While future changes in mobility are predicted to reduce the fuel-based demand growth, the conversion of low-value oil into higher value chemicals is expected to provide both opportunities for diversification and the right economic incentive to justify investments in new “crude oil to chemicals” complexes.
Waiting for revolutionary technologies to become industrially proven, innovative ways of assembling traditional refining and chemical technologies are already available to fully convert crude to chemical base stocks, while completely eliminating residual fuels production.
Technip Energies believes that this requires a paradigmatic shift in the way refiners have traditionally designed their projects and, in particular, it encompasses:
- original approaches to crude selection and processing scheme definition considering the target chemicals market
- new methods of integrating and optimizing refinery units, starting with crude fractionation
- extensive recycle of low-value streams with ultimate reuse as internal fuels
- new benchmarks in terms of complex size (driven by the final products targeted)
This paper will present cases derived from projects and studies on which some or all of the above concepts have been applied, providing an insight into some key configuration selection drivers and to the performance that these assets may be able to achieve.
With a clear understanding of the underlying challenges and a view of the strategies that resolve them, refiners prepared to embrace the change may see the conversion of crude to chemicals as the latest of the many evolutions that the industry has already successfully overcome, opening opportunities for their future developments.
