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Celebrating two years of reporting on the industry’s progress toward net zero

ISSN 2753-7757 (Online)
Aerial view over energy and chemical industrial facilities in Rotterdam Photo: Porthos consortium
Carbon capture and storage will play a significant role in European petrochemicals decarbonisation, as demonstrated by the Porthos CCS project at Pernis refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Photo: Porthos consortium

Petrochemicals is one of the largest and most greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive industry sectors, but it has ambitions to become climate neutral by 2050. Brian Davis reports on key European initiatives.

The European petrochemical industry’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 is a big challenge, according to Frans Stokman, Executive Director of Petrochemicals Europe, part of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic).

 

He maintains that the sector is dealing with a quadruple challenge, namely:
• Reaching climate neutrality. 
• Achieving a circular economy.
• Undergoing digital transformation.
• Implementation of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS).

 

The challenges are being tackled under the European Green Deal, for which Stokman has identified several priority areas including electrification, feedstocks, the need for a level playing field with carbon pricing; carbon neutrality; energy efficiency; implementing the CSS and sustainable products; recycling; innovation; and carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS).

 

Discussions have been underway for some time. The chemical sector has been working towards a green and digital transition under the EU Recovery Plan, to deliver on the European Green Deal, and most recently under the RePowerEU initiative in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

 

Since 1990, the European chemicals sector has reduced GHG emissions by 54% while production grew 47%. The energy efficiency of the sector has improved by 21% over recent years. However, there is a call for a ‘step change’ given the relatively high energy costs in Europe compared to other global regions – as energy can account for up to 80% of chemical manufacturing costs.

 

In the meantime, Europe’s share of global chemical sales has decreased due to exponential growth in Asia and declining competitiveness, combined with energy cost disadvantages. ‘The challenges are piling up,’ remarks Stokman. A huge amount of European legislation is in the pipeline and is currently being discussed in Brussels, under the Green Deal.


‘The step change will be make or break for the chemicals industry as the sector plays a strategic role in Europe. It is essential for the petrochemicals industry to have a global level-playing field.’ – Frans Stokman, Executive Director of Petrochemicals Europe, part of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic)

 

Key building blocks
The petrochemicals sector accounts for key building blocks in 95% of industrial products in Europe – from feedstocks including naphtha, ethane, propane/LNG and methane. Production comes from 40 crackers across Europe (including the UK), providing key components for cosmetics, construction, transport, electronics and household products. Carbon is an essential element, so decarbonisation of these petrochemical products potentially removes strength and performance from these molecules, leading us to talk about ‘carbon management’.

 

‘Furthermore, carbon removal in a product like plastic requires carbon capture or recycling – as you don’t want it to end up in landfill or incineration,’ explains Stokman. Carbon captured via CCS could also potentially be used for synthesis chemistry.

 

These are virtuous cycles which Petrochemicals Europe defined in its Chemical Recycling position paper, published in April 2022. Cefic has also produced guiding principles to increase and develop collaboration and partnerships to bring more recycled products to the market (with support of the Circular Plastics Alliance), focused on building more transparency and uniform standards, and performing life cycle assessments to measure environmental impacts (including initiatives by Cefic-Qantis, the International Council of Chemical Associations and Joint Research Centre bio-based chemicals studies).

 

Cracker electrification and other initiatives
Cefic is also supporting initiatives to increase the electrification of cracker furnaces, reducing up to 90% of CO2 emissions. ‘Though electrification is quite challenging technically, there is even greater potential electrifying chemical sites,’ reflects Stokman.

 

Electrification of a 1 GW cracker is estimated to require the energy of at least 125 (8 MW) wind turbines, or 4,000 km2 of bio-feedstock to de-fossilise a 1 GW cracker – equivalent to 8% of the surface of Belgium. So, electrification of all 40 European crackers would require 7% of the EU27’s electricity consumption, which is clearly not feasible.

 

Current electrified cracker projects include the ‘Cracker of the Future’ consortium, which includes Borealis/OMV, TotalEnergies, BP, Repsol and Versalis/Eni. Dow and Shell have a global joint development agreement in place with regard to e-cracker technologies in partnership with TNO and ISPT, at their Antwerp chemical site, with a pilot plant scheduled for start-up in 2025.

 

Under the BASF, Sabic, Linde ‘Cracker Electrification Pact’, the consortium plans to start-up a demo plant in 2023 for commercialisation by 2027. Meanwhile, the ambitious Ineos Project One in Antwerp is designed to maximise the use of green hydrogen as fuel (using 100% renewable energy), for planned start-up in 2026.

 

Use of common infrastructure and collaboration is key to such projects, and ‘permitting is still considered to be a challenge’, remarks Stokman.

 

Major CCS projects located in Rotterdam and Antwerp are being funded as EU ‘projects of common interest’. The Port of Rotterdam’s Porthos (Port of Rotterdam CO₂ Transport Hub and Offshore Storage) project consortium aims to collect carbon emissions from multiple factories and refineries for storage in empty gas fields in the North Sea starting in 2024. The goal is to store at least 2.5mn t/y of CO2.

 

Project Antwerp involves seven leading chemical and energy companies including Ineos, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Air Liquide and Fluxys, and aims to capture 9mn t/y of CO2.

 

Further CCS projects involving common infrastructure include Kairos @C, the world’s largest cross-border CCS value chain, to be operated by Air Liquide and BASF with funding under the European Commission Innovation Fund. It will use shared CO2 transport and export infrastructures and is anticipated to be in operation by 2025.

 

Likewise, the SHARC CCS project in Finland will introduce electrolysis and CCS, whilst geological storage at Greensand in Denmark aims to store up to 22bn tonnes of CO2.

 

Carbon pricing mechanisms
Stokman also stresses the importance of addressing carbon costs to create global level playing fields through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This is a mechanism to protect the export position of European chemicals across the full and integrated supply chain, to avoid circumvention and collateral ‘carbon leakage’ among customers in a World Trade organisation-compliant set up.

 

Petrochemicals Europe calls for ‘feasible and effective’ functioning of CBAM systems on a global basis to avoid competitive erosion and is involved in discussions on these mechanisms in the European Parliament with an impact assessment on the value chains.

 

Sequencing
The scale of decarbonising European petrochemicals is considerable and requires careful sequencing and prioritisation in the short, medium and long term. ‘There needs to be a balance between the short-term essential enablers and the long-term ambition required, with a careful eye on maintaining our global competitive level playing field and a cost-effective transition,’ Stokman emphasises.

 

Infrastructure is a key enabler for the energy transition. ‘It’s all about sequencing and scale-up once the technology is seen to work effectively – otherwise there is too much downtime with these big units. New technology has to be phased in carefully, with permitting and access to green and low carbon electrons, and grid available to get the renewable energy to site whether a plant is located close to the sea or inland,’ he adds.

 

So, is the net zero goal by 2050 realistic?

 

Stokman is confident that the transition target is achievable. ‘Cefic has created a model called iC2050 which gives us insight into the feasibility of the ambition depending on certain requirements. For example, whether we have enough green electrons available. The programme should be feasible. Many Cefic members have made net zero pledges. But it’s quite a long time to 2050,’ he says.

 

Feedstock diversification
‘As an industry we are very much fossil-based and are looking to replace part of that fossil fuel-based content, eg with recycled material, pyrolysis oil, bio-feedstock and recycled feedstock, to derive intermediate and end-products and reduce use of virgin feedstock,’ continues Stokman.

 

About 29 chemical recycling projects are in the pipeline under the Circular Plastics Alliance, but they need to be scaled up. Stokman recognises the need for regulatory and policy stability to give companies the confidence to invest in scale-up. ‘That’s why we talk about the need for clear “pathways” with the European Commission, with dedicated steps for the industry at large. Because the chemical industry needs specificity – which is quite different from the specificity required by the cement or steel industries, for example.’

 

Mechanical recycling complements chemical recycling technologies. ‘And the whole value chain from production to consumption needs to go from a linear model a to circular model’, suggests Stokman. The linear model involves incineration and landfill. Only 15% of plastic is recycled currently. There’s still need for recycling regulation to avoid the plastic ‘burn and pay’ models today and reduce use of virgin feedstock.

 

Here again, there is the thorny question of scale. ‘If you want to convert a cracker completely to bio-feedstock, you need the equivalent of 800,000 football fields of bio-feedstock annually. Some of that can be achieved with recycling, but there are questions about pyrolysis quality; what extent you have access to bio-feedstock resources; transport; as well as competition with other industries for green electrons.’

 

About 7,100 pages of new regulations and policies are under discussion. ‘We need a standard set of policies and regulatory frameworks or we will not attract investments. Petrochemicals is a strategic industry and wants to remain so. At the end of the day, it’s about investing in new plants and innovation to keep the European petrochemicals industry competitive in a global playing field,’ says Stokman.

 

He concludes: ‘Recycling is a short-term stage which can be done today. CCS can be done today. Electrification is medium-term and needs scale-up. Then innovation needs to kick in to achieve the 2050 net zero ambition. It’s a staged approach. Decarbonisation and conversion need to be approached very carefully because there’s not going to be a second chance when it comes to climate change.’

 

This article is part two of Cleaning up: petrochemicals’ path to decarbonisation, published on 29 June 2022.