wood Mackenzie analysis shows refinery
emissions are, however, poorly correlated with
site profitability, as complexity is only one of the
key drivers of site net cash margin. Location,
scale, and crude diet are other key drivers of
site profitability.
At present, only Singapore and Europe impose
a carbon charge on the emissions from their
refiners. European refiners are exposed to a
carbon charge of over €50 per tonne as of
September 2021. This has a material adverse
effect on their profitability as there are no similar
charges imposed on imports of refined products
from other regions, so they are currently unable
to pass on those costs. European refiners do
enjoy the benefit of free allowances to reflect
the emissions of the most efficient process
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
technologies. Despite this, Wood Mackenzie
expects most of the 2021 recovery in gross 20 120%
refining margins has not made its way to the 100%
bottom line. 15
80%
The EU provides free allowances to mitigate

$, bn
10 60%
the risk of carbon leakage. These are established
40%
by best-in-class technologies for the various 5
20%
refinery process units, reflecting the emissions
0 0%
of the top decile of facilities. The net result is 2027 2027 2027 2050
that European refiners are exposed to significant $30/t $100/t $100/t
additional carbon costs, which we anticipate to carbon carbon carbon

largely eradicate the positive margins of third and
fourth quartile European sites for the next few
years. An analogous situation exists for Asia, by
which a carbon price of, say US$100/tonne in
2027, results in the carbon liability taking over
60% of cumulative refinery earnings, as shown in
Figure 1.
The EU has considered, but not adopted, a
carbon border adjustment mechanism for refining.
The concept appears supportive of the European
refining sector, as charging a tariff on imported
middle distillates based only on the emissions of
the export refinery and the transport delivery to
Europe would lift the effective import parity price.
Wood Mackenzie’s integrated analysis along the
entire oil value chain suggests a more holistic
perspective might offer no such protection, as
shown in Figure 2.
When emissions are evaluated on a refinery
gate forwards basis, European emissions for
middle distillate production are below those of
barrels delivered from Saudi Arabia, so a carbon
border adjustment would raise the costs of Middle
East volumes imported to Europe. However, if
Carbon liabilty % of refinery earnings
Figure 1 Asian refinery carbon liability
the Scope 1 and 2 emissions associated with the
crude production and delivery are included, the
low upstream emissions for Russian and Saudi
crude results in the emissions being broadly
comparable. In such a framework, the carbon
border adjustment would offer no protection
to European refiners. Given this uncertainty,
refiners need to establish a robust, commercially
viable conversion platform that can adapt to the
energy transition and not rely upon potential
regulatory support.
Significant investment is required to achieve
site sustainability
Wood Mackenzie believes refining’s role as
a conversion business provides a long-term
future, as decarbonising the world requires large
volumes of low carbon liquid energy carriers
as electrification is not a silver bullet across all

100 100

80 80
kg CO2/boe

kg CO2/boe

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
Jet/kero Diesel Jet/kero Diesel

EU domestic production Russia Saudi Arabia

Figure 2 Emissions for middle distillate imports to EU from major exporters

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 17
 10
4
2
NCM ($/bbl)
0
-2
-4 Integrated refinery petrochemical sites
Standalone fuels refineries
-6 Refining only
-8
Figure 3 European Refining Competitive profile (2019, US$/bbl)
sectors. Refining also has a key role in supporting
the development of a circular economy through
the chemical recycling of petrochemicals and
conversion of municipal solid waste. The challenge
facing the sector is that these technologies are still
under development and so are not yet commercial,
even at Europe’s current high carbon costs.
Refiners need to be prepared to partner with
others to pilot new technologies and approaches
to deliver low carbon fuels. Government policies
are critical to ensuring early-stage projects are
nurtured and form the basis for future industry
deployment at far larger scales.
For this to be successful, these investments
need to be made at a commercially viable
conversion sites that are generating cash for
both future investment plus providing a return to
investors. Our REM-Chemicals research confirms
that large integrated refinery/petrochemical sites
dominate the first and second quartile competitive
positions. These are the sites best placed to adapt
to the challenge of the energy transition.
Petrochemical integration has many benefits,
including that the additional value from a major
petrochemical investment significantly outweighs
the additional costs of carbon emissions, given
the synergies that are available between refineries
and liquids-based steam cracking. Not all sites,
however, can support such investments and
so refiners need to consider their portfolio of
site options.
18
REM-Chemicals - $2.15/bbl
REM - $0.90/bbl
Portfolio rationalisation will be critical to
focus investment on sustainable sites
The falling demand for liquid fuels means not
all refining sites will survive. Companies with
multiple sites, such as the oil majors, have a
portfolio to manage, with carbon emissions being
a key metric to identify those that are sustainable
for the coming decades, as shown in Figure 4. The
four quadrants reflect the relative position of sites
reflecting their net cash margin position and their
carbon emissions. The characterisation reflects
Wood Mackenzie’s thesis that future sites need to
be both competitively strong and low emissions
to be sustainable as these provide cashflow to
support both investment and returns to investors.
Key actions are identified by quadrant. There are
several sites in the ‘invest’ category – these are
competitively weak but low emissions intensity.
The challenge for owners is to establish whether
a major expansion/upgrade can be commercially
viable. This challenge is too much for those in the
‘divest/close’ category, as those sites are currently
low margin and high emissions intensity and so
they are likely to be converted to storage sites or
liquid bio-facilities (following the examples from
Eni and TotalEnergies).
For those sites that are competitively strong, the
requirement is to deliver low carbon operations
through:
• Fuel efficiency improvements and process
electrification
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 45
Emission intensity (TCO2e/kbbl)

Divest or close Reduce emissions

40
BP Chevron ExxonMobil
Eni Shell TotalEnergies
35

30

25
Invest Target quadrant
20
-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Refining net cash margin (US$/bbl)

Figure 4 Characterisation of site sustainability

• Improved operations and optimisation of these investments, we expect companies to

• CCS on large emissions sources, such as
FCCs, gasifiers and hydrogen production units
via partnerships with logistics and upstream
operators
• Green hydrogen
These advantaged sites can be a platform to
produce lower carbon intensity fuels, such as
liquid biofuels and ultimately synthetic e-fuels
(which combines captured CO2 and low carbon
hydrogen) that regulators desperately seek. Given
the uncertainty around the size, scale, and nature
focus their energy transition investments on those
sites that occupy the target quadrant, which is a
very limited subset of global refining assets.
The refining business is about to embark on
another major transformation – this time supplying
low carbon fuels, where both site and fuel emissions
will be a critical determinant of future success.
Alan Gelder
alan.gelder@woodmac.com

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 19
Decarbonisation of steam crackers
A number of technologies are available to reduce the CO2 emissions from steam
crackers – from electrification and CCUS to electric furnaces
Jim Middleton
Technip Energies
Introduction
The majority of the worldwide production of
petrochemicals (PCs, e.g. ethylene, propylene,
butadiene and aromatics) originates from the steam
cracking process. As steam cracking is a thermal
process, a significant amount of energy is used to
manufacture the products.
Because of this, steam crackers are a significant
emitter of CO2 in the chemical industry, and
chemicals represents the third largest direct source
of CO2 emissions in the industrial sector (after iron
& steel and cement).1
One estimate of worldwide CO2 emissions from
steam crackers2 shows 198.7 million tonnes of CO2
in 2015, projected to increase to 264 million tonnes
of CO2 in 2030, or a 33% increase (mid-range of
estimate figures are quoted). Clearly, with the global
drive to reduce, and then minimise, industrial CO2
emissions, action is required.
The objectives of the industry are twofold:
to reduce or capture CO2 emissions from the
conventional steam cracking process and to seek
alternative technologies with lower CO2 footprints.
Modern steam crackers are well optimised and
integrated, such that almost all the fuel gas fired
in the furnaces is generated from the process.
In addition, high pressure steam is generated
from the waste heat from the furnaces, which
is used to drive the main compressors and for
process heating.
The reduction of CO2 emissions from the cracker
means replacing the methane fuel from the
process with alternative lower carbon fuels, such
as hydrogen or electrical heating. While the CO2
emissions from the furnaces can be reduced to zero
by using 100% hydrogen or electricity for heating,
the CO2 footprint associated with the generation
of the hydrogen or electricity has to be carefully
evaluated, as these can exceed the CO2 footprint
from burning the methane fuel.
20
Waste heat 5%
Generate high
pressure
steam
20%
Crack the feed
25%
Heat the feed
50%
Figure 1 Fired duty splits
When electricity needs to be relied upon for
decarbonisation of steam crackers, additional
considerations are the availability, reliability and
the actual carbon footprint of the power supply,
involving many local factors, not all of which may be
clear at the time the project final investment decision
(FID) is being made.
Reduction of CO2 from cracking furnaces
The furnace fired duty splits approximately as
shown in Figure 1 in a liquid cracking furnace.
Of this duty, the amount used to crack the feed
has to be provided by firing fuel, but the other duties
can be reduced by energy optimisation, resulting in
minimised fuel firing.
The fired duty, and consequently the CO2
emissions, can be reduced by 20-40%, the maximum
reduction being achieved by Technip Energies’
patented3,4 Low CO2 Furnace design (see Figure 2).
Firing hydrogen
Complementary to the reduction of firing is
increasing the hydrogen content of the fuel gas. As
the burning of hydrogen does not generate CO2, this
is a relatively easy way of reducing the CO2 emitted
from the cracker. The impact on the furnace burners
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
and performance is being developed and studied
(burning hydrogen is likely to result in shorter,
hotter, flames, which, combined with a reduced flue
gas flow rate, results in reduced steam production
from the furnaces and lower radiant section inlet
temperatures). Also, some types of burners are not
well suited to burning high hydrogen fuels.
Hydrogen can either be generated from the
fuel gas generated in the cracker by reforming or
imported from outside the cracker. Hydrogen from
outside the cracker would normally be generated
by electrolysis. Currently, the most mature
electrolysis technology is alkaline electrolysis (AE).
Taking the AE technology as an example, Table 1
provides a comparison between hydrogen from
electrolysis and hydrogen from SMR reforming
the cracker fuel gas. The data is for a 1,500 kTA
ethylene liquid cracking plant. The AE estimated
figures are based on the data from Reference 8,
supplying 100% pure hydrogen to provide the
same heat duty as the hydrogen from an SMR
reformer converting the fuel gas.
It can be seen from the figures in Table 1 that:
• By all measures (Opex, Capex, CO2 emissions, Figure 2 Technip Energies’ Low CO2 Furnace
power consumption) reforming provides a better Design
solution than currently available electrolysis
technology • The Capex for electrolysis is currently very high;
• Electrolysis consumes a large amount of however, this is predicted to decrease in the period
electricity, which can represent a considerable 2021-2050
operating cost • For electrolysis, the CO2 footprint of the cracker

Parameter Source of hydrogen

Alkaline electrolysis SMR (blue H2)

Quantity of hydrogen, t/h (Nm3/h) 29.9 (332,500) 29.9 (332,500)a

Technical cost of hydrogen, $/kg 3.6 0.33
Electrical power, GWh 1.6 0.02
Capex, $bn 1.7 0.4
CO2 from electricity @ 376 tCO2e/GWh, MMt/year 4.70 0.11
CO2 from electricity @ 26 tCO2e/GWh, MMt/year 0.33 0.04

Parameter Cracker + AE Cracker + SMR

Tonnes of CO2/t HVC @ 376 tCO2e/GWh electricityb, tCO2e/tHVC 1.72 0.24
Tonnes of CO2/t HVC @ 26 tCO2e/GWh electricityc, tCO2e/tHVC 0.21 0.12

Notes: a. Figure given is for the contained hydrogen in the SMR product. Total heat value of SMR product is the same as that of the
hydrogen from electrolysis.
b. 376 tCO2e/GWh electricity is the basis used for the calculation of cracker CO2 footprints for comparison with the benchmark in
the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)
c. 26 tCO2e/GWh electricity is the average value for electricity generated from wind or hydroelectric9

Table 1 CO2, Capex and Opex figures for hydrogen from electrolysis and reforming

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 21
is only reduced if very low CO2 electricity is
available i.e. green hydrogen. As the cracker fuel
gas is no longer used in the furnaces, the fuel gas
is now surplus
• For 376 tCO2e/GWh electricity, the CO2 footprint
of the electricity consumed by the electrolyser plus
the cracker is greater than the CO2 emitted by the
Source 1 and 2 emissions, when the steam cracker
is firing methane fuel (1.72 vs 0.63 tCO2e/t HVC)
• For 376 tCO2e/GWh electricity, the CO2 footprint
of the steam cracker with reformer is 62% less than
the steam cracker without reforming the fuel gas
(0.24 vs 0.63 tCO2e/t HVC)
• For 26 tCO2e/GWh electricity, the CO2 footprint
of the steam cracker with reformer is 81% less than
the steam cracker without reforming the fuel gas
(0.12 vs 0.63 tCO2e/t HVC)
The amount of hydrogen fired should be
minimised, by reducing the firing in the furnaces,
as described above. This minimises the hydrogen
imported to the plant, or makes more hydrogen
available from reformed fuel gas.
Importing hydrogen leaves a surplus of fuel
gas generated in the cracker, which is primarily
methane. This fuel gas can be used for power
generation, but this generates CO2 and only
improves the overall CO2 footprint of the cracker if
imported electricity has a higher CO2 footprint than
the electricity generated from the cracker fuel gas.
Base Electrified
cracker
Furnace firing duty, MW 1281 995
VHP boiler firing duty, MW - -
MP boiler firing duty, MW - 44
Fuel gas available, t/h 91 91
Natural gas importa, t/h ~ 2 ~2
Excess fuel gas, t/h 5.9 25
t of CO2/t of HVCb 0.63 0.55
t of CO2/t of HVCc 0.62 0.48
Notes: a. Natural gas import retained for furnace and
flare pilots
b. Based on ISBL firing and electric import at 376 t of
CO2/GWh (Standard EU Emissions Trading Scheme
[ETS] figure)
c. Based on ISBL firing and electric import at 26 t of
CO2/GWh (wind/hydroelectric power)
Table 2 Comparison of utility and CO2 figures for a
base and electrified 1500 kTA liquid cracker
22
Technip Energies believes a better solution than
importing hydrogen generated from electrolysis is
to convert the cracker fuel gas to a high hydrogen
stream, by steam methane reforming (SMR) or
auto thermal reforming (ATR). Technip Energies’
BlueH2 proprietary technology minimises the
energy consumed in the reformer, generates no
additional steam, and includes capture of the CO2.
Capture of the CO2 from the cracker fuel gas is more
economical if it is carried out at the outlet of the
reformer, rather than from the reforming furnace
flue gas, as the pressure at the reformer outlet
is higher, and the equipment can be made much
smaller, significantly reducing the capital cost.
Electrification
As noted above, when the fired duty of the furnaces
is reduced, one of the main consequences is a
reduction in the amount of high-pressure steam
generated. Consequently, there is unlikely to be
sufficient steam to drive the main compressors in
the steam cracker. This leads to the use of electric
motor drivers for the compressors, or ‘electrification’
of the cracker.
The use of electric motors as drivers for the main
steam cracker compressors is not new. Technip
Energies has four reference plants (three grassroots,
one revamped) where electric motors are used to
drive at least two of the three main compressors.
These plants were designed this way to take
advantage of the low cost electricity then available
in certain countries.
The main challenges with electrifying steam
crackers are:
• Experience with electric motors and variable
speed drives (VSDs) at the powers required for
modern world-scale steam crackers (Technip
Energies makes reference to its experience in other
industries in which it is a leader, such as LNG)
• Avoidance of harmonic resonance between motor
drivers and compressors
• Influence on the electrical supply grid of stopping
and starting large motors
• Maintaining compressor efficiencies and speeds
when motors are retrofitted
• Accommodating VSD equipment and filters
(if required) within plot areas which are close to
the motors
Choices need to be made about how many and
which compressors to electrify. These depend
mainly on the amount of high-pressure steam
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 1
0.9
0.8 Electricity with a CO2
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0.12-0.15 tCO2e / MWh
t CO2/MWh

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ng

ov
St
Po

p
iA

ge

F
h

d
ut

w
d
So

re

d
ite
Un

Figure 3 CO2 footprint for electricity

available and the required compressor speeds
and efficiencies.
A key consideration when electrifying crackers is
the CO2 footprint of the electricity available to the
plant. The CO2 reduction benefits of electrification
are only fully realised when the electricity available
is primarily from renewable sources. Table 2 gives
example figures for a 1500 kTA liquid cracker from
a paper presented by Technip Energies at the 2021
Ethylene Producer’s Conference.5
From Table 2, the reduction in CO2 emissions
based on the EU ETS standard CO2 footprint for
imported electricity is 11% and, based on the CO2
footprint for imported electricity from wind and
hydroelectric sources, is 23%. The above figures
are not based on Technip Energies’ Low CO2
Furnace, which can provide a further reduction in
CO2 emissions.
The reduction in fuel firing may result in a
reduction in fuel gas import or a surplus of fuel gas
for export, depending on the feeds cracked and the
plant configuration.
Electric furnaces
The use of electricity, instead of firing fuel, to
provide the heat for the reactions in the cracking
furnaces is being investigated by a number of
parties, including Technip Energies. The main issues
with the use of electric furnace technology do not
concern how the heat is applied to the furnace coils
(although these techniques need to be developed
and proven), but relate to the amount of electricity
required, the CO2 footprint of the electricity, and
the effect on the electricity grid of start-up and
shutdown of the cracker.
A simple example of an ethane cracking furnace
illustrates the importance of the electricity
supply on the use of this technology to reduce
CO2 emissions:
• Flue gas emissions firing 80 mol% hydrogen,
20 mol% methane fuel (typical fuel for an ethane
cracking plant without hydrogen extraction) =
10.3 t/h CO2
• Electrical power required to provide absorbed
radiant duty only = 69-86 MW (range depends on
electrical conversion efficiency)
• CO2 emissions required for power supply to
give the same CO2 emissions as firing 80 mol%
hydrogen fuel gas = 0.15-0.12 TCO2e/MWh
The required CO2 footprint for the electricity
supply to the site compared to the current CO2
footprint for grid electricity for various countries is
shown in Figure 3.7 Over time, the CO2 footprint
for electricity should decrease, with the phasing
out of coal firing and increased use of renewables.
Nevertheless, it is clear that to substantially
reduce the CO2 emissions for the complete cracker
footprint, it is necessary to source electricity with
a very low CO2 footprint.
Taking the above example of an ethane furnace,
for a 1500 kTA ethane cracker, the amount of
power required to replace the fired absorbed
radiant duty is approximately 560 MW. This does
not include the additional 30-90 MWh required

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 23
for electric motor drives for the compressors, as
the steam generation from the cracking furnaces
is much reduced. 560 MW is approximately
equivalent to the power consumption of 276,000
average EU households. It is clear that start-up
and shutdown of the plant represents a significant
impact on the power demand local to the site,
unless the site is provided with its own dedicated
power supply.
As the fuel gas generated in the ethylene plant
is not used in the furnaces, another use has to be
found for this.
Carbon capture and storage/carbon capture and
utilisation (CCS/CCU)
Carbon capture (CC) has been proven in the power
industry and can be applied to steam crackers.
Apart from the use of high hydrogen content
fuels, CC is the only currently commercially proven
technology which can achieve very high levels of
reduction of CO2 emissions from steam crackers.
Typically, CC can achieve 90-95% CO2 removal. The
CO2 would be removed from the furnaces and, if
required, the auxiliary boilers.
From studies carried out by Technip Energies, it
is feasible to operate the steam cracker without
the CC plant, therefore the operation and start-up
of the steam cracker should not be affected by the
addition of the CC plant.
It is straightforward to design a new steam
cracker with future provision for installation of CC.
The main requirements are:
• Provision of tie-in connections on furnace and
boiler stacks
• Provision of plot space for the CC plant, as close
as possible to the furnaces and boilers, to minimise
the length of the flue gas ducting
• Provision of space for the flue gas ducting and
support on furnace and boiler structures
In addition to the above points, the utilities
requirements of the CC unit should be considered
when the cracker is designed. Whether or not pre-
investment is made in the cracker, to allow for the
future utilities requirements of the CC unit, needs
to be decided on a case-by case basis. Where
such investments can be made for relatively low
incremental Capex, and future expansion could
be very expensive or disruptive to operations (e.g.
cooling water intakes and water treatment plants),
then pre-investment may be justified.
The conventional routes for captured CO2 are for
24
oilfield recovery or storage. These routes are only
accessible to certain plants, generally those located
close to the sea and/or a now unused oil pipeline.
An alternative for captured CO2 is conversion to
saleable products,6 such as methanol and ethanol
(which can be converted to olefins) and methane
(for export as fuel). Technip Energies anticipates
that these routes will be of most interest to cracker
operators, as these produce green products which
fit with their existing product portfolios, customer
base and infrastructure. The technologies are all at
early stages of development and only certain parts
are currently commercialised.
It should be noted that one of the main Capex and
Opex items associated with a conventional CCS
plant is the compressor to raise the CO2 to over 100
bar(g) for discharge to a pipeline for oilfield recovery
or storage. When the CO2 is used to make product,
much lower pressures are required and both Capex
and Opex can be reduced.
It should be noted that CC does not rely on having
low CO2 electricity available to reduce the CO2
emissions from the cracker, although the increased
utility demand for the CC plant should be met with
as low a carbon footprint as possible.
Application of CC does not result in an increase in
surplus fuel gas from the cracker.
Associated with CC is oxycombustion, which is
the firing of the cracker fuel with oxygen rather than
air, in the furnaces and possibly the boilers. The
advantage of oxycombustion is that it can eliminate
the need for the carbon capture plant, as most of
the nitrogen is removed from the flue gas. Some
purification of the CO2 is required to meet typical
specifications for CO2 used for oilfield recovery.
In order to fit oxycombustion into conventional
cracking furnace designs, it is necessary to
re-circulate flue gas to the furnace burners, to
reduce the high flame temperature and provide an
adequate volume of flue gas for heat transfer in the
furnace convection sections. Consideration also
has to be given to the start-up of the furnaces and
the cracker, when a transition will need to be made
between ambient combustion air and oxygen.
Use of oxycombustion requires an air separation
plant to produce the oxygen. The air separation
plant has a significant Capex and its own CO2
footprint. Application of oxycombustion requires
the development of burner designs to fire
oxygen, and the associated modifications to the
furnace design.
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Technology CO2 reduction Surplus Estimated Remarks
achievable fuel gas date of commercialisation

Firing hydrogen 65-85% No Now Requires a route to use CO2,

from reforming CO2 reduction depends on CO2
footprint of electricity

Firing hydrogen 0-70% Yes Depends on progress CO2 reduction depends on

from electrolysis in cost reduction CO2 footprint
and increases in size of electricity
of electrolysers

Electrification 10-25% Yes (depending Now Requires a low CO2 source

on cracker of electricity
Low CO2 furnace 30-40% feed slate/ 2023
configuration)

Electric furnaces 0-90% Yes 2025 CO2 reduction depends on CO2
footprint of electricity

Carbon capture 90-95% No Now Requires a route to use CO2

and storage/utilisation

Table 3 Summary of CO2 reduction techniques

Surplus fuel gas Summary

The ethylene cracking process typically
generates most of the fuel required for the
furnaces. For gas cracking plants, some
imported fuel gas may be required, whereas
liquid cracking plants typically export
fuel gas. As noted above, for several CO2
reduction  solutions, the reduced fuel gas
firing within the cracker results in surplus
fuel gas. The fuel gas will typically contain
10-80 mol% hydrogen, depending on the
feeds cracked.
The surplus fuel gas can be used for power
generation in a combined cycle gas turbine
(CCGT), which may generate power with a
lower CO2 footprint than the local power grid
and the power could be used to power an
electrified cracker. However, CO2 is still emitted,
unless CC is added to the CCGT.
Fuel gas can be converted to products;
however, the available technologies are
not fully commercialised and/or have a low
product yield.
Technip Energies believes the best solution
is to convert the fuel gas to a high hydrogen
product in a reformer, as described above.
The above CO2 reduction techniques are
summarised in Table 3.
Conclusions
A range of possible solutions to reduce the CO2
emissions from steam crackers has been discussed.
Technip Energies believes that a variety of solutions
is appropriate, because of different conditions
worldwide, in particular the availability of large
quantities of reliable, low CO2 electricity, different time
scales for implementation of projects, the different
considerations of new build plants and revamps, and
the early stage of development of some technologies.
Both CC and hydrogen firing can be retrofitted to
existing crackers with relatively few modifications, as
the new plant construction is alongside the cracker.
Both technologies can be applied to not only the
cracker, but other plants in a complex, such as an
adjacent refinery.
VIEW REFERENCES
Jim Middleton
jim.middleton@technipenergies.com

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 25
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First principles of energy
transition - Part 2
Part 2 focuses on the application of hydrogen as a potential solution, then
reviews Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions

Jean-Gaël Le Floc’h, Mel Larson, Darren York and Robert Ohmes

Becht

Energy transition: where do we go from here? Blue H2 Turquoise H2 Green H2 Pink H2

In part one of this two-part series, we examined
the sheer magnitude of the energy transition Use of Hydrogen Hydrogen Hydrogen
change and how it will impact every part of our traditional produced by splitting produced by
lives and economies. From there, we outlined hydrogen through water into electrolysis,
some of the unintended consequences as well as production methane hydrogen and but powered
the growth and expansion requirements within technologies, pyrolysis oxygen via by nuclear
metals extraction, battery production, and overall but installing to electrolysis, generated
electrical infrastructure to meet the shift away from carbon produce and powering electricity
capture and hydrogen electrolysis
traditional fossil fuels for transportation and power
sequestration gas and by renewable
usage. In part two, we will focus on the application
(CCS) solid electricity
of hydrogen as a potential solution, along with the technology to carbon sources, such
associated challenges, and review Scope 1, 2, and capture and as wind or
3 emissions to understand what these mean for the store the GHGs solar
energy industry and front-line consumer. Finally, we
will close this series with some focal areas that the sulphur and nitrogen and increase the qualities of
energy providers should consider as they develop transportation fuels while also converting heavy
their strategic, tactical, and operational plans to hydrocarbons to more valuable products. The
achieve their defined strategy. future vision is to utilise hydrogen in alternate ways
– as a direct transportation fuel, as a source for
Hydrogen: the gas that solves all our problems? heating and cooking, as a way to produce ‘green’
In these early days of energy transition, hydrogen transportation fuels, and as a way to store energy
has emerged as a lead option for addressing as well as generate electricity.
decarbonisation, as it is a key building block and has While hydrogen does have a key advantage that,
many diverse applications within the energy sector. when it is combusted, it does not produce carbon-
Currently, most hydrogen is produced by steam based emissions (only water), hydrogen itself does
methane reforming or partial oxidation of natural have several challenges. For the sake of brevity,
gas, refinery off-gases, LPG, and light naphtha (C5s the use of hydrogen for fuel cells is reserved for a
and C6s). Both processes produce carbon monoxide future discussion. Instead, we will focus on simple
and carbon dioxide that is sent to the atmosphere, replacement of natural gas as a source of energy
resulting in these types of hydrogen being labelled via combustion for electricity generation, cooking,
as grey hydrogen. These production methods are and home heating uses. One challenge is that the
being replaced by multiple alternatives that meet energy density of hydrogen on a mass basis is quite
GHG emission reduction targets. high but is one-third of natural gas heat value on a
Presently, the bulk of hydrogen produced is volume basis (~975 BTU/scf for typical natural gas
used in the industrial sector, with a key consumer and 273 BTU/scf for hydrogen). To demonstrate, let
being refiners who utilise hydrogen to remove us take a typical natural gas pipeline that supplies

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 27
fuel to front-line consumers. Most conventional
burners can handle 10 to 15% hydrogen before
they require modification to manage operating
pressure and combustion profile (think of the
home grill that can be run on propane or natural
gas but requires different burners and regulator).
If 15 mol% hydrogen is used to replace natural gas
within the pipeline, a few interesting shifts occur.
To deliver the same net BTUs out of the pipeline,
the volume of gas must increase by around 12%,
which may seem simple enough. However, the
pipeline already exists and replacing that pipeline
to handle this increase is not only capital intensive
but also may require months of regulatory permits.
In addition, the operating pressure of the pipeline
must be increased, which may require re-rating
and other modifications, additional compression
stations may be required, and additional
compression power is needed, to the tune of around
16%. Assuming this power is generated by green
sources, additional power supply and infrastructure
may be needed, and the pipeline compressors will
need to be modified. In the extreme example, the
pipeline with 100% hydrogen will require over four
times the compression horsepower to meet the
same energy delivery.
Hydrogen will certainly be part of the mix to
meet energy demands and shows great promise.
However, technical hurdles like these just touch the
surface of what the energy industry must address.
Hydrogen refuelling stations will require extensive
infrastructure installation, and transportation,
storage, and shipping of hydrogen presents
metallurgical, operating pressure, and process
28
safety challenges. Conversion of hydrogen to high
energy density liquid streams, such as ammonia,
allows for re-use of existing combustion systems,
especially in the shipping industry, but presents its
own handling issues. Also, this option has its own
challenges, for the same energy release as a fossil
equivalent, 2.4 times as much ammonia is necessary,
and pure ammonia burning typically exceeds current
NOx emissions allowances. Leveraging of existing
offshore infrastructure to convert wind energy to
green hydrogen and using the gas lines to onshore
infrastructure shows promise. Hydrogen, as a core
building block, presents many opportunities for
consideration as a solution for our energy needs.
What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and
how does one impact them?
Over the last several years, the terms of Scope 1,
2, and 3 emissions are used regularly within the
energy production and consumption industries,
but their definitions may not be clearly understood.
As a brief history, the World Resources Institute
(WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) first released a corporate
standard in 2001 and, over the years, have
continued to enhance and revise this standard as
well as provide guidelines and tools for corporations,
cities, countries, and energy sectors. Details can be
found at ghgprotocol.org.
To understand these definitions, let us first start
with outlining which emissions are included. As
expected, CO2 is at the core of carbon emissions, but
other greenhouse gases like methane, nitrous oxide
(N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perflurocarbons
(PFCs), and others are also
within the boundary. Therefore,
when preparing balances for
a given entity or looking for
improvement opportunities,
each of these areas should be
explored.
The figure opposite
summarises the definition and
boundaries for Scope 1, 2, and
3 emissions.
Scope 1 and 2 are the
emissions that most entities
have a clearer understanding
of accounting on, as they are
often required for tracking
and filing by regulatory
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
entities and corporate mandates. These are
the emissions that are created by the fuel and
power that is consumed or purchased by a
given entity to convert their raw materials to a
final product for either processing by another
entity or use by the final consumer. Therefore,
whether it be the purchased electricity from
the local power grid, use of natural gas or coal
for steam and power generation by the plant
directly, or the gasoline and diesel used by the
vehicles associated with the entity, all these
combine into the Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Scope 3 emissions are more challenging
to account for, as they relate to the entire energy
required to produce and transport the raw material,
as well as the raw material itself, and then the
emissions created by the next processing entity
through to the final product. To track, understand,
and identify improvement opportunities, the entity
must have a clear understanding of their entire value
chain and the associated carbon footprint, which
is no small feat. The trend continues to increase of
those entities that are required to track and report
these emissions.
Most energy companies and firms are beginning
the process of identifying ways to improve and
reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions, especially those
who have set substantial reduction targets by 2030
to 2035, as well as tracking and understanding their
upstream and downstream Scope 3 emissions. To
begin the process, a multi-layer and bi-directional
process is recommended (see figure above). As with
any entity, underlying performance starts at the
equipment level. Therefore, measuring and tracking
energy usage and identifying improvements must
start here. Once the consumers and producers are
clearly understood, one can move out several levels
to the unit, intra-unit, and site-wide levels. For some
organisations, these distinct levels may not exist,
but within the modern refinery, petrochemical plant,
or factory, multiple units must work together to
produce the final product slate and having a clear
understanding of their integration, both in process
and energy, will illuminate improvement areas.
Finally, with these levels and associated integration
defined, the entity can evolve to examine the entire
value chain to address Scope 3 emissions, both
actual and potential improvement.
Though not an exhaustive list, the following areas
can be considered as part of finding improvement
opportunities:
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
• Replace existing natural gas, coal, and/or fuel
oil with renewable fuel sources like green/blue
hydrogen or biomethane/biogas, not only for fired
heaters but also for gas turbine and cogeneration
facilities.
• Examine heat integration opportunities, not only
within process units but also between process units
and sites
• Replace existing steam heating exchangers with
process heat or electrical heaters and ensure live
steam usage is at the optimal rates and pressure/
temperature level
• Minimise flaring and steam venting
• Swap high carbon intensity raw materials for
those raw materials with a renewable component,
including processing of renewable vegetable oils and
animal fats to product renewable diesel, gasoline,
naphtha, and off-gas
• Examine opportunities to reduce transportation
requirements and processing steps to reduce energy
usage
• Ensure maximum potential heater efficiency
through proper design and maintenance for
fired equipment, as well as training for front-line
operations staff on proper heater balancing and
tuning
• Map out and evaluate site-wide steam and power
cycle efficiency to examine opportunities to replace
steam-based shaft work with electrical shaft work
• Diversify energy input and the product portfolio to
create emissions off-sets
• Examine novel technologies for energy generation
and production, as well as within the production
value chain, to enhance efficiencies and leverage
‘green’ opportunities
Examining opportunities like these in a holistic way
can generate the forward path needed to meet one’s
Scope 1, 2, and 3 emission reduction targets.
29

re
Mo
Innovation
nty
tai
cer Environmental
Un Social
ss
Vision
Le
Operational Capital
Tactical Governance
Strategic
Technology
2021 2025 2035 2050
How can the energy industry meet the
challenge?
The examples in this two-part series provide
just a few instances of the technical, economic,
and social challenges the energy industry must
address to meet global energy needs, remain
viable, and attain the construct of reducing GHG
emissions. To face these issues, energy suppliers
must define and align their strategic, tactical,
and operational activities into an overall vision.
First, the organisation should clarify what their
overall vision is for their entity – ‘stay in business’,
grow, expand, diversify, or divest. This long-term
point of view provides the ‘north star’ to guide
the organisation. From there, a strategy can be
developed to achieve that vision. Long gone are
the days of just focusing on the next five to 10
years for strategic planning and project portfolio
management. The energy transition will drive an
inflection point in the 2030 to 2035 time frame for
energy sources and production rates that requires
a flexibility and dynamic responsiveness. Planning
will no longer be ‘up and to the right’ – one must
account for the eventual shift in the market and
associated infrastructure (see figure above).
Yet with this focus on long term strategy,
the need for effective near-term operational
performance becomes more critical than ever. The
existing assets must generate cash flow to fund
future investments and demonstrate to corporate
boards, ‘green’ investment firms, and other
influencers that the entity is viable and sustainable.
The linkage between strategy and operational
elements are the tactical changes that an entity
will undertake. The tactical decisions and execution
on capital projects, investments, divestment, and
30
acquisitions are the connectors that will enable the
organisation to meet the evolving shifts within the
overall energy transition. As time windows shift and
strategy becomes tactical and then operational, the
entire process must evolve as technology disruptors,
Divestment government mandates and incentives, consumer
Status Quo
Diversification preferences, social and governance compliance, and
Growth innovation breakthroughs become apparent and
Expansion
? take shape.
Defining a way forward
The energy industry has faced many economic,
social, environmental, and safety tests over the last
100+ years, and the energy transition presents a
trial like no other. As each entity works to address
the multiple technical challenges, and aligns their
strategic, tactical, and operational elements, these
five critical questions provide a starting point to
begin that journey:
• Does your business have a Point of View (POV) to
manage the transition?
• Does your business have operational, tactical, and
strategic plans that align to that POV?
• What will your business do to maintain
environmental, social, and economic ‘license to
operate’?
• What steps will your organisation take to attract
capital and talent to maintain a viable enterprise?
• What contingencies are being considered
to identify and agilely respond to the known
‘unknowns’?
By answering these questions and, as importantly,
realising that the responses may not be fully formed,
one can become an active part in stewarding our
industry through this transition and continue to
supply the vital energy sources that are so critical to
modern society.
VIEW REFERENCES
Jean-Gaël Le Floc’h
jglefloch@becht.com
Mel Larson
mlarson@becht.com
Darren York
dyork@becht.com
Robert Ohmes
rohmes@becht.com
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
ENGINEERED FOR YOU

As more operators turn to hydrogen as a renewable energy source, the need for
engineering expertise has never been greater. With H2’s unique properties that lead
to distinctive combustion qualities, a burner manufacturer with firing experience in
conventional and ultra-low NOx burner technology is a must. Trust the experts at
John Zink Hamworthy Combustion, a Koch Engineered Solutions Company.

Discover how KES experts can help your facility

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November 15-18, 2021
Visit koch.link/AboutKES or scan the QR code.

© 2021 Koch Engineered Solutions. All rights reserved.

watlow.indd 1 12/03/2021 12:59
Hydrogen: potential superfuel?
High hydrogen fuels have the potential to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions
compared to conventional fuels, depending on how the hydrogen is produced

Chuck Baukal, Bill Johnson, Michel Haag, Gilles Theis and Matt Whelan
John Zink Hamworthy Combustion, a Koch Engineered Solutions Company

H
ydrogen is a colourless, odorless, non-toxic,
highly reactive, flammable, diatomic gas 100%
that is the most abundant element in the 90% CH4
80% RFG
universe. The global demand for hydrogen is C3H8
70%

CO2 reduction
increasing rapidly.1 Interest in hydrogen as a fuel 60%
continues to grow, mostly because it generates 50%
water when combusted, with little if any carbon 40%
30%
dioxide (CO2) generated, depending on how it is 20%
produced. Figure 1 shows the more H2 in the fuel, 10%
the less CO2 produced. 0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
In the past, using hydrogen as a fuel was only H2 in fuel gas (vol. %)
economical in certain applications. Reducing CO2
emissions and concerns about fossil fuel depletion Figure 1 CO2 reduction with hydrogen addition
are two major recent drivers for considering high to various fuels (RFG = refinery fuel gas = 20%
hydrogen fuels for more applications.2 H2, 55% CH4, 10% C2H6, 10% C3H8, 5% C4H10).
Hydrogen has the potential to be an important Assumes no CO2 is produced making the hydrogen
fuel depending on how it is generated.3 Today,
large scale hydrogen production is by steam a higher flame speed, a lower volumetric heating
methane reforming (SMR). SMR furnaces generate value, less air required per unit heating value, and
CO2 emissions. If those emissions are captured, a higher adiabatic flame temperature compared
this is referred to as ‘blue hydrogen’. Oil and gas to other fuels. These issues impact the combustion
producers are particularly well positioned to produce system, which means it may not be a simple
blue hydrogen because natural gas is relatively conversion from existing hydrocarbon fuels to high
low cost and because those producers have the hydrogen fuels.
infrastructure to produce hydrogen.4 If the CO2 is
not captured, this is referred to as ‘grey hydrogen’. Hydrogen combustion
Hydrogen made with renewable energy, such Hydrogen is an element whose natural state at
as wind or solar energy powering an electrolysis
process, is referred to as ‘green hydrogen’.
Property H2 CH4 C3H8
While there is increased interest in using
hydrogen as a fuel, high levels of hydrogen have Molecular weight 2 16 44
been used in some applications such as boilers and LHV, MJ/Nm3 10.8 35.8 91.2
fired heaters for many years. For example, the off- LHV, MJ/kg 119.8 50.0 46.3
gas from ethylene crackers using natural gas as Adiabatic flame 2048 1878 1904
the feedstock is 70-85% H2 which is used as fuel temperature*, °C
for the cracking furnaces. Max. flame speed, cm/s 325 44.8 46.4
There are important issues to consider for new Flammability limit, vol% air 4-74.2 5-15 2.1-9.5
applications using high H2 in the fuel. For example, * based on 10% excess air, air temperature: 20°C.
hydrogen has a higher potential for leaking from fuel
delivery systems, a very wide flammability range, Table 1

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 33

1400
1350
Wet flue gas products
Flow, Nm3/Gcal
1300
1250
1200
Combustion air required
1150
1100
1050
0% 20% 40% 60%
H2 content, balance CH4
Figure 2 Combustion air required and wet flue
gases produced for blends of H2 in CH4 (15%
excess air assumed)
atmospheric temperature and pressure is H2. In
that state, it is a low density gas that can easily
leak from piping systems.
Hydrogen has many unique properties
compared to common hydrocarbon fuels (see
Table 1). It has a very high heating value on
a mass basis but a very low heating value
on a volume basis because of its low density.
Hydrogen’s low volumetric heating value means
much higher volumetric flow rates for a given heat
input, compared to other common fuels. Higher
volumetric flows mean higher fuel gas pressure.
Hydrogen has a higher flame speed and ignition
temperature compared to many common fuels.
It has a very low minimum ignition energy so it
is easily ignited with a minimal spark. This is a
good characteristic when ignition is desired but
less desirable when trying to prevent ignition, as
static electricity, for example, could easily ignite
H2. Hydrogen has a relatively high adiabatic
flame temperature and wide flammability
limits compared to other fuels. It also requires
considerably less combustion air, per unit firing
rate, and generates fewer combustion products
(see Figure 2).
Potential advantages
An important potential advantage of using pure
hydrogen as a fuel is the combustion products
do not contain CO2. However, if hydrogen is
generated by conventional SMR, then CO2 is a
by-product of the production process. If hydrogen
can be produced using renewable energy, it
is possible to minimise or even eliminate CO2
generation depending on the process. Another
emissions benefit is the absence of carbon in
34
the fuel, which means no soot (smoke), carbon
monoxide, or unburned hydrocarbons.
In many applications, the limit on increasing an
existing burner’s firing rate is the combustion air
capacity. While it is usually easy to get more fuel
flow by increasing the size of the fuel injector holes,
it may not be very easy to significantly increase
the combustion air capacity. Since hydrogen
requires less combustion air (see Figure 2), it may
80% 100% be possible to increase a burner’s firing capacity
less expensively using hydrogen than by alternative
methods such as increasing the combustion air
fan capacity.
Potential challenges
There are many potential challenges of using high
hydrogen fuels. Hydrogen has a considerably higher
flame speed, which makes it much more susceptible
to flashback in a premix burner. This means the
turndown (ratio of highest to lowest firing rate)
in premix burners may be significantly reduced
with high hydrogen fuels. Hydrogen embrittlement
is another fuel delivery system concern, which
can be handled with using appropriate materials
selections. Noise could increase due to higher
exit velocities for high hydrogen fuels. However,
noise can usually be mitigated with proper fuel
injector design and muffler selection. The higher
adiabatic flame temperature may increase thermal
NOx. This can be mitigated by increased furnace
gas recirculation, a well-known NOx reduction
technique, which is possible because of hydrogen’s
wider flammability limits.
Design considerations
Valve packings and seals need to be considered
because of the higher likelihood of leakage. Welding
piping joints may be preferred to minimise leaks.
Since hydrogen embrittlement is a problem with
carbon steel, stainless steel piping should be used.
A more conventional fuel like natural gas may
be used at startup before switching to hydrogen.
This typically occurs when hydrogen is produced
by SMR. Burners designed to fire on hydrogen
start up initially on natural gas until the SMR
process is established and hydrogen is being
produced (see Figure 3). This means burners may
need to be capable of firing on both natural gas
and high hydrogen fuels. Since the combustion
characteristics between hydrogen and other fuels
can be significantly different, this could complicate
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Figure 3 Left: burner starting up on natural gas with base fuel injectors. Right: normal operation on
high H2 fuel gas with added staged fuel injectors
burner design and operation. This is handled
through proper burner design.
Hydrogen produces a weaker flame rectification
signal in flame rods commonly used in pilots. Also,
higher flame temperatures with hydrogen may
shorten a flame rod’s life. Conversely, hydrogen
produces a very strong ultraviolet signal easily
detected by ultraviolet flame scanners. The
benefit is that flame sighting of UV scanners is
less challenging and hydrogen flames may be
able to be seen through more dust on a scanner
lens before needing to be cleaned compared
to conventional fuels. Flame scanners can be
mounted on pilots to replace flame rods.
Fuel injectors may need to be changed if
retrofitting existing burners designed for another
fuel like natural gas. Fuel injection holes (ports)
may need to be significantly larger when using
high hydrogen fuels, to reduce the fuel pressure
when using hydrogen. Larger holes reduce the
likelihood of tip plugging. The actual impact on
retrofitting existing burners is very dependent
on the burner design. For example, previous
experience with boiler burners has shown that
traditional staged combustion technology may
be compatible with switching to hydrogen, but
vibration could be an issue if the burners are not
properly designed. Because of hydrogen’s shorter
flames, overheating the burner front could be an
issue. Therefore, burner parts may need to be
made of high grade stainless steel.
Radiation heat transfer is another factor to
consider. The flame temperature is likely to
increase significantly, assuming everything else
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
is approximately constant. Since radiation is
dependent on the fourth power of the absolute
temperature, radiation would be increased.
Also, gaseous radiation may be increased due
to the higher water content in the flue gases.
However, since there is no carbon in hydrogen,
there would be no soot formation. That means
a hydrogen flame would not have any soot
(luminous) radiation, which can be significant for
hydrocarbon fuels. Some studies have shown
a relatively minimal impact on heat flux when
switching from hydrocarbon fuels to hydrogen.5
Conclusions
Using high hydrogen fuels has the potential to
dramatically reduce or eliminate CO2 emissions
compared to conventional hydrocarbon fuels,
depending on how the hydrogen is produced.
Hydrogen has many unique characteristics, such
as a higher flame speed and adiabatic flame
temperature, compared to conventional fuels.
There are many challenges and design issues that
need to be considered when using high hydrogen
fuels. In general, depending on the specific
application, the transition from typical hydrocarbon
fuels to hydrogen may be possible with relatively
little change in performance. A thorough analysis
is recommended before making such a change.
VIEW REFERENCES
Chuck Baukal
charles.baukal@kes.global
35
Green hydrogen: a possible path
towards a low carbon future
Interest in green hydrogen is reaching unprecedented levels, and the fuel could
play an important role in decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors of the economy
Dr Himmat Singh
Scientist ‘G’ & Prof (Retd)
G
reen hydrogen is the new kid on the
hydrogen block, and because it is
manufactured with renewable energy, it is
CO2 free. Such advantages are fuelling interest in
green hydrogen globally. Across Europe, Middle
East and Asia, companies are embracing this as a
high-quality fuel. Countries like China and the US
are investing in green hydrogen, primarily to meet
their domestic demand. Japan, the first country
to adopt a national hydrogen strategy in 2017,
gave hydrogen a starring role at the Tokyo 2020
Olympics (held in July 2021) by using it to light the
Olympic cauldron.
The global energy system today stands at a
point where it will transform energy economics
because of rapid technological advances in
electrolysers and declining renewable energy
costs. Recent PwC estimates for the year 2050,
of ‘green hydrogen’ global demand and expected
displacement of oil equivalent, exports and
expected job creation, add significance to the
choice of hydrogen becoming the solution for
transporting cheap clean energy across the globe.
This article analyses the developments related to
green hydrogen and as a possible path towards a
low carbon future.
Introduction
On account of the huge climate change challenge,
energy systems are facing a transition towards
technologies that result in decreased greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions. Hydrogen is increasingly
viewed as a potential saviour in national and
international strategies, to be applied to different
sectors from industry to transport. As per DNV,
hydrogen in 20211 holds the status of a viable
and rapidly developing pillar in the energy
36
transition. Over the past few years, hydrogen’s
role in the future of energy has grown much
more fundamental. Hydrogen, produced from
renewable energy sources (RES), has also been
proposed as a potential energy carrier to support
a wider deployment of low carbon energy.
Different waves of enthusiasm have supported
the narrative of green hydrogen as the basis of
an alternative to fossil fuels by exploiting fuel cell
applications in the transport sector. Dedicated
hydrogen strategies and research projects are
being developed by major world economies2-5
for addressing different components of the
hydrogen pathway.
Among the five different shades of hydrogen,
based on production technologies,6 green
hydrogen, meaning hydrogen produced by RES-
based electrolysers, is considered most suitable
for a fully sustainable energy transition. The US
promises to use renewable energy to produce
green hydrogen that costs less than natural gas,
and the Department of Energy is putting up to
$100 million into the research and development
of hydrogen and fuel cells. The European Union
has a strategic plan to invest $430 billion in green
hydrogen by 2030 to help achieve the goals of its
Green Deal. Chile, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia,
and Australia are all making major investments
into green hydrogen.7
Parnell8 declared the 2020s as the decade
of hydrogen, notable for the rush of activity in
the green hydrogen space. As 2020 unfurled
and then unraveled, climate change mitigation
ambition ramped up. ‘Green recovery’ emerged
as a favoured approach to stoking flagging
economies. Scott 9 writes “seven of the biggest
green hydrogen project developers came
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
together to launch the Catapult Initiative in a bid
to increase the production of green hydrogen
50-fold in the next six years, with the aim to
cut the cost of green hydrogen to less than
$2/kg. This would enable decarbonisation of
the world’s most carbon-intensive industries;
namely, steelmaking, shipping, power production
and chemicals.
According to recent PwC estimates10 of ‘green
hydrogen’, global demand could reach about 530
million tons (MT) by 2050, displacing roughly
10.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (around
37% of pre-pandemic global oil production).
The green hydrogen export market could
be worth US$300 billion yearly by 2050,
creating 400,000 jobs globally in RES and
hydrogen production.
All the above statements suggest that green
hydrogen is taking off around the globe. Its
promoters claim the fuel could play an important
role in decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors of
the economy, such as long-haul trucking, aviation,
and heavy manufacturing.
Green hydrogen: electrolytic production
schemes
There are four main electrolysis-based technologies
for the manufacture of green hydrogen:11,12
 Alkaline water electrolysis, the most technically
mature, is the most commonly seen electrolyser
technology today. The electrodes are based on
coated metal wire, with the largest current plant
being up to 2.5 MW capacity.13 Such electrolysers,
however, do not work well with intermittent RES.
 Proton exchange membrane (PEM)
electrolysers are the next generation of
technology that uses iridium and platinum
catalysts coated on to a proton-conducting
membrane, similar to the technology Johnson
Matthey uses today in fuel cells for a variety
of applications. Compared with alkaline water
electrolysis, PEM are more able to cope with the
intermittent nature of electricity from wind or solar
and have a significantly smaller footprint. ITM
Power Ltd has secured a joint venture project with
Shell to construct a 10 MW electrolyser in the
Rhineland Refinery Complex in Germany.14 The
working mechanism of PEM is shown in Figure 1.
 Solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) is a high
temperature ceramic cell-based technology
to make hydrogen. It is a very efficient, but
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
1
+ –
H+
O2
2 3 4
H2
Solid electrolyte
membrane
Cathode
H2O
Anode
Bipolar plates
Operating process
1 Voltage applied between electrodes
2 2H2O gives up electrons at the anode to produce 4H+
ions and O2
3 H+ ions travel towards the cathode
4 2H+ capture 2e– from the cathode and combine to
produce H2
Figure 1 How polymer electrolyte membrane
technology works10
Source: O Schmidt, A Gambhir, I Staffell, A Hawkes, J
Nelson, S Few, Future cost and performance of water
electrolysis: An expert elicitation study, International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 42 (2017), 30470-30492;
International Energy Agency, The Future of Hydrogen:
Seizing today’s opportunities, Jun 2019 (www.iea.org/
reports/the-future-of-hydrogen); strategy& analysis
technically less mature, especially in processes
where waste heat is available.
 Anion exchange membrane (AEM)
electrolysers are still in development, but share
many of the benefits of PEM and rely on advanced
nickel catalysts rather than precious metals.
For all electrolysis, there is a requirements to
fulfill a number of different goals –­ high efficiency
(85-95%) and hydrogen production rate, long life
span, low capital cost, provide grid balancing for
renewable generation and compactness – which
all present challenges and research needs.15,16
Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis17 forecasts that
global green hydrogen production will skyrocket
at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
57% between 2019-2030, rising from 40,000
tons to 5.7 MT. This jump is due to increasing
concerns about carbon emissions driving the need
to decarbonise major industrial sectors, thereby
reducing countries’ dependency on fossil fuel-
based systems and increasing investments across
alternate technologies, including green hydrogen.
37
 Renewables supply power
to the whole process.
Through electroysis, the oxygen
and the hydrogen that make up
water are separated.
O2 H2O
Green H2
Water
Using only the hydrogen and
the captured CO2, synthetic
fuels are produced.
Carbon-neutral synthetic fuels
are obtained that can be used in
existing engines of cars, trucks
and airplanes.
Figure 2 Spanish oil major Repsol plans to build one of the largest synthetic fuel production plants in
the world, based on green hydrogen.18 Source :Repsol unveils green hydrogen project,2020
A schematic plan of the world’s largest net-
zero emissions synthetic fuel production plant
based on green hydrogen being built by Spanish
oil major Repsol is shown in Figure 2.18 This
electrolysis base facility, to be operational in the
next four years, will use cutting-edge technology
to combine green hydrogen with CO2 captured in
the nearby Petronor refinery, as the raw materials
will position Repsol on the leading edge of the
development of net-zero emissions fuels.
A second green hydrogen project has been
announced by Siemens19 in 2021: It is building
one of Germany’s largest hydrogen generation
plants in Wunsiedel. This RES-based facility with
a capacity of 8.75 MW will produce up to 1350
tons of hydrogen a year, and will go into operation
in the summer of 2022. Using the generated
hydrogen in transportation and industry allows for
CO2 savings of up to 13,500 MT annually.
Green hydrogen: boosters
Green hydrogen exceeded expectations in 2020
with a spate of huge projects totalling more than
$150 billion in investment.8.20 However, the rapid
growth in interest and investments in green
hydrogen have been met with some skepticism
(World Bank21). The major boosters of green
hydrogen are:
38
CO2 from the Petronor
H2O
refinery is captured.
CO2
Fuel plant
Synthetic fuels
Zero net emissions
Strengthening climate regulations
The Paris Climate Agreement and the commitment
to net zero in 65 nations (United Nations 2019)
are a testimony to the transformation in public
attitudes on climate change. Growing concern
to stay within the IPCC’s 1.5°C scenario and
avoid exceeding 2°C has encouraged policy
makers and companies to find energy solutions
that can decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors and
to invest resources to deploy them. Technically
viable decarbonisation solutions based on green
hydrogen are perhaps the best match today
to deal with the above sectors including those
depending on fossil fuels.
Big European push
Europe, with its economy saddled with high
energy prices and heavily dependent on Russian
natural gas, is embracing green hydrogen by
providing funding for construction of electrolysis
plants and other hydrogen infrastructure.
Germany has allocated the largest share of its
clean energy stimulus funds to green hydrogen.22
The European Commission’s 2030 Hydrogen
Strategy explains in detail the central role
that hydrogen will play in its economy. The
strategy underpins the birth of green hydrogen-
based industry growing the installed base of
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 14,100 11,500 9,300 Final energy demand
2% 4% 6% 8% 24% Thereof H2
Power generation,
112 1-3
buffering

Power generation,
675 4
buffering

Heating and power

579 5
for buildings

780
665 43 237 6 Industry energy
85
65
70 207 New industry
481 8 257 7
62 feedstock
1 53
325
427 427 391 391 Existing industry
feedstock

Business as Ambitious Business as Ambitious

ususal ususal
2015 2030 2050

Figure 3 Hydrogen could provide up to 24% of total energy demand, or up to ~2250 TWh of energy in
the EU by 205026 Source: Hydrogen RoadMap of Europe26

electrolysers from 0.1 GW to 6 GW by 2024, 40 provide solutions for long-range zero-emission

GW by 2030, and a working assumption of 500
GW by 2050 with total investments of up to €400
billion through 2030.23
Green hydrogen and developing countries
The versatility that green hydrogen and its
derived fuels offer as a clean energy vector
could contribute to the developing countries via
sustainable energy objectives, decarbonisation
strategies as well as enhancing national energy
security by reducing the exposure to oil price
volatility and supply disruptions. This could be
important in bolstering climate and extreme
weather resiliency.24
Advancement in fuel cell technologies and
transition towards electric mobility
Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have
experienced significant technical improvement
in their efficiency, durability, reliability and cost
reduction. The transition to electric mobility
has helped develop enabling technologies
that hydrogen and fuel cells are using to
applications in trucks, trains, maritime shipping,
buses, commercial vehicles, and even aviation.24
Green hydrogen: barriers
Although interest in green hydrogen is reaching
unprecedented levels, several barriers are
impeding its full contribution to the energy
transition. The primary obstacle is the high cost of
green hydrogen compared to grey hydrogen from
fossil feedstocks. Other barriers include lack of
dedicated infrastructure, lack of value recognition
for reduced GHG emissions and barriers related
to the development of an emerging industry.
While the hydrogen sector has received attention
from governments, national strategies should
clearly lay out definitive pathways to increasing
hydrogen penetration.25
Green hydrogen and a low carbon future
Europe’s transition to a decarbonised energy
system is under way. The EU hydrogen road map26
describes the approach for hydrogen deployment
to achieve the 2°C target, failing which the EU

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 39
S.No. Country Project detail and location Ref No.

1. USA  Global energy company SGH2 is using recycled mixed waste paper to produce
green hydrogen in Lancaster, California. 27.28
Western States Hydrogen Alliance developing fuel cell technology
and infrastructure. 29
 Breakthrough Energy Ventures, European Green Energy Acceleration Center
developing hydrogen fuelled aviation. Renewable energy-based H2Pro objective,
low cost H2 by improving electrolyser capacity. 30
 Ineos producing low cost blue hydrogen via natural gas fuelled electrolysis. 31

2. Europe  India’s Essar with UK’s Progressive Energy to build two plants at Essar’s refinery
in Stanlow using Johnson Matthey technology to make low carbon hydrogen (blue
hydrogen) from natural gas. CO2 generated will be captured and stored in depleted
undersea gas field. First plant to operate in 2025. 32
 In Leuna, Germany, a joint venture between Linde and ITM Power plans to build the
world’s largest PEM-based electrolyser to make green hydrogen. The 24 MW plant
is set open in late 2022. 32
 Air Liquide and French company H2V propose to build a large electrolyser-
based plant in northern France. Total and Engie will jointly put up and operate a 40 MW
electrolyser to generate 5 Mt of green hydrogen. Plant to go into operation in 2024 at
Total’s La Mède biorefinery. 32
 Hydrogen Europe Industry promoting hydrogen production from the biomass from
crops and forest residues. 32
Spanish giant Repsol plans to build one of the largest net-zero emissions synthetic
fuel production plants in the world, based on RES generated green hydrogen. 17
 Siemens is building one of Germany’s largest carbon-free hydrogen generation
plants in Wunsiedel, likely to be operational in late 2022. 24

3. China  State-controlled energy giant Sinopec aims to set up plants that can make 500,000
tons of green hydrogen a year from renewable energy sources by 2025. 33

4. Others  US Air Products joined hands with ACWA Power in Saudi Arabia to develop 4 GW
green hydrogen and ammonia facility. First ammonia production to start in 2025. 34

Table 1 Major projects and alliances working on the production of green hydrogen

would miss its decarbonisation objective. The
EU hydrogen roadmap plans to reduce CO2
emissions from 3500 Mt today to 770 Mt in
2050. Deploying available technologies, existing
energy to meet the climate-related commitments
from European countries (prior to COP26) would
close approximately 60% of the gap. The use of
hydrogen in end-use sectors could help reduce
half of the remaining 1100 Mt and achieve a
2°C scenario. In addition, it could enable deep
decarbonisation of the power sector and hence
indirectly reduce carbon emissions.
Green hydrogen is a versatile, clean and
flexible energy vector for this transition and is an
essential lever among a set of other technologies.
This conviction is based on three arguments. First,
hydrogen is the best (or only) choice for at-scale
decarbonisation of selected segments: transport,
industry and buildings. Second, hydrogen will
play a systemic role in the transition to renewable
energy sources by providing a mechanism to
flexibly transfer energy across sectors, time and
place. Thirdly, transition to hydrogen is aligned
with customer preferences and convenience.
The EU roadmap further estimates potential
for generating approximately 2250 terawatt
hours (TWh) of hydrogen in Europe in 2050,
representing roughly a quarter of the EU’s total

40 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
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New low carbon methanol
production approach
An innovative steam methane reformer-based methanol production process
achieves significant reductions in atmospheric CO2 emissions
Dan Barnett
BD Energy Systems, LLC
B
D Energy Systems introduces TrueBlue
Methanol, an innovative low carbon
emission steam methane reformer (SMR)-
based methanol production process to the
industry. This process utilises proven techniques
to achieve greater than 90% reduction in the
emission of CO2 from the stack of the SMR
furnace while producing methanol with an overall
energy consumption that is favourably competitive
with even the newest operating SMR-based
methanol plants. The TrueBlue process can be
implemented not only on grassroot and relocated
methanol plants but as an upgrade to many
existing methanol plants for any natural gas fed
process configuration.
This process delivers a product CO2 stream
using an amine-based CO2 removal system placed
upstream of the methanol synthesis reactor. Doing
so reduces the consumption of hydrogen in the
methanol synthesis process, resulting in greater
hydrogen availability for SMR fuel. Removal of
hydrogen from the synthesis loop purge stream
recovers hydrogen for use as SMR fuel, and
recompression of the carbon containing tail gas
allows recycle of most tail gas to the SMR feed.
This recycle results in more complete conversion
of incoming natural gas feed to synthesis gas, and
use of hydrogen as the primary fuel effectively
reduces SMR stack gas CO2 emissions to a very
low level.
This article will present key flowsheet
elements of the TrueBlue process and an overall
performance contrast of the BDE process
with conventional natural gas fed SMR-based
methanol plants.
Worldwide methanol production1 is largely
based on the use of natural gas feed, with
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
~65% of total methanol production based on
natural gas, ~35% based on coal, and less than
1% currently based on renewables. Achieving
significant reductions in atmospheric CO2
emissions from natural gas-based methanol
production is made possible with the approach
outlined here.
Conventional SMR-based methanol
production
For the purposes of comparison, the ‘conventional’
SMR-based methanol plant is defined in general
terms as one having a modern high efficiency
SMR, an ‘isothermal’ methanol synthesis reactor,
and combustion of the synthesis loop purge
gas in the SMR. Overall energy consumption
of a conventional SMR-based methanol plant
is in the range of 27.0-28.0 MMBtu of total
energy (LHV basis) per short ton of high purity
methanol product. Total energy here is based on
total natural gas, feed plus fuel, as well as net
electric power import for the methanol plant and
associated utility units.
Use of natural gas (96-97% methane) as feed
results in the production of more hydrogen than
required for methanol synthesis. This excess
hydrogen is typically purged from the methanol
synthesis loop and burned as fuel in the SMR. This
reduces the make-up natural gas fuel required
for the SMR; however, required natural gas fuel
make-up remains in the 7-8% range in terms of
total required heat release. Further, the hydrogen
containing purge gas from the methanol synthesis
loop also contains methane, carbon monoxide
and carbon dioxide. Considering only the SMR
fuel, not including fuel to a gas fired boiler or a
gas turbine, the emission of CO2 to atmosphere
43
 Maximise natural gas Hydrogen used as
conversion by recycling primary fuel for
>90% of carbon- reforming.
containing purge stream Zero natural
to reforming feed. gas fuel.
Feedstock
Natural gas
Fuel H2 fuel
Recycle
tail gas tail gas
~90% ~10%
Reforming &
tail gas recycle
TruBlue methanol production process with CO2 capture and removal and hydrogen used as the primary fuel
is in the range of 0.35-0.36 weight CO2 /weight
methanol product. So, for a 2000 tpd conventional
methanol plant, the SMR stack gas CO2 emissions
would be in the range of 700-720 tpd (255,500 to
262,800 tpy).
TrueBlue Methanol production
The BDE TrueBlue Methanol plant design is also
SMR based with several significant additions
when compared with the conventional plant.
First, the SMR front end includes the use of
pre-reforming and convection section reheat of
pre-reformer effluent to effectively shift a portion
of the required reforming reaction duty from the
radiant section to the convection section.
Second, an amine-based CO2 removal system
is added immediately upstream of the synthesis
gas compressor to reduce the proportion of CO2
feeding to the methanol synthesis reactor. This
effectively reduces the quantity of hydrogen
consumed in the production of methanol, reducing
the amount of reaction water produced, which
enables recovery of that hydrogen for use as
SMR fuel:
CO + 2H2 ⇔ CH3OH + Heat [2 moles of H2 consumed
per mol of CH3OH produced]
CO2 + 3H2 ⇔ CH3OH + H2O + Heat [3 moles of H2
consumed per mol of CH3OH produced]
44
Amine-based CO2 Reduced CO2 in synthesis gas
removal. Delivery reduces H2 consumption in
of CO2 as product production of methanol.
stream.
Barge
CO2 product
Rail
Methanol Truck
product
storage
Recycle
H2 separation
Elements added
CO2 Methanol Methanol for TrueBlue
removal synthesis distillation
Third, purge gas from the methanol synthesis
loop is routed to a pressure swing adsorption
(PSA) unit to separate out a major portion
of the hydrogen remaining in that stream for
use as fuel. The tail gas from the PSA unit,
containing CH4, CO2, CO, inert components and
unrecovered H2, is recompressed to allow recycle
of approximately 90% of the tail gas back to the
SMR feed stream. Approximately 10% of the
PSA tail gas is routed to SMR fuel to limit the
accumulation of inerts in the synthesis gas. The
recovery of hydrogen as described, along with
the small PSA tail gas flow, are enough to supply
all the fuel required for the SMR, reducing the
natural gas firing of the SMR to zero. The recycle
of approximately 90% of the carbon-containing
components of the purge achieves more
complete conversion of incoming natural gas feed
to synthesis gas.
These added elements extract CO2 from the
plant as a product stream while reducing the SMR
stack gas emissions of CO2 by 90-93% when
compared with a conventional plant.
Overall energy consumption of the TrueBlue
methanol plant remains in the range of 27.0-28.0
MMBtu of total energy (LHV basis) per short ton
of high purity methanol product. Total energy here
is based on total natural gas feed with zero natural
gas fuel, as well as net electric power import for
the methanol plant and associated utility units.
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 With the use of hydrogen as the primary fuel
and make-up fuel being a portion of the PSA tail
gas, there is no need for natural gas fuel firing.
Comparing to conventional SMR-based plants,
considering only the SMR fuel, not including
fuel to a gas fired boiler or a gas turbine, the
emission of CO2 to atmosphere is in the range
of 0.032-0.035 weight CO2 /weight methanol
product. So, for a 2000 tpd conventional methanol
plant, the SMR stack gas CO2 emissions would
be in the range of 64-70 tpd (23,400 to 25,600
tpy), and the CO2 product stream is in the
range of 636-650 tpd. The TrueBlue process
effectively converts the stack CO2 emissions of a
conventional plant to a CO2 product stream.

Comparison with alternative carbon

capture methods
The TrueBlue Methanol production process
achieves 90+% reduction in SMR stack CO2
• Decarbonizing Natural Gas Processing
emissions by reducing carbon-containing towards Net-zero Future
components in the fuel gas through use of
‘pre-combustion’ CO2 removal and recycle of a • Carbon Neutral Natural Gas and LNG
high percentage of the carbon-containing tail
gas to the feed. There are other processes that • Upstream Decarbonization Pathways
utilise a combination of pre-combustion and
post-combustion CO2 capture that can achieve a • Hydrogen Production from H2S
comparable overall level of CO2 capture. However,
• Role of Hydrogen in Decarbonizing
the post-combustion capture techniques for
Natural Gas
low-pressure flue gas can be troublesome
with respect to degradation of the absorbent • CO2 Capture Utilization and Storage
solution, the corrosive nature of those solvents,
and reduced efficiency of absorption in a low- • Energy Efficiency Improvements
pressure application.
The elements added for the TrueBlue process • Methane Emission Reduction
are well proven, while the SMR design must
• SO2 Emission Reduction Practices and
be designed specifically to accommodate firing
Technologies
of 98% hydrogen fuel and a higher extent of
pre-reforming compared to a conventional SMR- • Role of Digitalization in Sour Hydrocarbon
based plant. Management and Emission Reduction

TrueBlue and TrueBlue Methanol are trademarks

For more info contact :
of BD Energy. Dr. Nick Coles
nick@domeexhibitions.com
Reference or +971 56 1002 149

1 International Renewable Energy Agency –

Media Partner:
Innovation Outlook Renewable Methanol, 2021.

Dan Barnett Organised By:

dan.barnett@bdenergysystems.com

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 45
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A low carbon alternative to HFO
A new biofuel combines high-performance energy output with immediate,
significant emission reduction at low cost

Jack Williams
Quadrise Fuels

F
rom commercial cruise liners to container
ships, heavy fuel oil (HFO or bunker fuel)
has been the primary choice of fuel in the
maritime industry for decades. This low-cost,
tar-like substance is widely available as leftovers
from the oil refinery process but has significant
environmental drawbacks as a fuel, whilst also
being uneconomic for the refinery that supplies it (it
sells at a discount to crude oil). HFO is considered
by some to be a dirty and polluting fossil fuel. The
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is under
increasing pressure to reduce the high levels of
black carbon and NOx emitted by the sector as a
result of burning HFO that contributes to global
warming and smog.
IMO have also set a GHG emission reduction
target of at least 50% by 2050. With potential
future marine fuels such as hydrogen and methanol
not yet technically or commercially viable on a
large scale, there is a growing demand for a more
sustainable HFO alternative that utilises well-
known technologies and existing supply lines.
The solution
Decarbonisation of the marine industry is an urgent
issue; however, the lifespan of a commercial vessel
can last up to 30 years. Therefore, an alternative
fuel must be suitable for use in existing engines
whilst immediately supporting the transition
towards net zero. Conversion to liquefied natural
gas (LNG) is an option, which can provide around
20% CO2 savings on a well-to-wake basis over
HFO. However, fuel storage temperature (-162°C)
and operational modification requirements are a
hinderance to its progress in the market. There is
also an inherent risk of ‘methane slip’ during LNG
use that can negate all of the GHG benefits, as
methane is a very powerful GHG.
Emulsion fuel blending, the process of producing
a stable mixture of water and oil for use in HFO
Figure 1 Quadrise MSAR plant in Spain
applications, is increasingly being seen as an
attractive option to bridge this gap. Quadrise’s
leading emulsion fuel, MSAR, is cheaper than
HFO and proven to increase engine efficiency as
well as reducing energy consumption (it is low
viscosity so does not need to be heated) and
harmful NOx emissions compared with burning
HFO. During MSAR production, heavy oil streams
are taken directly from refinery rundown lines and
mechanically milled into very fine droplets before
being dispersed in a water-based solution.
The team behind MSAR have over 60 million
tons of emulsion fuel supply experience. Following
successful power plant trials, commercial trials on
MSAR were very effectively carried out in recent
years with Maersk Line on several commercial
container ships, supplied from a Spanish refinery.
To supply the fuel, Quadrise worked closely
with Cepsa, a Spanish multinational oil and gas
company, to install a commercial 6000 bpd MSAR
Manufacturing Unit (MMU) (see Figure 1). The
MMU was fully integrated into Cepsa’s existing
refinery system and operated by Quadrise,
utilising their visbreaker residue to produce MSAR

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 47
fuel. The system was operational
within nine months of signing 10%
Water (inc. <1% additives)
agreements, proving that Quadrise
has the expertise to rapidly install
and manufacture emulsion fuels at
commercial scale.
Quadrise’s new biofuel, bioMSAR,
utilises the same technology and
commercial emulsion fuel experience, 40-50%
Glycerine
and takes the environmental
benefit  of this HFO alternative fuel Figure 2 bioMSAR
one step further. composition
What is bioMSAR?
bioMSAR is an oil-in-water (OIW) emulsified
synthetic biofuel comprising of heavy
oils and residuals, glycerine (see
Fact Box below), water and a small
amount of chemical additives. It offers significant
benefits over conventional HFO, including reduced
emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx, lower particulates
(including negligible black carbon), increased
engine efficiency and reduced environmental
risk in the unlikely event of an oil spill as it readily
disperses in water.
Compared with LNG, it provides superior well-to-
wake CO2 savings (due to the renewable glycerine
component) whilst requiring little to no additional
operational changes to burn efficiently within a
HFO engine system. Importantly, there is also no
risk of methane slip with bioMSAR.
bioMSAR is handled and stored at ambient
temperatures (circa 20-30°C). This reduces the
energy consumption required to store the fuel
What is glycerine?
Glycerine is a bio-degradable, non-toxic
liquid that is a renewable by-product of
the biodiesel industry. Every 10 barrels of
biodiesel yields a barrel of crude glycerine.
Following treatment to a fuel grade, it
burns almost pollutant free, is virtually CO2
neutral and has excellent lubricity. With
the strong movement towards sustainable
fuels in the market, glycerine can make a
substantial impact and has already been
utilised in diesel engine generators to supply
Formula-E racing and VW’s record-breaking
ID R electric car.
48
compared to HFO, which typically
has to be heated to much higher
temperatures (60-100°C) to be
stored and pumped freely due to its
high viscosity.
OIW emulsion fuels require
a small amount of proprietary
additives to keep the resultant
40-50% fuel extremely stable. This pre-
Residuals
atomisation increases the surface
area of the oil droplets, enabling
complete combustion of the fuel
with next to no black carbon
formation. The maritime industry is one of the
largest sources of black carbon emissions, and
MSAR or bioMSAR could be key to reducing this.
Finally, bioMSAR can be fine-tuned to a client’s
carbon reduction targets (40% glycerine yields
26% lower CO2 emissions). The proportion of
glycerine within the fuel can be altered to meet CO2
reduction targets at the optimum fuel cost.
Development at QRF
At the Quadrise Research Facility (QRF) in Essex,
development of the new bioMSAR fuel has been
extensive. Over 150 unique emulsions have
been produced and tested to determine the ideal
combination of fuel stability, effective combustion
characteristics and emissions reduction.
Following a successful in-house stability and
handling testing programme, the next stage of
bioMSAR development required demonstration in
diesel engines.
bioMSAR engine testing
Quadrise’s engine technology partners, Aquafuel
and VTT, are experts in the combustion of
glycerine in diesel generators.
Results of bioMSAR testing at Aquafuel’s
research facility have confirmed its viability as
a high-performance alternative fuel in diesel
generators. Testing has demonstrated increased
engine efficiency using bioMSAR compared
to diesel in a Cummins 4-stroke engine. NOx
emissions are reduced by 20-25% as the water
content of the fuel reduces its combustion
temperature. Due to the pre-atomisation of the
emulsion fuel, black carbon emissions were
essentially zero.
Further testing of bioMSAR was conducted
by VTT in Finland using a 1.6 MW Wärtsilä
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com

Figure 3 bioMSAR formulation and testing
type-32, 4-stroke diesel engine. Once again,
bioMSAR was tested using diesel as a reference
fuel, and performed exceptionally well. Engine
efficiency was consistently higher (up to 7%)
at loads of 50-90%. Average CO2 emissions for
bioMSAR on a well-to-wake basis were 580g
CO2/kWh, compared to 782g CO2/kWh for diesel,
representing a 26% decrease in CO2 output as a
consequence of the renewable component of the
fuel as well as its higher efficiency.
NOx emissions for bioMSAR were comparable
to diesel and HFO. The level of smoke emissions
were extremely low, as was unburned hydrocarbon
emissions due to efficient combustion of the
fuel. No operational issues were experienced
when handling and burning the emulsion within
the fuel injectors or pumps. There is also scope
to improve on these successful test results
through optimisation of engine parameters to
reduce emissions further. These results represent
important steps in demonstrating that this fuel is a
viable commercial alternative to fossil fuels in the
marine industry.
What next for bioMSAR?
Earlier this year, Quadrise announced that it had
signed a Joint Development Agreement with
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Ship
Management, a world leader in global container
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
43%
42%
41%
40%
39%
HFO MSAR Diesel bioMSAR
Figure 4 Improved engine efficiency of bioMSAR
and MSAR
and cruise line shipping, to trial its MSAR and
bioMSAR fuels.
The first commercial bioMSAR trial is
scheduled with MSC for H1 2022 and, subject to its
success and commercial agreement, MSC may seek
to further roll out the fuel within its global fleet.
Aside from the marine industry, there is potential
for bioMSAR application in the power generation
sector. Similar to the marine application, bioMSAR
could be a valuable low-risk transitionary fuel
in regions such as Mexico, which burn HFO for
power. This could prove to be a quick method of
reducing CO2 without impacting established fuel and
combustion systems.
Further benefits to the emission reduction
capabilities of bioMSAR will arise from engine
optimisation and possibly in the form of a
compositional change. The heavy oil component
of bioMSAR could be completely replaced by
sustainable alternatives, such as lignin, for example,
which is commonly sourced as a by-product from
paper production. This could create a zero-carbon
version of the fuel, which is the ultimate 2030 target
set by Quadrise.
The appetite for sustainable fuel alternatives is
growing across the world, and bioMSAR provides
an exciting and novel solution to users’ needs,
combining high-performance energy output with
immediate, significant emission reduction at low cost.
With further innovations a certainty, the future looks
bright for bioMSAR and Quadrise.
bioMSAR and MSAR are trademarks of Quadrise.
VIEW REFERENCES
Jack Williams
J.Williams@quadrisefuels.com
49
Well to wake and beyond
How can cleaner gas-to-liquid fuels help propel marine transportation in the lead
up to mid-century decarbonisation solutions?
Susan Brownlow
Words for Industry
T
he risks of climate change now need little
introduction. We are already starting to live
with the impacts of a changing climate on
communities, businesses and supply chains. The
most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) report delivered the unnerving
news that we now have less than a nine-year
window to act on climate and limit global warming
to 1.5°C. It made plain that limiting warming
to 2°C will not be enough to prevent the most
serious impacts to our way of life.
In 2021 we find ourselves at a critical turning
point in the history of our relationship with crude-
based fuels. In addition to the already much
speculated date when the world will reach peak
oil, increasingly stringent legislation to protect our
environment and health is gradually resulting in
the demise of conventional diesel fuels. To achieve
a fully decarbonised economy by 2050 (and in
the developing world by 2060), the world must
electrify as many economic activities as possible
through renewable energy, including wind, solar,
green hydrogen and bioenergy.
90% of world trade is mainly undertaken by huge sea-going vessels such as cargo ships and crude tankers
50
However, due to the phenomenal investment
required to make operational the infrastructure
to support such a decarbonised energy system,
alternative fuels – at least for an interim period
– need to be considered. As an alternative
next-generation fuel, gas-to-liquid (GTL) has
the capacity to be such a transitional solution to
reducing polluting emissions.
GTL: efficiency without toxicity
GTL technology converts natural gas into
high-quality fuels, oils and lubricants, and even
personal and home care products that would
otherwise be made from crude oil. The benefit
is that they not only have comparatively better
combustion properties when used in diesel
engines, but they contain none of the impurities
and pollutants, such as sulphur, aromatics, metals
and nitrogen, found in crude oil-based fuels.
Free of these contaminants, GTL fuels are non-
toxic and biodegradable, and are significantly less
harmful to both the environment and to human
health. Studies undertaken at Shell have indicated
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Continued dependence on refinery-produced crude products for fuelling transportation is felt by many to
be a threat to energy security
that GTL fuels can reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx)
emissions by 37% and particulate matter (PM)
by 50% compared to conventional diesel – both
known to aggravate respiratory conditions.1 And
cleaner emissions mean better air quality.
Colourless and odourless, GTL fuel is an all-
year round ‘winter-grade’ fuel, improving cold
starts in engines. It also has greater ignition
properties due to its higher cetane number, so
delivers improved power and higher reliability
than conventional diesel – ultimately meaning
fewer breakdowns.
As the raw resource for GTL fuels, natural gas
is also abundant, with new reserves continually
being developed, and a plentiful supply available
for decades to come. Add to this the fact that
GTL fuel can be treated in many instances as
a direct substitute for conventional diesel for
most transportation types, without the need
for engine modifications (known as a ‘drop-in’
fuel), and there is a very compelling proposition
for GTL as an interim alternative. It is easy to
recognise the huge potential for GTL as a clean
transportation fuel source, particularly in highly
populated areas.
GTL also has the advantage that it is easier and
more economically viable to transport. Unlike
liquefied natural gas (LNG), it remains in a liquid
state at or close to ambient conditions. It doesn’t
have to be maintained at -160⁰C to remain liquid
and no special containers are required – just
existing infrastructure.
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Transportation applications
The continued dependence on refinery-produced
crude products for fuelling the transportation
sector is felt by many countries to be a threat
to energy security, along with their associated
detrimental environmental impacts and a potential
drain on economic resources. By offering a
practical alternative to diesel that helps to improve
air quality without compromising efficiency,
GTL has the potential to change the future of
transportation fuel usage across the world.
While many longer-term diesel transportation
strategies at fleet level might elect to focus on
engine modifications and even carbon offsetting,
GTL fuel can be used in many circumstances as
a direct replacement for conventional diesel fuels
in heavy-duty and light-duty engines without the
need for engine modifications, new infrastructure
or vehicle investment. As a drop-in fuel, GTL is
readily available now to make an immediate impact.
While supply of GTL to retail forecourts is far
from established, GTL fuelling for heavy goods
vehicles (HGVs) is starting to become available,
with one of the primary benefits – apart from the
environmental ones – being that little investment
is needed in infrastructure modifications. And as
a senior executive at Certas Energy, one of the
largest fuel distributors in the United Kingdom,
succinctly remarked, “as GTL is a drop-in fuel,
every car is potentially a GTL car”, speculating
that there is a powerful case for retail GTL as a
solution to the demonisation of diesel engines.
51
GTL fuels are non-toxic, biodegradable and are
significantly less harmful to the environment and
human health
However, it is in maritime transportation that
GTL fuel may see its greatest uptake.
GTL for shipping
The maritime industry plays a very significant
role in the world’s economy. While 90% of world
trade, mainly undertaken by huge sea-going
vessels such as cargo ships and crude tankers, is
apparent to most people, there is a vast maritime
sub-industry supporting their efforts – from pilot
boats and docking tugs to barges and other small
coastal vessels. Total maritime activity, therefore,
is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse
emissions – or around 940 million tonnes of CO2
annually.2 With emissions consisting of sulphur
oxides (SOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides
(NOx) and particulate matter (PM) from diesel fuel
used to power all these vessels, they are now under
close scrutiny by environmental authorities globally.
Although LNG is increasingly being used to
propel larger cargo ships in order to help combat
marine emissions, an opportunity to use GTL as
a drop-in fuel to power the many hundreds of
thousands of smaller support boats and coastal
craft has also been identified. The majority of
these smaller vessels still use reciprocating diesel
engines powered by intermediate or marine
diesel fuel oils – otherwise known as ‘bunker oil’,
derived from crude oil. These fuels produce high
emissions, including CO2, NOx, SOx and PM.
Combustion of bunker oil generates the same
52
Although LNG is increasingly used to propel larger
cargo ships to help combat marine emissions, GTL as
a drop-in fuel can power many smaller support boats
pollution components as those emitted from
road transport vehicles, power plants and waste
incineration. However, most of the sulphur is
removed from diesel for land-based transport,
and SO2, NOx and PM are effectively cleaned
from the flue gas from the larger power plants.
By comparison, addressing of emissions from
maritime activity has been insufficient. Maritime
movement still represents a large portion of local
pollutant inventories, specifically near coastal
areas, with 70% of the emissions being deposited
within 400km of land.3 In addition to the noxious
gases being emitted from the running engines
of incoming and outgoing vessels, there is the
considerable added impact of pollution emitted
from auxiliary engines running idly to support the
onboard electrical-based activity of big vessels
from cargo ships and crude tankers to cruise
liners while they are docked in port. As well as a
potential drop-in fuel for support boat and smaller
coastal craft, GTL is now a serious contender as
an alternative drop-in fuel for auxiliary engines of
larger ships.
As an added benefit to support the shipping
industry, projects to integrate GTL fuelling options
for logistics companies’ HGVs at ports have
already commenced.
MARPOL set for change
Marine pollution is regulated internationally, and
one of the key international conventions for the
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
There is a vast maritime sub-industry supporting world trade – from pilot boats and docking tugs to
barges and other small coastal vessels
prevention of pollution at sea is MARPOL, adopted
by the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
in 1973, and later updated in 1978 after several
severe tanker accidents. The convention includes
regulations aimed at preventing and reducing
pollution at sea, including both accidental pollution
and pollution from routine operations.
This convention has seen the designation of
special Emission Control Areas (ECAs) where
stricter controls on marine emissions have
been put in place. These ECAs are generally
designated in coastal areas where there are high
level of shipping close to densely populated areas.
The Baltic Sea became the first fully
implemented ECA in August 2006, followed by
the North Sea and English Channel, Canada, the
USA and part of the Caribbean. Further ECAs
are likely to be proposed for Norway, Japan, the
Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the seas
around Mexico, Korea and the Malacca Strait.
A phased reduction of SOx emissions in ECAs
saw the allowable amount of fuel sulphur reduced
from 1.5% to 1.0% in July 2010, but further
lowered to 0.1% by January 2015.4 Outside of
ECAs, the global limit of sulphur-in-fuel was
reduced to 3.5% in 2012 and was further reduced
to 0.5% in 2020 by the IMO.5
In terms of NOx, an inevitable by-product of
combustion, January 2016 heralded the stringent
IMO Tier III emission limits for ships constructed
after that date operating within the North
American and US Caribbean Sea ECAs, with
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
the Baltic Sea and North Sea being added as of
January this year. The Tier III standard represents
a 75% reduction in NOx emissions compared to
current Tier II engines.6
These stricter environmental regulations are
changing the way the maritime industry views
conventional fuels. Many organisations are looking
at gradually abandoning the use of polluting heavy
fuel oils in favour of cleaner, more sustainable
fuels with lower sulphur content. Movement
towards natural gas as a marine fuel continues to
progress, and conditions exist in some regions to
make a near-term transition to GTL fuel feasible.
Conclusion
The maritime industry has now taken its place in
the emissions legislative queue, with increasingly
rigorous regulations being sanctioned to protect
air quality in coastal areas near large conurbations.
In the next couple of decades, leading up to
electrification and specifically the use of green
hydrogen as a marine energy source, GTL fuel
represents a pragmatic, real-world and interim
alternative solution to heavy-to-intermediate
diesel fuels to help improve air quality without
compromising efficiency.
VIEW REFERENCES
Susan Brownlow
susan.brownlow@wordsforindustrypr.com
53
LH 2
How advanced process control
can support decarbonisation
Process analytical technology can help to overcome the challenges of converting
refineries into renewable fuel facilities
Martin Gadsby
Optimal Industrial Technologies
R
efineries and crude oil processing plants are
being upgraded to use more sustainable
feedstocks to produce greener fuels and
help create a circular economy for materials.
Effective, data-driven control systems are
needed to ensure highly efficient, responsive
and flexible processing activities. These, in turn,
enable facilities to maintain low carbon footprints
while delivering high-quality products at
competitive prices.
Refineries and crude oil processing facilities
can benefit from innovative technologies that
can be applied to existing plants to help process
resources with a reduced environmental impact.
For example, a number of leading companies
have already adapted their existing equipment to
produce biofuels.
An established process is the use of crops or
lignocellulosic materials to obtain bioethanol.
Generally, the raw materials first undergo a
pre-treatment to separate hemicellulose and
lignin from cellulose. Subsequently, cellulose is
hydrolysed to obtain fermentable sugars and
these are converted into ethanol. This stage is
followed by distillation to purify the fuel.
It is also possible to produce biodiesel from
waste oils and fats, such as bleachable fancy
tallow, vegetable oils, e.g. soybean and inedible
corn oils, or algae. The feedstock is pre-
processed to reduce the content of impurities,
water, phospholipids and other plant matter.
The glycerides undergo transesterification to
obtain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), which
are consequently purified to obtain high-
octane biodiesel.
In addition to these established methods, new
solutions are constantly being developed. In
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
particular, waste-to-fuel processing technologies
offer a way to create a circular economy for
currently unrecyclable materials, such as certain
single-use plastics and municipal solid waste. At
the same time, processes to reduce the emission
of waste gases from industrial activities are also
coming to the fore.
These alternatives are often based on pyrolysis,
a process that heats the waste without oxygen
to decompose the polymers and gasify them
into short hydrocarbon chains. Impurities, such
as sulphur and chloride, are removed while
the gaseous hydrocarbons are condensed and
separated into relevant oil fractions.
Identifying the optimum conditions for
sustainable production
These decarbonising strategies greatly differ
in the feedstocks used as well as in the main
processes that they apply; namely, fermentation,
transesterification and pyrolysis. However,
the novel methods they use share some
common challenges.
Businesses interested in adapting their crude
oil facilities may not have the necessary in-depth
process understanding to create highly effective
setups. In fact, analysing processing data and
leveraging comprehensive, actionable insight is
key to maintaining ideal operating conditions.
These conditions, in turn, lead to optimum energy
efficiency and cycle times as well as high product
quality while reducing off-specification materials
and waste.
One particularly common challenge that
refineries and oil processing plants face is the
implementation of highly effective separation
processes. The raw materials used often
55
Effective, data-driven process control can help conventional oil refineries to adopt sustainable
feedstocks to produce greener fuels
contain a wide variety of impurities in high
concentrations. Moreover, these are usually
very similar to the main components, making
it particularly difficult to remove them without
incurring thermal degradation of key chemicals.
Consequently, feedstock pre-treatment and
product purification can play an essential role
in determining the end quality, processing time,
energy efficiency and ultimately environmental
impact of decarbonising strategies for the oil and
gas sector.
Similarly, the reaction conditions applied during
fermentation, transesterification and pyrolysis
can greatly influence a business’s profitability.
While under-processing can compromise end
product quality, over-processing is energy and
time ineffective.
A data-driven system that can monitor the
physical, chemical and/or biological properties
of materials in real-time; determine the desired
product quality and use this information to swiftly
adjust process conditions is crucial to addressing
the aforementioned challenges. Process analytical
technology (PAT) is a framework that offers all
these features.
Data-driven process control at the core of
sustainable processing
PAT is based on Quality by Design (QbD)
principles, which aim to build quality into products
56
from the earliest design phase rather than
testing them at the end of the manufacturing
process. According to this approach, a design
space of operating critical process parameters
(CPPs) is defined to ensure specified critical
quality attributes (CQAs) are delivered in the
end material.
During processing activities, PAT utilises a
network of sensors and analytical instruments
to observe the relevant material properties
via on-line, in-line or at-line measurements.
The univariate and multivariate data obtained,
such as near-infrared (NIR) or UV-vis spectra,
are sent to key software equipment, such as
chemometric and predictive modelling tools for
data processing, analytics and visualisation, e.g.
multivariate analysis (MVA) and chemometric
modelling tools.
By using these software solutions, refineries
can generate a comprehensive knowledge of the
materials and processes used. In particular, it is
possible to characterise the feedstock, rather
than relying on abstract, pre-set properties. For
example, PAT has been successfully applied to
determine lignin content in plant-based materials
used for bioethanol production. More precisely,
infrared spectroscopy combined with advanced
chemometrics models can help biorefineries
adjust their pre-treatment, fermentation and
pyrolysis activities on the fly to address the
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
specific lignocellulosic biomass being processed,
optimising throughput.1
Also, processing plants can leverage accurate
quality predictions for dynamic control. In effect,
facilities can benefit from real-time process
visualisation as well as the ability to manually or
automatically change the CPPs to optimise the
operating conditions and CQAs. For instance,
ethyl ester content prediction models based
on NIR measurements have been effectively
applied to support biodiesel production practices.
Specifically, this method has been used to
monitor on-line alkali-catalysed transesterification
reactions of soybean oil and ethanol,2 helping
biorefineries maintain optimum processing
conditions. This strategy is also highly beneficial
in determining when the reaction is complete,
avoiding under- and over-processing.
Data management for effective PAT
frameworks
In order to create a truly holistic and immediate
understanding of their new processes, refineries
should incorporate a knowledge management
platform to support their PAT strategies. This
software can gather and share data with sensors
and analysers on the processing line as well as
MVA tools and industrial automation devices.
Such devices include programmable logic
controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems
(DCSs) as well as supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) platforms that regulate
refinery operations. The platform also interfaces
with higher-level management systems, such
as manufacturing execution systems (MESs),
thus combining the insight provided by different
levels of the automation pyramid and presenting
it in an easily understandable manner to subject
matter experts.
Besides providing a central hub, an
advanced PAT knowledge management solution
has the ability to directly control multiple
CPPs at the same time to obtain the desired
CQAs. This can be performed automatically
by means of an intelligent control algorithm.
By adopting this technology, refineries can
do more than simply keep CPPs as close as
possible to their set-points. In fact, they can
enhance the flexibility and adaptability of their
processes while enhancing efficiency and end
product quality.
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Additionally, as continuous flow applications
become increasingly common, refineries can
benefit from a PAT knowledge manager that is
equipped with flowsheet modelling functions for
dynamic material tracking and tracing, which also
supports closed-loop feedback process control.
These capabilities provide important insights
into the movement of materials and products
through continuous processes, as well as in-
depth characterisations, from raw materials to
final product batches. Therefore, such a model
can be particularly beneficial when feedstocks
with highly variable levels of impurities are used.
Total quality management for green
products
A PAT framework can help oil processing
facilities to adopt more sustainable materials
and practices by addressing key production
challenges while providing advantages that can
enhance a business’s competitiveness in the
marketplace. In particular, such a system enables
facilities to have the in-depth understanding
needed to maintain optimum process
conditions at all times as well as enhanced
control over their operations. As a result,
PAT can reduce waste, processing time and
ultimately energy consumption, helping to make
decarbonisation practices more commercially and
environmentally sound.
To maximise the benefits that can be achieved
with PAT setups, refineries need to implement
a knowledge management platform that can
support real-time process control. An example
of a highly effective solution that delivers these
capabilities is the total quality management
software synTQ, which is already widely used
in demanding industries where advanced
monitoring strategies are required, such as
pharmaceutical manufacturing. The software
has been proven to help businesses cut the
environmental impact of their manufacturing
and processing activities while supporting
the delivery of high-quality products at
competitive prices.
VIEW REFERENCES
Martin Gadsby
mgadsby@optimal-tech.co.uk
57
Find opportunities to decarbonise
with pinch technology
Pinch technology and exergy analysis can steer energy efficiency and process
decarbonisation decisions
David Hart
Energy Intelligent Solutions
T
he need to decarbonise is clear: to satisfy
stakeholder demands associated with
climate change. For many organisations this
translates into significant disruption to established
operations, higher operating costs and significant
capital expenditure. The speed with which
organisations need to act varies depending on
local regulations and demands, and on the local
prices and carbon intensities of energy sources,
but in all cases there is a need to quickly and
robustly develop clear pathways for the future.
Many companies have stretching targets for
carbon reduction which they have committed
to achieving.
Pinch technology and conventional
thermodynamic and energy performance
assessments need to be adjusted to cover
situations where, for example, electrification is
more appropriate than using fuels to generate
heat; in other words, where work (or electricity)
is less valuable than heat. This is counter to
solutions generally applied in the past where
carbon reduction was not a consideration.
Figure 1 shows trends in energy prices in the
UK for the last decade. The UK is characterised
by high cost electricity and lower cost gas,
pushing companies to use gas in favour of
power, to generate power from gas using gas
engines/turbines with heat recovery and to
avoid increased electricity use, for example
avoiding using heat pumps. A higher relative
price for electricity, or work, is consistent with the
conventional view of thermodynamics that work
has a higher value than heat and that there needs
to be a focus on avoiding exergy losses.
The trends in UK carbon emissions intensities
58
10
9
8
Pence /KWh 7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Electricity Heavy fuel oil Gas
Figure 1 Trends in UK energy prices
for typical utilities are shown in Figure 2.
The decarbonisation of electricity is pushing
organisations towards electrification rather than
using fossil fuels, and away from combined heat
and power and towards the use of heat pumps
– the exact opposite of the actions to reduce
operating costs. This is driven by the increased
percentage of power derived from low carbon
sources, resulting in lower carbon emissions
from grid electricity. Reducing carbon emissions
is inconsistent with reducing costs and with the
traditional thermodynamic approach.
It is interesting to note the changes in the
carbon intensities over the last five years and the
associated changes in acceptable technologies:
combined heat and power (CHP) has switched
from a low carbon solution to a carbon increasing
solution in just a few years, but remains one of
the few opportunities to significantly reduce
utility operating costs (power costs) in the UK.
Heat pumps have become the first choice for
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 0.6
200 Cold composite
0.5

Temp (adjusted) ˚C
Hot composite
0.4 150
kg/KWh

0.3 100
0.2
50
0.1

0 0
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Enthalpy kW
Gas Electricity Heat pumps CHP Steam

Figure 4 Composite curves for distillation

Figure 2 Example trends in UK carbon intensities
from energy sources intensities in the UK are not mirrored everywhere.
The actual and relative prices of gas and power
low temperature heating duties but rely on are highly variable across the world. Similarly,
cheap power to be cost effective. Electricity can the relative carbon intensities depend on the
be a lower carbon option than steam from gas sources of grid power which can range from
fired boilers, especially where the efficiency of almost zero carbon hydro and nuclear power to
steam generation and distribution is relatively high carbon power from diesel engines and coal
low, but operating costs will increase considerably. fired power plant. Organisations need to establish
The signals from energy prices and carbon the marginal costs of power and heat and the

Improve process to lower energy consumption

Direct
operations

(digital solutions)
Reduce energy Install more efficient equipment (LED lamps, new chillers,
high efficiency motors, variable speed drives.....).
Increase production at sites, reduce waste, consolidate
sites, new low energy sites

Recover energy Install heat/energy recoverye.g. heat pumps

Utilise by-products to generate renewable energy

I NTE RNAL
S COPE 1

(biomass combustion to drive gas turbine power plant)

Reduce carbon Switch to lower carbon fossil fuels/renewable fuels

Energy supply chain

intensity (e.g. biomethane)

Install renewable energy generation (solar PV,
biomethane)
SCOPE 2

Manage
supply PPA – Power/heat purchase agreement
chain Energy Attribute Certificates, e.g. REGO, RGGO, CER, VER
Bioenergy ‘sleeving’/indirect supply

ZERO EMISSIONS TARGET

Supply chain

Support suppliers to reduce Scope 1 carbon emissions

SCOPE 3

(as above)
Extend influence Sustainable packaging
into supply chain Transport and logistics reductions – Hydrogen, EVs, biogas
CO MM U NI T Y

Sustainable raw materials

E X T E RNA L

Using PPAs to add more renewable capacity to network

Below Purchasing more renewable capacity than demand to
zero Create additionality create network benefit
Partnerships to support wider community benefits

Utilising other industry’s waste energy to improve

influence

Import/export overall efficiency

Wider

waste energy Supporting another industry to make use of site waste

energy via co-location and networking, i.e. district heating

Figure 3 Ideal decarbonisation hierarchy

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 59

250
200
Temp (adjusted) ˚C
150
100
50
0
0 2000 4000 6000
Enthalpy kW
Figure 5 Grand composite curves for distillation
marginal impacts on carbon emissions before
they can develop pathways to decarbonisation.
Marginal refers to the change in price or carbon
emissions per unit increase or decrease in energy
use. Forecasts of the future changes in these
values are important, up to 10 years ahead for
longer term investments, and the UK experience
shows that these values can change significantly
and quickly, driven especially by the actions of
governments to tackle climate change.
An ideal decarbonisation hierarchy for industrial
sites is illustrated in the Figure 3. Companies
should ideally reduce their own energy use
first (Scope 1 emissions) before turning to
alternative utilities (Scope 2) or the procurement
of green fuels or power and before considering
opportunities in the wider community (Scope 3).
In practice, it does often makes sense to develop
opportunities in parallel.
A powerful approach to the evaluation of
energy performance and to the identification of
optimum opportunities to reduce energy use is
pinch technology. Developed in the 1970s and
1980s, this is an established thermodynamic
approach to determining the minimum utility
demands of a process (heating and cooling)
and the temperature levels of the utilities
required. It helps to design an optimum heat
recovery network and then to identify the
optimum utilities to deliver the required heat
and power. It can show where heat pumps fit
within the utilities strategy and can identify the
opportunities and size of combined heat and
power solutions. The approach can also point
60
to process changes consistent with reducing
energy demands.
How are pinch technology and similar
approaches impacted by the need to
decarbonise?
Figure 4 shows the composite curves for a
typical distillation process. The overlap between
the hot and cold composite curves identifies the
scope for heat recovery – in this case around 15
MW. Heat recovery is consistent with reducing
energy costs, reducing overall carbon emissions
8000 10000 and with the decarbonisation hierarchy.
The grand composite curves show (see Figure
5), in this case, that the hot utility demand is
generally at a relatively low temperature (120°C
in this example) and the waste heat from the
process is at a relatively high temperature
(80°C). A heat pump is an appropriate solution,
therefore, because of the relatively low
temperature difference between the waste
heat available and the heat required, easily
identifiable by the shape of the grand composite
curves around the pinch temperature. With a
coefficient of performance of an estimated 4.5 in
this case (the COP depends on the temperatures
and the temperature lift), this heat pump in the
UK would have a price per unit of heat which
is lower than direct heat from gas or direct
electricity, and will have a carbon emissions
factor that is very much lower than alternatives.
Pinch technology remains a valid, perhaps
essential, method to assess opportunities to
decarbonise. It has the added advantage that it
requires the establishment of a comprehensive
heat and mass balance for process operations – a
sound basis for designing a decarbonisation plan.
The first step towards decarbonisation should
always be to reduce energy use – the process
change and heat recovery options identified by a
pinch analysis will always be valid actions where
cost effective and practical. Similarly, optimum
utilities will always involve delivering hot utility
at as low a temperature as possible and cold
utility at as high a temperature as possible.
Heat pumps will always be most appropriate
where the heat is transferred across the pinch
and the temperature lift is relatively low. Direct
heat transfer across the pinch will always be
sub-optimal. Distillation columns should always
ideally be all above or all below the pinch.
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 Energy source Exergy equation Comments
Heat at temperature T, above ambient
Heat at temperature T, below ambient
Process stream
For a chemical reaction
For mixing and separation of components
Exergy Loss (∆Ex) – a measure of the lost ability to do work
Table 1
The choice of the residual required hot and
cold utility will depend on the local emissions
factors and prices – in the UK CHP will save
money but increase carbon emissions, in other
locations this may well be reversed. In some
cases, the residual hot utility demand will be
best served using low carbon electricity.
Where electricity costs and/or emissions are
high, then alternative refinery fuels may be a
better choice. The use of hydrogen as a fuel
for industrial utilities is uncertain, however –
hydrogen availability is limited in the near term
and price is uncertain and may be driven by
demand and the type of use. The technologies
associated with hydrogen (power generation
and hydrogen generation) are in development
or currently involve high capital costs. The use
of hydrogen in the longer term may be limited to
applications where decarbonisation using other
means is not easy, for example heavy transport
and high temperature processes (and the price
for hydrogen may reflect this).
The use of exergy loss as a measure of
inefficiency is another established technique,
albeit perhaps most often applied on an ad
hoc basis. An amount of heat energy at say
200°C can be transferred and become the
same quantity of heat energy at 50°C, through
cooling of a process stream with cooling water
for example. No energy is lost in this process,
but exergy is lost. The heat at 200°C had
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
∆Ex = QH (1-T0/T) Heat at a higher temperature has a
higher value potentially
Heat absorbed below ambient has work
∆Ex = QC (T0/T-1)
potential. Refrigeration is expensive
∆Ex = ∆H - T0 ∆S
∆Ex = ∆H (1-T0/T LM1-2) Constant specific heat capacity
∆Ex = ∆H (1-T0/T) Constant temperature
∆Ex = ∆GT0 Gibbs free energy at T0 (relates to the
efficiency of a battery)
∆Ex = ∆H - RT0Σ (niln(1/xi))
more exergy, more ability to do work/generate
electricity, than the energy at 50°C, and was
potentially more valuable, therefore. The heat
could have been used to generate electricity in a
heat engine, for example an organic Rankine cycle
or a steam expander.
Typical examples of exergy loss include
reducing the temperature of a hot stream (above
ambient), increasing the temperature of a cold
stream (below ambient), mixing components
and chemical reactions. The identification of
exergy loss remains a valuable method to identify
inefficiencies and opportunities for improvements
within operations and is unaffected by the new
focus on carbon.
While the impacts of the prices of energy
and the relative carbon emissions appropriate
at an individual location, and the likely changes
in these values, need to be properly taken into
account, the analysis of process energy efficiency
using pinch technology and exergy analysis
remains valid, perhaps even more important
in the era of decarbonisation, supporting the
development of robust decarbonisation pathways
based on rigorous analysis that match the ideal
decarbonisation hierarchy.
David Hart
dhart@energyintelligentsolutions.com
61
Challenges and opportunities of
achieving sustainable operations
Managing the fragile balance of sustainability goals is a considerable challenge,
and digital technologies are set to take centre stage during this transition
Antonio Pietri
Aspen Technology
G
lobal efforts to improve sustainability and
reach carbon-zero targets are increasing
as a greater spotlight is put on these issues
in the run-up to 2030 and the culmination of the
EU’s climate target plan. For organisations across
the capital-intensive industries, this upcoming
deadline is just one of a whole host of drivers that
are coming together to act as a catalyst for change
and driving the urgent need for technology that
enables sustainability and environmentally
efficient operations.
In Europe, we are seeing both
national and continent-wide
initiatives that are making
a positive impact on these
issues. The European Green
Deal, for example, proposes
€1 trillion in sustainable
investments over the next
decade.1 Moreover, France
recently announced plans to
spend more than US$8 billion on
a decarbonised hydrogen economy
through 2030, beginning with a
European hydrogen project in 2021.2
Technology will play a big part not only in
driving these initiatives but also, on a smaller
scale, in enabling sustainability for capital-
intensive businesses, where the latest systems
and solutions can be used to help organisations
reduce energy consumption, deliver energy
efficiencies and support the circular economy.
The role of the pandemic
The pandemic has certainly played a role in
accelerating the interest in sustainability and
the push for technology that enables it. Across
62
the entire EMEA region the challenges brought
about by the pandemic since early 2020 have
accelerated the process of putting environmental,
social and governance (ESG) initiatives at the
forefront of decision-making. ESG issues have
motivated businesses in the capital-intensive
industries for years, but the pandemic has acted
as a catalyst for change – and placed these issues
firmly at the top of the agenda for organisations
across these sectors. Capital-intensive
companies today are more committed
than ever to meeting their
sustainability targets. But why
exactly is this?
The societal lockdowns
we have seen over the past
18 months have certainly
played their part. As people
were forced to reduce their
movements and stop driving
or flying, carbon emissions fell,
as did demand for transportation
fuels. A psychological barrier was
therefore crossed and this has triggered
wider change across the energy sector. With
the evidence that people’s behaviour can palpably
impact global CO2 loading, corporate momentum,
across the energy industries shifted perceptibly
towards more aggressive sustainability targets.
The drivers of sustainability across the industry
extend well beyond COVID, however. Over the
years, investors have differentiated their portfolios
by offering ESG-conscious funds. These funds
now represent a growing proportion of the
investment funds in the marketplace, accounting
for $51 billion of new money from investors in
2020.3 That ability to access finance is pressuring
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companies further to embrace ESG to implement
and meet sustainability targets. Indeed, investors
are being active, demanding oil companies put in
place sustainability targets and commitments to
deliver on the Paris Agreement for climate change.
We are seeing increasing numbers of oil and
gas companies adopting net-zero carbon emission
targets by a certain year in the future.4 We are
witnessing chemical companies establishing
thermal emission targets but now additionally
making commitments around plastic waste
– an initiative rapidly becoming a priority for
governments and regulators across EMEA.
Simultaneously employees and customers
expect organisations across these industries to
be upstanding citizens and run clean, efficient
businesses. The latest generation of workers and
customers are demanding greater accountability
around sustainability. Organisations know that if
they want to protect their brand reputation and
attract these people to work for and engage with
them, they must build cleaner, safer, and greener
businesses that allow them to contribute to
creating a world fit for tomorrow.
So, in order to remain profitable and relevant
in the marketplace, companies must work to
grow the ‘triple bottom line’, and balance the
impact of company operations on people, the
planet, and profits – the social, environmental and
financia trifecta.
Today, therefore, it is time for the industry to
deliver on the promise of ESG. We are seeing
many businesses across the capital-intensive
industries put strategies in place that are designed
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to achieve their ESG targets. ARC Strategies
recent report, The Sustainability Future for
Energy and Chemicals5 revealed that 90% of
global energy and chemical companies have
sustainability initiatives in place. Definitive action
may still be needed by some of these businesses
but for all of them sustainability either is, or can
be, a driver of digital transformation.
Why digital solutions are a key enabler for
sustainability goals
Whereas in the past, investment in digital was
often justified based on its potential to deliver
enhanced profitability, today this kind of funding
is just as commonly signed off based on its ability
to deliver a reduction in CO2 emissions. It hits the
bottom line, just from a different angle.
Digitalisation is a crucial enabler for
companies to meet both business and
sustainability objectives. In the ARC survey,
75% of respondents said they believed digital
transformation was either extremely important
or very important for achieving sustainability
goals. The International Energy Agency (IEA)
has found that digital solutions can help boost
energy efficiency as much as 30% for industrial
operations.6 In Europe, the Technology Platform
for Sustainable Chemistry has highlighted
digitalisation as a key tool to meet sustainability
objectives in the chemicals sector.7
Those businesses that had considered adopting
more digital technology have recently been
forced to dive into digitalisation to make certain
of business continuity and to support more
63
efficient operations during highly volatile business
conditions. As a result, many are continuing to
enthusiastically embrace the innovation that
digitalisation provides them in a bid to achieve
new levels of operational excellence.
The new generation of digital solutions deployed
across the capital-intensive industries provides the
visibility, analysis and insight required to address
the challenges inherent in the achievement
of sustainability targets. Success begins by
harnessing the vast volumes of data available from
operations – leveraging new technologies, like
artificial intelligence (AI) – to control operations
and empower operators to make the decisions that
will help attain their core objectives of customer
satisfaction, sustainability, and profit.
To achieve energy efficiency, operators must
focus on cutting the environmental footprint
from resources consumed by their own business
activities. That might encompass everything from
reducing the use of non-renewable resources,
like water for feedstocks or energy generation,
through to cutting down their carbon footprint, or
lessening environmental emissions generated by
business operations.
Many digital solutions have concentrated on
efficiency gains for production processes, and
technology projects frequently target reductions
in energy use, yield improvement and lower
emissions. Critically, too, many solutions make it
possible to track progress on sustainability goals.
For example, the latest process simulation
technology monitors and optimises CO2 and
other pollutant emissions, while the same tools,
combined with other technologies like enterprise
visualisation tools and planning solutions provide
the basis for emissions reporting for chemical
plants, refineries and other energy assets.
One leading oil company has succeeded
in reducing water use by 10%, while others
report benefits including improved monitoring
transparency, and enhanced accuracy and speed
of emissions reporting, leading to a reduction
in emissions. Others are focused on using
technology to model units at the highest fidelity
to understand how to produce end fuels with the
greenest possible carbon profile.
Putting the technology in place
Integrated technological solutions can form
the core of strategic sustainability initiatives.
64
Sophisticated models and workflows enable
companies to do everything from cutting water
and energy usage to reducing or avoiding
emissions. They also enable organisations to
improve process reliability and integrity; innovate
for new processes, products and value chain
integration; and develop innovative solutions
for the circular economy challenges, like carbon
capture, use and sequestration (CCUS) and
plastics recycling. In addition, prescriptive
maintenance solutions that use proprietary
AI and machine learning capabilities can help
reduce environmental emissions that often
occur with unplanned outages. The AI-based
technology learns from design and operations
data and integrates process knowledge to provide
prescriptive maintenance solutions.
Indeed, the use of AI will be instrumental
in driving energy efficiency and achieving
sustainable operations across the capital-intensive
industries. Embedding AI in process models, for
instance, helps companies develop more efficient
production options that utilise less energy and
resources. Deep-learning advanced process
control (APC) helps companies apply APC to more
processes, expanding production efficiencies
while boosting throughput. And, in-context
guidance, provided by AI-enabled insight from
previous operations, supports less experienced
users as they expand digital applications to
achieve further improvements.
Reducing environmental impact
Digital solutions can also provide guidance
on environmental impact throughout project
planning and operating processes, and even
give insight into maintenance activities to
help avoid equipment breakdowns – and the
emissions and dangerous conditions that come
with them.
By using a digital twin approach, for example,
companies can determine the best process and
equipment selection for energy efficiency and
reduced emissions of CO2 and other pollutants
and greenhouse gases. After construction, these
same models are used to improve operations
by adjusting to feedstock and operational
variations to ensure efficient resource and energy
use. Process control capabilities help stabilise
operations to optimise energy use, extending this
analysis across the supply chain.
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 Digital technologies can also be used to reduce
environmental impact when processes do not run
as planned, by providing insight and avoidance
measures. AI gives companies advance warning
of potential breakdowns, so they can avoid
dangerous conditions and minimise maintenance
costs. For complex processes, multivariate
analytics can identify those process variables
that are critical to reduce off-spec production and
lower waste.
Driving efficiency and innovation
The desire to make significant strides toward
sustainability targets is also driving many
companies to fundamentally change their
energy sources and shift product portfolios. This
transition is taking time and requires substantial
investment in new technologies. However, the
potential payoff is significant.
Digital technologies are also enabling companies
to more quickly develop solutions to solve the
challenges of the circular economy, where
materials are re-used after initial application so
fewer resources are used overall. The solutions
focus primarily on emissions associated with
energy use, such as CO2 and NOx, in addition
to a move toward the use of alternative
energy sources.
The march towards decarbonisation
We are also seeing a growing focus across the
industry on ‘decarbonisation’, or the reduction
of the carbon footprint of a process or energy
source. These efforts target a reduction in
carbon emissions associated with a process – for
instance, using a lower-carbon fuel like natural
gas instead of coal, or substituting wind or solar
energy or renewable biomass for a fossil fuel.
Digital solutions aid these efforts by modelling
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and comparing alternative processes for various
metrics, such as cost, emissions of CO2 and other
greenhouse gases for the energy delivery.
Simulations can efficiently screen alternative
energy sources and new process routes, while
accounting for associated emissions and resource
demand for each. Efforts are under way to apply
modelling technology to improve the efficiency of
processes based on new energy feedstocks. Digital
networks also enable better connectivity between
energy demand systems, so energy is used more
efficiently across a plant, community or region.
Added to this, concern about growing volumes of
plastic waste worldwide has made moving toward
a circular economy more urgent.
There are many strategic and technological
challenges to be overcome before this becomes
a reality. However, over the long term, efforts
to move toward new energy sources and the
circular economy will drive a strategic shift in
business metrics and the practices that will enable
success. Many forward-looking companies have
already begun this process, investing to build new
capabilities and developing innovative technologies
and business models to achieve new targets.
Achieving the fragile balance of sustainability
goals – equally considering people, planet and profit
– is a considerable challenge, but one that must be
addressed to be competitive in the capital-intensive
markets of tomorrow. Digital technologies will take
centre stage during this transition, enabling the
capabilities that will separate the winners from
the losers.
VIEW REFERENCES
Antonio Pietri
antonio.pietri@aspentech.com
65
Leverage digitalisation for
sustainable operations
By introducing sustainable policies and processes with the help of digitalisation,
operators can position themselves to experience smarter long-term benefits

Dr Pratap Nair
Ingenero

S
ustainability can be seen as a measure
of the capability of the process(es) by
which something is kept at a certain level.
Sustainability is a broad topic and has been
described as being made up of three pillars: the
economy, society and the environment. These
pillars are also casually referred to as the 3Ps:
people, planet and profit.
Over the years, sustainability has become a
necessity for enterprise growth. With changing
market sentiments, sustainability is quickly
becoming accepted as a key parameter along
with traditional metrics.
Although sustainable practices are rapidly
finding ground in various domains, this article
largely focuses on sustainable practices within the
oil, gas and petrochemical sector and how these
practices can be improved through the application
of digital solutions. The three pillars of sustainability
Over recent years, major focus and concern
have being directed towards the depletion of of overexploitation, energy use and emissions
non-renewable natural resources on account in operations, linear consumption of products,
direction of investments, and lifestyle choices.
As long as a solution is found that causes little
Awards/media
6% to no harm to the natural world, while allowing
Consumer expectation 8%
for continued quality of life in today’s societal
standards, this balance can be believed to
Hiring gains Community
11% impact
be sustainable. Sustainability has become a
17% substantial part of life as it influences purchasing
behaviours, technological developments and
Economic business, and general institutional changes.
Environmental imperative Extensive sustainability programmes to improve
protection 29%
29% efficiency/energy have helped companies optimise
resource consumption and accelerate growth
through innovative products and services, all
whilst driving environmental competences
Why companies pursue sustainable manufacturing1 and brand value. Today, sustainability is a key

66 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Innovative • Electrification of manufacturing low to • Redesign for waste heat recovery
Design & medium heat requirements • Fuel changes - bio energy, green hydrogen,
Engineering • Vapour recovery units on large tanks to blue hydrogen
reduce fugitive emissions
Innovative • Use of renewable energy (solar, wind power) • Waste plastics recycling and conversion
- cleantech technologies
Process
• Carbon capture utilisation and storage • High efficiency lighting
Technologies • Capture & permanent sequestering of CO2 • Internal recycling and waste reduction
• Minimise waste streams/increase product • Improve feed, water, energy utilisation
Operational recovery efficiency)
Improvement • Reduce leaks, emissions and flaring • Continuous monitoring and real-time
optimisation

Table 1 Approaches to achieve sustainable operation

differentiator and a strategic business imperative

that helps drive performance and top-line growth.
Sustainable operation through efficiency
initiatives, energy initiatives, water initiatives, and
physical waste initiatives can lead to immense
savings and can be achieved through the three
approaches listed in Table 1.

Digital leverage
Sustainability and digital transformation are
more than just industry buzzwords – they
can be effectively implemented with cogent
guidelines and seamlessly integrated into business
operations achieving both goals together:
sustainability and digital transformation.
Effective use of digital solutions employs digital
technologies to convert data to augmented
intelligence (AI), which enables closer to real-time
access to decision quality information. This greatly
facilitates achievement of improvements in existing
units for greater sustainability, whilst not losing
sight of traditional business values. AI is a hybrid
approach of using the best of available tools and
technology to enhance human intelligence and
allow creation of actionable intelligence. Digital
twin and predictive models from advanced
Augmented intelligence benefits for manufacturing
analytics as part of digitalisation enable better
identification of energy savings opportunities and
productivity improvements, both of which impact
carbon footprint and hence sustainability, and allow
more innovative design changes.
AI improves operational performance by providing:
• Faster identification - More agile identification of
process and/or equipment anomalies, leaks, etc.
• Faster action - Lower losses of product and energy
• Reduced gap between plan and actual production
from faster identification and response cycles
• Better and closer to real-time ESG data reporting
against benchmarks

Hybrid models drive operational excellence

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 67
I-SSPDE at a glance
Ingenero’s support to sustainable operation
Ingenero’s Sustainability Program, I-SSPDE,
integrates edge computing with advanced
analytics utilising the full potential of Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT). By combining latest
smart technologies and tools, I-SSPDE acts
as a force multiplier and allows operators
in the oil and gas sector to advance their
energy management, safety modelling and
automation processes.
With this program, KPIs are tracked to provide
both an intrinsic and extrinsic view of the process/
equipment. This is encapsulated in Ingenero’s very
own dashboard, built by bringing together three
separate industry standard views into one screen
to provide:
Benefits and features of I-SSPDE
68
• An Operational Outlook – interprets large
amounts of information, provides continuous real-
time data to operators in a single, clear visual.
• An Analytical Outlook – allows for further
investigation into the data received through KPIs,
enables users to investigate any anomalies in the
data and uncover its root cause.
• A Strategic Outlook – allows users to receive
simulated solutions for any problems that
the system identifies, thus highlighting any
opportunity to optimise
Conclusion
In conclusion, sustainability and profitability cannot
be considered as mutually exclusive theories. Also,
the industry is gradually understanding that this
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Applications of I-SSPDE to enhance sustainability

Client Sustainability Benefits

Long chain Specific energy improvement allowed Capacity up by 30% without Capex,
alcohols facility higher throughput, sustained plant - First pass quality up by 11%, 90%
in USA performance and reduced quality or reduction in off-spec material, no
recovery issues. Availability increased external tolling
through performance/health monitoring

Ethylene Energy intensity improved, quality Saving of US$ 250 million over a
complex in giveaway reduced, reliability and five-year period
Middle East availability improvement, effective
asset utilisation

Largest Centralised asset visibility and monitoring, 22% average increase in profitability
midstream integrating digitalisation in monitoring across 40 facilities
company in allowed real-time decision support on
the USA operational improvements to achieve
sustainability targets

Petrochemicals In-depth continuous monitoring of asset Savings of >$8 million per year for the
major in KSA and mitigation of constraints using digital last nine years; turnaround cycle
twins allowed close evaluation of equipment extended from five to six years; run
health and performance. Energy intensity length of furnace increased by 25%
was optimised to achieve fuel saving and without any Capex
higher throughput

Case examples examples of I-SSPDE application to enhance sustainability

does not always translate to smaller profit margins. greater proficiencies can be seized and themselves
The industry might even have to go through some to experience smarter long-term benefits.
form of growing pains in the form of increasingly
regulated and strict frameworks in the coming Reference
years for the public good. But fortunately, by 1 Based on survey conducted by the school
initiating the process to construct an integrated of public and environmental affairs, Indiana
and digitised infrastructure, enterprises can rise University.
up to the expectations of achieving environmental
and operational sustainability while remaining Dr Pratap Nair
profitable. By introducing sustainable policies and pnair@ingenero.com
processes with the help of digitalisation strategies,

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 69
 Powering the transition to sustainable fuels and energy

Decarbonisation
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Moving to a more sustainable
future with Coriolis technology
Coriolis flow monitoring can optimise process control for refineries as they
diversify feedstocks, increase hydrogen yields and reduce carbon emissions

Meha Jha and Julie Valentine

Emerson

T
here are a variety of approaches the oil and
gas industry is taking for decarbonisation.
Some strategies include reducing emissions
and improving efficiency at existing production
facilities, investing in renewable fuel production,
reducing emissions by implementing carbon
capture technology, and/or producing alternative
fuels like hydrogen. While new process licensed
technologies and units are being evaluated and
implemented to support these sustainability
initiatives, the automation and/or leveraging of
best practice measurement instrumentation to
better optimise and control these new operations
should also be considered.
A powerful technology with the versatility
to measure, optimise, and control a variety of
these sustainability production initiatives is
Coriolis technology. Coriolis flow meters are
multivariable flow measurement devices that
provide a direct measurement of mass flow,
density and temperature for liquids, slurries, and
gases. Traditionally in the hydrocarbon industries,
Coriolis meters were more commonly used for
applications such as liquid and gas custody
transfer metering, facility or unit mass balance,
and product blending. However, the multivariable
capabilities of the technology, in addition to meter
performance and accuracy not being impacted
by changing fluid properties, process conditions,
or flow profiles is resulting in increased adoption
of Coriolis technology to support sustainability
programmes focused on reducing emissions,
improving energy efficiency, and controlling the
production of alternative fuels.
Combustion optimisation
For existing refineries and chemical plants, one
of the biggest opportunities to improve energy

Figure 1 Hydrocarbon industry decarbonisation strategy involves reducing carbon footprint in existing
facilities while transitioning to alternative and renewable fuels

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 71
Figure 2 Coriolis flow
meters are multivariable
measurement devices that
directly and accurately
measure mass flow regardless
of changing fluid properties or
process conditions.
efficiency and reduce emissions is
by improving combustion control
of fired heaters and boilers.
Combustion control impacts the
safety, efficiency, and emissions of
fired equipment. Because of process
control variability, fuel gas composition
variability, and safety risks, the equipment
operates with a high level of excess air. While
the excess air ensures complete combustion and
maintains a safer operating margin, the trade-off
is excess NOx emissions and higher fuel and
energy costs.
Typically, the fuel gas flow is controlled using
a pressure or volumetric-based control scheme.
However, the energy content and stoichiometric
air required for combustion of fuel gas are more
proportional on a mass basis than a volume
basis. Therefore, controlling fuel gas flow on a
Controlling fuel gas flow on
a mass basis with Coriolis
meters provides more
stabilised control as fuel gas
composition varies
mass basis with Coriolis meters provides more
stabilised control as fuel gas composition varies.
The more stabilised control allows operators to
lower the target oxygen levels in the stack and
operate with less excess air, reduced emissions,
and increased efficiency.
One North American refinery controlled fuel
gas on a volumetric flow basis with a differential
pressure orifice meter. The variations in fuel gas
composition caused control variability. The fuel
gas composition range was methane from 0-56%,
hydrogen from 17-72%, non-combustibles from
0-2%, and nitrogen from 0-4.8%. To prevent
72
heater trips during rich fuel
conditions, the refinery operated
with a target level of O2 in the stack
of 5% By shifting to controlling the
fuel gas flow on a mass basis with a
Coriolis meter, the refinery was able
to lower the target oxygen in the
stack from 5% to 3.5%, resulting in
$400,000.00 net present value.
Green diesel production
Driven by recent government subsidies
and fuel credits encouraging the
use of bio-based feedstock for fuel
production, many refineries in the United
States and a few in Europe are adding
or converting to green diesel production. This
new wave of biodiesel production involves the
hydroprocessing esters and fatty acids (HEFA)
and the isomerisation of triglycerides. While there
are many similarities to traditional refining with
the reaction mechanisms and process equipment
involved, refineries are finding the traditional
volumetric flow control and measurement
practices have limitations in these newer
operations.
Because of the application flexibility,
repeatability, and cost advantages, the majority
of the flow measurement points in a traditional
refinery are controlled on a volumetric flow basis
using differential pressure orifice flow meters.
However, for green diesel production, there
are a few reasons why traditional differential
pressure orifice flow meters can be limiting in
such applications.
Differential pressure orifice flow meters are
impacted by changing process conditions and
fluid properties. The meter correction factor
must be calculated to determine the difference
between actual process conditions and meter
design conditions. The accuracy of these meters
can range from 0.5-1% when compensated for
temperature and pressure changes or 1-5%
when uncompensated. (This is assuming that
the specific gravity of the fluid stays constant.)
During green diesel production, a variety of
feedstocks, including tallow oil, soybean oil,
rapeseed oil, etc, are blended and processed in
the reactor section. Feed specific gravity into
the reactor section can vary by up to 10% and
viscosity tenfold depending on the process
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Hydrotreating/ Isomerisation/selective/
Hydrodeoxygenation reactor Hydrocracking reactor

Make-up
hydrogen Fractionator
Amine
LPG
PSA
Product Green
Fuel stripper naphtha
Fuel
gas Air CO2 gas Air
rich Green
stream Offgas
jet fuel

Air Green
Chemical diesel
Waste water cooler
injection Waste
Feed: Fats, This section water
Pretreating process layout is Waste Fuel gas Air
vegetable Heavies
oils licensor dependent water

Figure 3 Due to feedstock variations, exotherm variations, and accuracy requirements for accurate
reporting of yields, utility usage and raw materials, Coriolis meters are recommended for green diesel
production flow measurement control

design. These variations result in inaccuracies
impacting the unit mass balance, meeting
production targets, and reactor control. The
reactor control is especially important because
the hydrodeoxygenation reaction is highly
exothermic, and the exotherm varies based
on feedstock, so accurate control of the target
recycle to fresh feed ratio and the purge rates are
critical to prevent temperature excursions and
damage to the catalyst bed. Therefore, Coriolis
meters are recommended for the reactor feed to
recycle ratio and purge rate controls.
Coriolis meters are also recommended for
control of pre-feed treatment operations
to remove contaminants that could harm
catalysts in the reactor section. The pre-feed
treatment operations mirror food and beverage
manufacturing more so than traditional refining.

Sulphur plant 1.8% Flaring 2.5% CRU coke burn-off

0.36%
H2 plant 5.8% Delayed coking
0.21%
Fluid/flexi-coking units
0.60%
FCC unit
coke burn-off Coke calcining
23.5% 0.101%
Asphalt blowing
Other 3.1% 0.94%

Combustion Blowdown
63.3% 0.167%
Storage tanks 0.30%
Equipment leaks
Wastewater treatment 0.013%
0.40%
Cooling towers
0.002%

Figure 4 Contribution of different emission sources to the CO2 equivalent GHG emission from petroleum
refineries (Source: www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-12/documents/refineries.pdf)

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 73

Pipeline transport
1000
Melting line
100
Pressure (bar)
Liquid
t u rat
Sa lin
Solid
Gas
10 Transport
via ship
line tion
a
Triple point
lim
(-58.5˚C, 5.1bar)
Sub
0
-73 -23
Temperature (˚C)
Figure 5 CO2 phase chart
This can include drying, polyethylene removal,
filtration, enzymatic degumming, chemical
dosing, and bleaching. Many of the reactions
require stoichiometric ratios, mass-based
reactions, and concentration measurements for
acids and caustic, favouring the use of Coriolis
flow meters.
The other reason why more accurate
measurement and the use of Coriolis technology is
also important is for carbon intensity calculations
and fuel credit or government subsidy reporting.
To obtain such credits, accurate reporting and
measurement of all raw materials, utilities, and
yields are required.
Carbon capture
As refiners are looking for significant ways to
reduce emissions in their refineries, many are
considering ways to capture the CO2 that would
otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere as a
result of combustion operations. Figure 4 shows
the most significant sources of carbon emission in
a typical refinery.
There are several technologies used to capture
carbon, and technologies are advancing quickly to
become more efficient and economical. Incentives
are also in place in many countries to reduce CO2
emissions, making it more economically attractive
to capture the carbon from the largest sources of
CO2 emissions in the plant.
The most mature technology to capture CO2 is
through chemical absorption with amine treating.
74
The traditional challenge of this technology is
Permanent storage the trade-off between capture efficiency and
energy consumption from the stripper reboiler.
Supercritical fluid Continuously monitoring solvent quality through
the utilisation of Coriolis technology to measure
the density of the fluid is one contributor to
optimising the absorption process.
ion
Another challenge that has arisen due to
e Critical point
(31.1˚C, 73.9bar) the newer desire to capture the CO2 and
then compress and storage it involves the
measurement of the quantity of CO2 produced
Compression
and sent to storage. Due to the fact that
work
transportation and storage of CO2 normally
occurs at or near critical phase, flow measurement
27 77 127 challenges are introduced.
CO2 is a hard fluid to measure. The conditions
under which CO2 is transported and stored are
often close to the triple point or the critical point,
so compensations for temperature, pressure
and density changes are required but not easily
measured. Coriolis meters are one of the few
technologies that can measure this CO2 to the
accuracy required to meet custody transfer
standards.
Coriolis meters are one of the
few technologies that can
measure this CO2 to the accuracy
required to meet custody
transfer standards
Due to the fact that Coriolis flow meters
measure mass flow and density simultaneously,
accurate volumetric and mass flow are achievable.
The volumetric flow can be used to fill tanks
without overfill, and the mass flow can be used for
the custody transfer operation.
Hydrogen
Hydrogen as an energy source will continue
to grow quickly as the world moves towards
decarbonisation. Hydrogen usage for the refineries
will increase with the production of biofuels
but in the long term may also be targeted as a
fuel product. Production of blue hydrogen as
the world transitions away from grey or brown
hydrogen will be an important contributor towards
decarbonisation, especially in parts of the world
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 Export steam
ID fan

Boiler Air
feed water Econ.
Mix tee Makeup fuel
SCR

Boiler
Steam
methane
reforming Fuel
Steam
superheater

Natural Pressure
gas Feed Heat swing Hydrogen
pretreat recovery absorption
Steam

Figure 6 The composition of the hydrocarbon feed gas into the steam methane reforming (SMR) unit
can vary. Because the mass of the gas is more proportional to carbon content than the volume of the
gas, controlling the steam to carbon ratio with Coriolis meters on the feed provides more consistency in
the steam to carbon ratio, resulting in increased efficiency

with an abundant natural gas resource. Although • Increased safety

there are a number of pathways for the production
of blue hydrogen, at refineries the most common
and likely scenario will be hydrogen production
via a steam methane reformer followed by post-
combustion carbon capture, as this is the scenario
that is best suited for retrofit of existing hydrogen
production facilities.
Coriolis technology offers benefits in terms of
energy efficiency on both the more mature part of
blue hydrogen production in the steam methane
reforming operation and in the carbon capture
piece, as discussed earlier in this article. For the
steam reforming process, the use of Coriolis meters
helps to precisely control the steam to carbon ratio,
affecting the efficiency of the process. Measuring
the mass flow of the natural gas (or refinery fuel
gas), which enables the process to run closer to
the target steam to carbon ratio, will significantly
reduce operating costs, with a potential payback
period of less than a month. Possible results from
replacing the existing hydrocarbon measurement
technology with Coriolis includes:
• Increased throughput
Accurate flow measurements support
refiners move to low carbon fuels production
Regardless of the sustainability investment
or action taken to reduce a refinery’s carbon
footprint, Coriolis meters can significantly
improve efficiency or process control by accurate
flow measurement. Due to the versatility and
proven accuracy of flow measurement and
control delivered by Coriolis flow meters in
applications ranging from traditional petroleum
production, transportation, and storage to
now the production of biofuels and emissions
reductions efforts, the masses across the
hydrocarbon value chain are moving to leverage
this technology in new ways in order to meet
their sustainability goals.
Meha Jha
Meha.Jha@Emerson.com

• Decrease capital investment for new units Julie Valentine

• Decreased energy costs Julie.Valentine@Emerson.com
• Decreased maintenance costs

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 75
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Monitoring technology for
ethylene crackers and SMRs
Digital solutions and infrared technologies help steam cracker and SMR operators
improve temperature homogeneity and fuel efficiency
James Cross
AMETEK Land
B
old strategies to reduce carbon emissions
are being released with growing
regularity, often with aggressive targets
and recommendations. For example, in August
2021, the UK government released a low carbon
hydrogen strategy, built around blue and green
hydrogen, to meet what it terms legally binding
commitments to net-zero emissions. The US
government is now proposing a 52% reduction in
US greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by
2030, far sooner than previous pledges. The new
economic and technical regulatory environment
means that refineries and petrochemical industries
must radically change in the long term and make
significant improvements in efficiency in the
short term. A sensible place to start is with the
optimisation of their most carbon-intensive fired
heater processes.
Two of the largest and most carbon-intensive
refinery and petrochemical fired heaters are
steam methane reformers (SMR), which largely
supply hydrogen to refineries for ammonia/
methanol production, and steam crackers for
ethylene production. Steam methane reformers
emit around 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
(CO2) per year, and steam crackers are estimated
to produce 260 million tonnes of CO2 emissions
per year.1
Whilst much is written around the potential
to reduce CO2 emissions from these fired
heaters by upgrading burners, changing
tube/coil/refractory materials, and improving
combustion efficiency, little attention is paid
to the importance of temperature monitoring
and control and the role it can play in improving
process efficiency.
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Steam methane reforming and blue
hydrogen production
Over 95% of the world’s hydrogen is produced
using steam methane reforming, generally
utilising desulphurised natural gas, refinery off-
gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or naphtha
as a feedstock. The feed is preheated and
mixed with steam before entering the primary
reformer, where the mixtures pass over a catalyst
to produce hydrogen, carbon monoxide (CO)
and CO2. CO is shifted with steam to additional
hydrogen and CO2, before pressure swing
adsorption (PSA) is used to separate hydrogen.
Without carbon capture, usage and storage
(CCUS), this is known as grey hydrogen, but when
CCUS is used blue hydrogen is produced.
Figure 1: Thermal image of a side-fired SMR produced using the AMETEK Land NIR-B-640-EX Fixed The
Figure
Imaging 1 Thermal
Borescope. image aof
Each pixel represents a side-fired
temperature value. SMR
produced using the AMETEK Land NIR-B-640-
EX fixedReformers
Autothermal thermal (ATR) imaging
can also produce borescope. Each
blue hydrogen when pixel with CCUS, and
used together
technology licensors claim conversion efficiencies of 84% (HHV) with CO2 capture rates of 95%. The natu
represents a temperature value
gas feed is combusted to produce heat for the reforming reaction, so no separate fuel source is needed,
with SMRs. This process means ATRs can achieve higher conversion efficiencies and CO2 capture rates th
SMRs as there is only a single CO2 stream. In the new, highly competitive landscape where efficiency and
77 to stay
capture are critical to a plant's profitability, SMR operators must improve their efficiency
competitive. (2)
 There are two main
sources of CO2 emissions
from SMRs - the CO2
produced alongside
hydrogen in the reforming
reaction in the primary
reaction furnace and the
CO2 produced by combustion of
the fuel. The process of capturing
CO2 is relatively simple and low
cost for the reformed gas, but
capturing CO2 post-combustion is
more expensive because it needs to
be separated from nitrogen. Traditional grey
hydrogen production may capture CO2 from one of
these sources, whereas blue hydrogen production
is assumed to capture CO2 from both. SMRs can
achieve a conversion efficiency of 74% (HHV) and
a CO2 capture rate of up to 90%.
Autothermal reformers (ATR) can also produce
blue hydrogen when used together with CCUS,
and technology licensors claim conversion
efficiencies of 84% (HHV) with CO2 capture rates
of 95%. The natural gas feed is combusted to
produce heat for the reforming reaction, so no
separate fuel source is needed, as with SMRs.
This process means ATRs can achieve higher
conversion efficiencies and CO2 capture rates
than SMRs as there is only a single CO2 stream.
In the new, highly competitive landscape where
efficiency and CO2 capture are critical to a plant’s
profitability, SMR operators must improve their
efficiency to stay competitive.2
Steam cracking for ethylene production
The cracking reaction in a steam cracker takes
place in sets of tubes (known as coils) that hang
in huge fired radiant sections, usually in a single
or twin cell layout with a common convection
Figure 3 AMETEK Land portable
furnace thermal imaging system
78
Figure 2 AMETEK Land Cyclops L pyrometer
section. A wide variety of fuels and feedstocks
can be utilised, including naphtha, butane,
propane, and ethane. Flue gas temperatures
are recorded continuously from contact
thermocouples, whilst thermocouples also provide
coil outlet temperatures (COTs) that indicate
cracking severity. Tube metal temperatures (TMTs)
are gathered periodically and manually using
an infrared pyrometer, and a process engineer
analyses the data.
Coke is deposited on the inside surface of
coils which can cause plugging, overheating,
and ultimately failure. This is a well-understood
phenomenon, but it is not closely monitored in
many cases because decoking (where coke is
gasified by passing steam and/or air through the
radiant coils) is scheduled on frequent, planned
intervals. Excessive decoking cycles can lead to a
loss in ethylene production, reduced tube life due
to thermal cycling, high maintenance spending, and
increased particulate release to the atmosphere.
Visual inspections and temperature data collection
are periodic, so these deposits may go unnoticed
and unplanned decoking may be required. The
layer of coke forms a layer of insulation between
the hot furnace atmosphere and the comparatively
cooler reaction gas, which impairs heat transfer.
Therefore, the prevention and reduction of coke
formation is a key priority from a maintenance,
throughput, energy efficiency, and environmental
perspective. Reducing coke formation also
reduces energy input and potentially increases the
availability of the furnace by extending run lengths.
Temperature measurement and furnace
monitoring
To achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions, process
adjustments are being
made, including reducing
oxygen setpoints and
increasing the hydrogen
content in fuel stocks.
These trends increase the
need for closer visual and
temperature monitoring
inside both a steam cracker and SMR. Flue
gas and surface temperatures may be hotter, new
flame behaviours may be observed, and burner
nozzles, tiles, and insulation could deteriorate
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
for the peep-door design and tube layout.

Figure
Figure 44:Analysing
Analysingair air leaks
leaks and temperature
and temperature data fromdata from
an SMR an AMETEK
using SMR using theportable
Land’s AMETEK Land Portab
furnace
thermal imaging system
Thermal Imaging System.
faster. Careful attention must also be paid to the inspection team. In terms of optimising
subsequent potential increases in NOx emissions temperature homogeneity, reactive, single-point,
Aandcareful analysisinoffired
other changes theheater
thermal image and temperature
characteristics. data in Figure
manual data collection using a4pyrometer
identifiedwilla significant a
Thesesurface
tube trends create new uncertainty,
temperatures not provide
an design limits,
far below the same
resulting volume
in highly of data as thermal
inefficient combustion and
increased risk of material failures and potentially imaging systems that employ automated,
catalytic reaction.
unsafe conditions. 3 Profile lines were used to identify themonitoring
continuous maximum, of mean, and minimum
a measurement array. temper
multiple gradients. Advanced software Whilst
Traditional temperature monitoring is
across allowsfixed monitoring systems provide this
emissivity and background temperature adj
performed by pyrometers such as the AMETEK comprehensive data continuously in real-time,
be
Landmade on each
Cyclops tubehandheld
L portable to ensure correct compensation.
pyrometer The thermal
portable systems images
can also be in inspection
valuable Figure 5 show ima
thermal survey tools (see Figure 3).
from portable borescopes and issuesand
(see Figure 2), used throughout the ethylene,
collected
hydrogen, and syngas industry. Given new
relating to reformer temperature balance, flame
The cost of adjustments designed to improve
impingement, hot spots/band,
challenges and demands, and catalyst damage.
other technologies efficiency in reduced reliability may outweigh
can be used with the Cyclops L to provide the benefit, especially if process temperatures
more accurate and comprehensive temperature are not accurately collected, recorded, and
data for the tubes, burners, burner tiles, and acted upon. Temperatures of 20°C (36°F) above
refractory. These technologies include the design temperatures may halve the lifetime of
AMETEK Land Gold Cup pyrometer, as well the tube. Because of this, many plants operate
as both fixed and portable borescope thermal conservatively to reduce the risk of material
imaging systems. failures. However, running 10°C (18°F) below
On an SMR, depending on furnace design, if design temperatures, for example, results in
temperatures approach or exceed the tube’s a 1% productivity loss on an SMR. Similarly,
design limits as measured by the pyrometer, a steam cracker running significantly under
firing can be reduced, burners can be gagged, design temperatures will not crack enough
or burners may be shut off in extreme cases. hydrocarbon feed to produce a valuable product.
This method is labour intensive and reactive, Operating in the optimum surface temperature
and potentially concerning conditions will only window is critical to an efficient process and
be acted upon if observed and recorded by material lifetime.4

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 79
impingement, hot spots/band, and catalyst damage.
Figure
Figure 55:Thermal
Thermal images
images showing
showing reformer
reformer
issues, including includingdamage
Thermal imaging for steam cracker and SMR
optimisation
Both portable and fixed thermal imaging systems
produce high-resolution images/videos and
extensive temperature data. Fixed systems
employ automated image analysis, continuously
monitor and alarm on TMTs and phenomena
such as potential coking on steam crackers. On
SMRs, they can identify insulation, burner tip/tile
condition (see Figure 1), and potential hot bands
or catalyst issues. The remaining tube lifetime
can be calculated from real, continuous surface
temperature data. Portable borescope systems
are ideal for inspections and can see parts of
the steam cracker or SMR that operators may
not be able to see with the naked eye through
peep-doors.
The AMETEK Land portable furnace thermal
imaging system (with optional air cooling)
enables regular, easy, quick inspections whilst
also providing thorough temperature data
that can be analysed and archived. Multiple
wavelengths, borescope lengths, and field of
views (FoV) are available to ensure suitability
for a large range of petrochemical processes.
The wavelength should be suitable for the gas
atmosphere; the borescope length should be
long enough to extend through the peep-door
comfortably, and the FoV should be suitable for
the peep-door design and tube layout.
A careful analysis of the thermal image and
80
issues, refractory
refractory damage
and flame and flame imp
impingement
temperature data in Figure 4 identified a
significant air leak and tube surface temperatures
far below design limits, resulting in highly
inefficient combustion and a poor catalytic
reaction. Profile lines were used to identify the
maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures
across multiple gradients. Advanced software
allows emissivity and background temperature
adjustments to be made on each tube to ensure
correct compensation. The thermal images in
Figure 5 show images collected from portable
borescopes and issues relating to reformer
temperature balance, flame impingement, hot
spots/band, and catalyst damage.
Reference measurements to verify accuracy
Whilst handheld pyrometers and thermal imaging
systems provide repeatable data, reference
measurements are required to verify the accuracy
of the temperature data produced. The AMETEK
Land Gold Cup is a water-cooled 3m-long probe
that creates near black body conditions at the
measurement point to deliver repeatable, reliable
reference temperatures.
Non-contact infrared measurements require
compensation for surface emissivity and
incident radiation if the environment has a hotter
background, especially in a steam cracker and
SMR. By using a hemispherical reflector (the
‘gold cup’ which gives the instrument its name), a
measurement is produced which is independent
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
 it is measured by the pyrometer module's detector. A
temperature data.
of emissivity and incident radiation. The Gold
Cup has a narrow protective edge suitable for
contact with the tube, which blocks incident
radiation from entering the cavity formed
between the tube and the cup (see Figure 6).
This energy escapes through a tiny aperture
in the back of the hemisphere, where it is
measured by the pyrometer module’s detector.
A handheld display continuously records the
temperature data.
The Gold Cup is designed only for periodic
reference measurement readings that can increase
the accuracy of non-contact devices. It has been
successfully used across the industry to improve Figure 6 AMETEK Land Gold Cup against the hot
Figure 6: AMETEK Land Gold Cup against the hot sur
the temperature accuracy of steam cracker and surface of the tube
SMR measurements.
Key industry decarbonisation trends homogeneity
The Gold Cup andisfuel efficiency
designed onlythus
forimproving
periodic reference
will change how we work and force end reliability and product yield in an increasingly
users, technology licensors, and instrument
of non-contact devices. It has been successfully used
competitive environment.
manufacturers to continuously seek incremental accuracy of steam cracker and SMR measurements.
and radical improvements to process efficiency.
Implementing digital solutions and infrared VIEW REFERENCES
technologies with the necessary technical Key industry decarbonisation trends will change how
James Cross
understanding could help steam cracker instrument manufacturers to continuously seek incre
james.cross@ametek.com
and SMR operators improve temperature
Implementing digital solutions and infrared technolo
help steam cracker and SMR operators improve tem
improving reliability and product yield in an increasin
WEBINAR
References
Petrochemical and refining
operations of the future will include (1) https://fsr.eui.eu/between-green-and-blue-a-de
more plastics oil, obtained from (2) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governm
chemical recycling, in the feedstock 11506/Hydrogen_Production_Costs_2021.pdf
mix to establish circularity in the
(3) https://www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002643
plastics lifecycle or to qualify for
fuels category. An important step
(4) https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757
in this value chain is to purify and
upgrade the raw plastics oil obtained
from depolymerisation.

Watch this webinar to learn about:

• The environmental necessity of recycling plastics.
• Sulzer Chemtech’s portfolio in plastics recycling.
• SuRe™ Styrene – Sulzer Chemtech’s GTC licensed technology to upgrade pyrolysis crude styrene,
obtained from waste PS to ultra-high purity (>99.95wt%) styrene monomer.
• Purification and upgradation of pyrolysis oil obtained from mixed plastics or tyres for downstream
applications for e.g., naphtha cracker feedstock, fuels category, etc.

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 81
 Powering the transition to sustainable fuels and energy

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TECHNOLOGY • SUMMIT

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TECHNOLOGY • LONDON • MAY 2022

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Role of gas analysis in clean air
strategies to reduce emissions
Gas analysis plays an essential role in cleaner plant and refinery operations, and
will also be crucial to the production of current and future cleaner energy sources
Matt Halsey
Servomex
R
educing carbon emissions to the
atmosphere is an area of growing
importance for industrial plant operators.
The raised sensitivity towards this issue has been
led in part by the introduction of increasingly
stringent environmental regulations.
International action to reduce the impact on
climate, including the 2016 Paris Agreement, has
intensified awareness of the effect of greenhouse
gases, driving operators to reduce emissions
and find more ecologically responsible ways
of operating.
Gas analysis provides an effective solution
for these efforts, not only by supporting
measurement of harmful emissions, but also by
improving efficiency to ensure fewer emissions
are generated in the first place.
Servomex, the global expert in gas analysis, has
developed a strategy for clean air that is based
around three main process areas: combustion
efficiency, gas clean-up (including carbon capture
processes), and emissions monitoring.
Combining solutions for these three areas
supports operator goals to deliver cleaner
processes, also optimising these processes to
reduce fuel consumption and deliver higher
production yields.
Combustion control solutions
Combustion reactions mix fuel with oxygen (from
air) in a fired heater to generate heat energy
for a process. They typically need a significant
amount of fuel, create potential safety hazards,
and generate harmful emissions including carbon
dioxide (CO2).
Running fired heaters with high excess air
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Fuel rich Air rich
CO, NOx
combustibles
and soot
EFFICIENCY
IDEAL
O2
-3 0 3 6
% Excess oxygen
Example gas fired process, actual excess oxygen
levels will vary with heater size, fuel, loading and
ambient conditions
– which was the case prior to gas analyser
technology – avoids creating unsafe conditions
that could lead to an explosion, but is highly
inefficient, increasing fuel consumption.
Excess oxygen (O2) also combines with nitrogen
and sulphur in the fuel to produce unwanted
emissions such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and
sulphur (SOx).
Accurate gas analysis of O2 and combustibles
such as carbon monoxide (CO) helps to optimise
the ratio between the air and fuel and creates a
more efficient reaction.
Controlling combustion in this way benefits
plants looking to meet environmental standards
requirements. Fuel consumption is reduced,
resulting in fewer emissions, a reduction in NOx,
SOx and CO, and a decrease in CO2.
Zirconia-based sensing technology is long
established as a solution for O2 monitoring
in combustion, with reliable, accurate results
83
and a fast response to changing conditions. A
combustibles sensor can be added easily at modest
cost to provide an all-in-one combustion control
solution, such as in Servomex’s ServoTough
FluegasExact 2700 combustion analyser.
Tunable diode laser (TDL) technology provides
an even faster measurement, particularly for CO,
and gives an average measurement across the
measurement path, rather than the result at a
single point. However, since TDL sensing is highly
specific to the gas being measured, separate
analysers are required for O2 and CO.
Servomex’s ServoTough Laser 3 Plus
Combustion TDL analyser provides a solution
for this application, and this can be configured to
measure either O2 or CO. It can also be configured
for a joint measurement of CO and CH4, providing
a rapid-response measurement for safety in
natural gas fired heaters and boilers.
Gas analysis also supports greater process
efficiency in many other applications. An efficient
84
process reaction reduces the amount of harmful
emissions likely to be generated.
Gas clean-up and carbon capture
Gas analysis plays an important role in gas
cleaning, the removal of harmful substances from
process gases that might otherwise be emitted by
the plant.
Typical examples of gas clean-up processes
include DeNOx (ammonia slip) treatment, flue
gas desulphurisation, and carbon capture and
storage (CCS).
By capturing and storing CO2, the operator
ensures it is not released into the atmosphere.
This results in a cleaner environment, and allows
the CO2 to be used in other processes.
Three different methods exist for CCS: pre-
combustion, oxyfuel, and post-combustion CCS.
Post-combustion CCS takes place when CO2 is
removed from the flue gas after fossil fuels have
been burned. Oxyfuel CCS produces a flue gas
consisting almost entirely of CO2 and
steam by reacting the fuel source with
almost pure O2 – this means flue gas
can be stored/sequestered without
significant pretreatment. Both these
methods can be used in new plants, or
retrofitted to existing ones.
A third method, pre-combustion
CCS, is performed before burning
the fuel, and converts the fuel into a
mixture of hydrogen and CO2. This
is difficult to retrofit, so is better for
newly built facilities.
Whichever method is used, the
captured CO2 is then compressed into
a liquid and transported for storage.
As countries look to meet their
responsibilities under Paris Agreement
carbon reduction targets, the use of
industrial-level CCS is likely to grow
significantly, as is the requirement
for accurate gas analysis to support
the processes.
Servomex’s ServoTough SpectraExact
2500 photometric analyser is ideally
suited to this application. It is capable
of single or multi-component gas
monitoring in corrosive, toxic or
flammable streams, using infrared and
gas filter correlation technologies to
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
measure CO2 at percentage and becoming increasingly
parts-per-million levels. attractive to many industries
This means it can be used to – hydrogen gas (H2) does not
measure the flue gas to ensure contain carbon, so cannot
most CO2 has been removed, form CO2 as a byproduct of
and to assess the purity of the combustion.
removed CO2 before it is sent to Plants that produce
storage. hydrogen are ramping up
output to meet increased
Monitoring flue gas demand. The purity of the
emissions hydrogen they produce
Carbon emissions reduction affects its quality as a fuel,
has been a key issue for many and this is where gas analysis
countries in recent years, with again plays a major role.
legislation limiting the amounts Depending on the
of greenhouse gases – CO2, manufacturing method, the
CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) most common contaminants
– that can be emitted. NOx, will be O2, CO, and CO2.
SOx, and CO are also seen as All three of these can be
key pollutants. monitored by the ServoPro
Monitoring flue gas emissions MultiExact 4200, Servomex’s
helps determine the process new multi-component
efficiency and protect the analyser, using a mixture
environment, and demonstrates of paramagnetic, infrared,
that plant operators are and gas filter correlation
complying with the necessary technology.
regulations.
To ensure compliance, A cleaner future
a continuous emissions Whether it is used to ensure
monitoring system (CEMS) is required to measure more efficient processes, to support the safe
all the necessary components of the flue gas. removal of pollutants, or to monitor the remaining
This must be capable of offering the highest emissions that are output to the atmosphere, gas
sensitivity and accuracy when dealing with multiple analysis plays an essential role in cleaner plant and
measurements for pollutants. refinery operations.
Multi-component gas analysers, such as Additionally, it is certain that gas analysis
Servomex’s ServoPro 4900 Multigas, are ideal technology will be essential to the production of
for this application, calling on a variety of sensing current and future cleaner energy sources.
technologies to measure the gas components. A wide range of sensing technologies is needed
Depending on the process, it can either deliver all to achieve all the necessary goals of a clean air
the necessary measurements in one device or form strategy in order to ensure the best-fit and most
a key part of an integrated, comprehensive CEMS. cost-effective solution for each application.
For example, a single 4900 Multigas can monitor By combining all three stages of the clean
four gases simultaneously, measuring from a choice air strategy outlined by Servomex, plants and
of O2, CO2, CO, SO2, NO, CH4 and N2O, so multiple refineries can fully address the impact of their
analysers can easily cover the pollutants of interest. operations on the wider environment, and
Any gas analysis system must also meet contribute fully to the creation of a world with
MCERTS and QAL1 certifications to comply with cleaner air.
regulatory criteria.
Matt Halsey
Cleaner energy sources mhalsey@servomex.com
Cleaner energy sources, such as hydrogen, are

www.decarbonisationtechnology.com 85
The need for custody transfer
in the hydrogen industry
Custody transfer for hydrogen is now being made possible using the latest
generation of measurement technologies

Danny Knoop
ABB

C
ustody transfer is a term traditionally natural gas. It may also be used in primary metal
associated with the oil and gas industry, production, manufacture of semiconductors
however as hydrogen becomes ever more and fuel cells, along with a wide range of other
important in the energy mix, custody transfer of manufacturing processes. In transport, hydrogen
hydrogen is an increasingly common practice. is a viable fuel for road vehicles, and is increasingly
Whether on-site, exchanging hands or crossing being considered as an environmentally friendly
borders, hydrogen custody transfer has its alternative for shipping and even aerospace.
own unique challenges that must be addressed Hydrogen can be blended with natural gas, using
in ensuring the process is safe, effective and existing networks, for space-heating and water
highly accurate. As a relatively nascent industry, heating in buildings, while it can also be used as a
albeit one with huge potential, hydrogen has the means of storing renewable energy.
opportunity to embrace new technologies that As the rollout of hydrogen as an energy source
can ensure best practices are baked in to custody becomes more widespread, the economy for
transfer procedures from the outset. transporting, storing and trading it as a resource
Hydrogen is a highly promising option will rapidly and necessarily grow. Accurate flow
for future energy needs chiefly because it measurement is therefore crucial in custody
can be combusted without producing any transfer. Minor errors can potentially create
pollutants. The emergence of clean or high financial impact, but precision can
green hydrogen, which is produced be hard to maintain when operating
through an electrolysis process using in harsh field conditions. Even a minor
renewable electricity, and produces misreading can accumulate into a major
little or no carbon emissions, is also an error over time and ultimately undermine
area where technology is helping to confidence in the process. For a growing
bring down renewable energy costs industry like hydrogen, it is crucial that
and reduce carbon impact. The more this is avoided.
that renewable energy sources are
brought online, the more opportunities The fundamental challenges of
there are to not only reduce emissions, handling hydrogen
but to also create a useful byproduct Hydrogen is usable in two physical
in the form of green hydrogen. This states – gas or liquid – and is often
in turn can help to further accelerate pressurised when stored. Its low energy
efforts to decarbonise society. density compared to natural gas means
that metering must be highly accurate
Huge cross-sector potential Flowmeters are and be able to handle high flow rates.
The potential applications for hydrogen used to measure the Furthermore, hydrogen is the smallest
are varied. In industry, it can be used volume or mass of a observed molecule in the universe,
as a clean combustion fuel, replacing gas or liquid which can result in a higher likelihood

86 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
of leakage. This can be
difficult to detect since
hydrogen is odourless.
For these reasons,
accurate measurement
of hydrogen flow is
a challenge using
traditional technologies.
In order to facilitate the
increased adoption of
hydrogen, the regulatory
landscape must be robust
to ensure standardisation
across countries and
markets. Custody
transfer across borders Flow computers take inputs from the flowmeter along with pressure and
is a particular challenge, temperature sensors to compute a correct volume flow
as differing regulations
and standards may apply. Collaboration between
countries, regions and organisations will be
fundamental in navigating the challenges of the
growing hydrogen industry. In response, the
American Gas Association (AGA) standard sets
out the calculations required for measurement of
hydrogen in normal conditions, and calculations in
the field are certified against this standard.
Complexity of custody transfer
arrangements
The problem here is that ‘normal conditions’
rarely occur. The physics of pure hydrogen are
well understood, however in custody transfer
hydrogen is often mixed with other gases, for
instance natural gas, which adds an additional
layer of complexity. Operators therefore not only
need to use the calculations as set out in the
standard, but also need to gain an understanding
of what is actually happening inside the pipe to
ensure a ‘true’ reading of hydrogen quantities.
Even a small error can potentially have a large
financial impact. It is therefore important to ensure
that measurements are as accurate as possible.
Investing in advanced measurement equipment
now will most likely pay off down the line through
the reduced error rate. Customers must also have
confidence in the measurement system, as false
reports can potentially have a significant effect
on the market, influencing stock and commodity
prices.
Measurement errors can be caused by a
wide range of factors, including human error,
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
incorrectly calibrated equipment, flawed or faulty
measurement equipment, flow computers with
incorrect algorithms, and drifting analog inputs.
Inadequate maintenance of measurement systems
can also lead to problems. It is important to
remember that a single mistake can render an
entire custody transfer worthless, so the stakes
are extremely high to ensure that measurement is
as accurate as it can be.
New and emerging hydrogen measurement
technologies
This is where a flow computer can help. This,
when combined with Coriolis mass flow
measurement, provides a more accurate picture
of the actual conditions, taking into account the
presence of other gases, along with other key
variables. Coriolis mass flow measurement has
been used for many years in oil and gas custody
transfer applications, and is widely considered to
be one of the most accurate and cost-effective
measurement techniques. Its advantages also
make it a logical choice for the measurement of
hydrogen. Coriolis meters operate on the mass
flow measurement principle, and are favoured for
their ability to measure multiple attributes over
sustained periods with high repeatability and little
maintenance requirements. The latest generation
of devices from manufacturers such as ABB can
measure a wide range of medium characteristics
including aggregate state, conductivity and
density with an accuracy to 0.1% in direct mass
flow measurement.
87
 From the mass flow rate, fluid density and
temperature measurements taken by a Coriolis
meter, other measurement values can be inferred
from the data, such as volumetric flow rate and
percent concentration. A single Coriolis meter
can therefore carry out the work of multiple
instruments, saving money by reducing the
need for separate devices, while also cutting
down maintenance.
A flow computer is an electronic device that
takes inputs from the flowmeter along with
pressure and temperature sensors to compute
a correct volume flow. In this sense, the flow
computer essentially acts as the cash register in a
hydrogen custody transfer application.
The software is used to continuously and
intelligently validate, in real-time, field signals
and raise an error condition so that appropriate
actions are taken when the measurement fails.
Depending on the actual root cause, in many
cases it can not only detect an error and warn
the operator, but it can also semi-automatically
or even fully automatically correct for the
mismeasurement incident and regenerate the
flow calculation results, in near real-time, without
adding any further uncertainty. This means that
mismeasurement incidents are now resolved
in seconds, rather than in weeks, saving vast
amounts of time compared to resolving issues
manually. This means that paperwork can be filled
out swiftly and correctly, removing barriers and
complexity from the custody transfer process.
In summary
There is considerable appetite in increasing
the use of hydrogen as a green, decarbonised
alternative to traditional fossil fuels. The success
of the future hydrogen economy is highly
dependent on its participants having confidence in
the accuracy of flow measurement. With modern
measurement techniques such as Coriolis mass
flow measurement, combined with advanced
flow computer software, the industry is ready to
accelerate into a hydrogen future.
Danny Knoop

WEBINAR
Demand for hydrogen is expected to
increase up to ten-fold by 2050 when
multiple industry reports predict 8-24%
of the world’s final energy demand will
be supplied by hydrogen. Hydrogen
has a unique ability to address ‘hard-
to-decarbonise’ sectors and long-term
power storage. To achieve this, it must be
produced with significantly lower carbon
intensity than is practised today.
Learn how customised and integrated carbon capture and hydrogen purification technology can offer:
• The most cost-effective and proven routes to low carbon intensity hydrogen available today for both
new and existing assets
• CO2 recovery rates of 99%+
• Tailored results to meet required H2 and CO2 purity requirements
• Single unit separation and liquefaction
• Solvent-free options with a smaller footprint

88 www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Capturing green opportunities
Well-designed post-combustion carbon capture technologies can benefit
businesses in the energy sector
Marcel Suhner
Sulzer Chemtech
T
he capture, sequestration and utilisation
of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key strategy
that businesses can adopt to reduce
their emissions. By implementing the right
technologies, they can meet ambitious climate
change mitigation strategies while benefitting
from new revenue streams. Sulzer Chemtech
offers a cost-effective solution for efficient
systems that can maximise the amount of CO2
captured with minimal energy consumption.
Being mostly stationary sources, oil and gas
facilities can potentially cut their environmental
impact and global warming potential (GWP) by
leveraging post-combustion, or post-conversion,
carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well
as carbon capture, utilisation and storage
(CCUS) strategies.
CCS and CCUS solutions remove CO2 from
flue gases and store the compound underground
or use it in extractive and industrial processes.
In CCUS applications, there are multiple
opportunities to use the captured CO2, with end
uses that vary greatly.1 For example, the recovered
emissions can be used to produce manufactured
goods or for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a
method to optimise oil extraction using CO2
to maximise yields in mature wells and store it
underground. By utilising or selling the gas for any
of these uses, power plants can therefore reduce
their environmental footprint while benefitting
from additional revenue streams.
How carbon capture works
CCS or CCUS solutions can be added to existing
infrastructures, e.g. as part of a retrofit project.
Therefore, any processing and manufacturing plant
can potentially incorporate these technologies.
Moreover, almost all of the CO2 produced on site
can be captured using well-designed systems.
For instance, Boundary Dam Unit 3 plant in
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Saskatchewan, Canada, can sequestrate up to 90%
of its CO2 emissions.2 As a result, highly effective
setups can reduce the GWP of power plants by 63-
82% per unit of electricity generated, as estimated
by lifecycle assessments on CCUS technologies.
The most common process utilised in existing
carbon capture systems relies on an amine-based
amine scrubbing treatment, whereby CO2 is
chemically absorbed onto amine-based solvents.
The CO2 rich flue gases enter the bottom of an
absorber column, where they make contact with a
down-flowing liquid amine-based solvent, such as
generic monoethanolamine, methyldiethanolamine
or proprietary amine solvents formulation by
process licensors. The rich solvent is sent to a
stripping column. There, the absorption reaction
is reversed (desorption) and the CO2 can be
compressed into a supercritical fluid for storage or
utilisation, while the lean solvent is recycled to the
top of the absorber for reuse.
Maintain peak performance and efficiency
While the process described is established and
already utilised in commercial settings, businesses
are sometimes reluctant to adopt it because of
the capital and operational expenses that may
be required. In effect, these systems need to
handle particularly challenging separations, as
they process high volumes of flue gases that have
limited CO2 concentrations. For example, a CCS/
CCUS line for an 800 MW coal-fired power plant
may need to be able to handle up to 3 million m3
of flue gases emitted by the plant every hour to
recover the CO2 from flue gases with CO2 in the
range of 3.5 to 14 vol%.4
Nonetheless, the right equipment can minimise
the costs, material use and energy required for
the intensive capture and compression phases. To
select effective solutions, businesses should work
together with an experienced specialist. More
89
precisely, as separation is at the core of amine-
based carbon sequestration processes, it is crucial
to identify the mass transfer components that
can reliably deliver optimum processing capacity,
recovery rates and energy efficiency.
For these activities, columns equipped with
structured packing offer the most effective design,
as they can maintain a limited equipment footprint,
even when high capacity and throughput are
required. Furthermore, such a compact solution can
still provide the necessary absorption efficiency to
remove CO2 from flue gases.
This type of packing minimises pressure drop for
a given separation performance. This is of major
importance for a system that needs to transport
a high-volume flow. A lower pressure drop leads
to lower energy consumption in the upstream
blower, which finally reduces the Opex and makes
the plant less cost intensive. Therefore, businesses
can rely on a technology that can maintain low
energy consumption and Opex. In addition to
this, structured packing features a smaller blower,
which helps to reduce Capex. Selecting the right
structured packing in CCS/CCUS facilities was
shown to save over €225,000 (over $267,000)
per year in electricity costs compared to first- or
second-generation random packing, providing
both environmental and financial benefits.4
Another positive effect of choosing mass transfer
solutions with efficiency and low pressure drop is
the smaller size of the absorption unit and thus a
reduction in Capex.
Ahead of the packing
A structured packing solution that offers all these
90
elements, as it has been specifically developed to
address the challenges of carbon sequestration
applications, is Sulzer’s MellapakCC. This packing
is currently used in several leading CCS/CCUS
facilities worldwide, delivering considerable
process advantages.
The packing height required to deliver at least
the same performance of traditional systems
can be 20% smaller. In addition, MellapakCC has
been proven to increase efficiency by up to 20%,
as well as lowering pressure drop by a minimum
of 20% and up to 50-60%.
When applied in a CCS/CCUS facility within
an 800 MW coal-fired power plant inputting
3 million m3 of flue gases every hour, MellapakCC
can save at least €6.75 million (over $8 million) in
Opex over the course of its 30-year service life.3
Beyond separation
By partnering with a mass transfer specialist
with extensive experience in separation
technology for carbon capture applications, such
as Sulzer Chemtech, businesses can benefit
from strategies that maximise their return on
investment (ROI). This enables companies to
benefit from highly effective CCS/CCUS facilities,
making decarbonisation an undertaking that can
enhance both competitiveness and sustainability.
MellapakCC is a trademark of Sulzer Chemtech.
VIEW REFERENCES
Marcel Suhner
Marcel.Suhner@sulzer.com
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
Decarbonisation through innovation
Explore some of the latest available sustainable technologies
NEUMAN & ESSER GROUP
compressor solutions
Compressors for the decarbonisation of
energy supply
Hydrogen will play a decisive role in
decarbonising the energy supply. In terms of
weight, it has by far the highest energy content.
However, its density in the atmospheric state
is very low at around 90g/m3, which is why
hydrogen must be compressed to achieve
a usable energy density. The compressor
manufacturer Neuman & Esser Group (NEA)
offers various solutions for compressing
hydrogen.
For example, hydrogen can be compressed
with a diaphragm compressor. In the field
of diaphragm compressors, NEA has many
years of experience with the premium brand
Andreas Hofer Hochdrucktechnik (HOFER).
With these compressors, small to medium
quantities of the clean energy carrier can be
compressed efficiently and leakage-free to very
high pressures of up to more than 5,000 bar.
With continuous operation, the components
of the diaphragm compressors achieve a very
long diaphragm life. There are many users who
run their diaphragms for well over a year in
continuous operation, maximising their benefits.
For volatile usage scenarios, dry-running,
hydraulically driven piston compressors (TKH)
from HOFER represent a suitable compressor
solution. With its components, the TKH can
reach discharge pressures of up to 3,000 bar.
With the hydraulics of the TKH, the regulation
of the number of strokes is possible. The
characteristics of the TKH further include that
it is both oil-free and technically abrasion-free.
For small delivery volumes, such as at hydrogen
refuelling stations (HRS) for passenger cars, the
TKH is the ideal hydrogen compressor.
If large quantities of oil-free hydrogen are
www.decarbonisationtechnology.com
required at pressures below 250 bar, the NEA
piston compressors, which have been tried
and tested thousands of times, run dry and
conform to API 618, are best suited. Well over
10 MW of drive power can be used here with
known high efficiency for compression. If the
requirement permits low residual oil quantities
in the gas, even pressures of up to 1,000 bar
are possible. If larger delivery volumes and
high discharge pressures are required without
oil and technically free of abrasion, the hybrid
compressor, which combines the principles
of the piston compressor and the diaphragm
compressor, represents another suitable
hydrogen compressor.
Hydrogen is a major topic of the future,
particularly in the field of mobility. At HRS,
fuel cells are refuelled with gaseous hydrogen.
Pressures of up to 1,000 bar are required for
this refuelling, and gas impurities and abrasion
must not occur during compression. In addition,
the compressor used must operate oil-free
and leak-free. Depending on the volume flow
conveyed, either the TKH or the diaphragm
compressor from HOFER is the ideal solution.
Pressure vessels, some of which can be used
as cylinder batteries or as so-called tube trailers,
are often used for the storage and transport of
hydrogen. For large transport volumes, around
10,000 Nm3/h to 1,000,000 Nm3/h, pipelines of
various diameters and pressure levels are the
suitable transport medium. Large pipelines can
also be used as storage tanks. Large-volume
piston compressors, capable of compressing
more than 800,000 Nm3/h from 40 to 80 bar,
are usually used as pipeline feeders or transport
compressors. Cavern storage facilities in salt
domes are ideal for storing very large amounts
of energy, which can also be used to bridge a
dark period lasting several weeks.
www.neuman-esser.com
Thorsten.Vierbuchen@neuman-esser.de
91
Ad index
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Decarbonisation Technology SOGAT 2022 45

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Decarbonisation with hydrogen Technip Energies IFC

solutions webinar 89 www.technipenergies.com
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watch?v=s9NhegNM_Ss TPS 2021 IBC
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chemical recycling webinar 81 Watlow 32
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watch?v=s9NhegNM_Ss

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 Where energies make tomorrow

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