A precursor to feedstock and infrastructure change
The chemical industry, one of the driving forces of the Power-to-X industrial applications, is a key contributor to new supply chains integration, by transferring clean energy supply into a number of other processes. This potential is also contributing to transform the infrastructures around industrial clusters.
The prospect to contribute to sectors coupling is three-fold. Firstly, shifting renewable electricity into chemical energy of synthetic energy carriers, secondly, transforming it into heat used for high temperature processes and thirdly by creating circular economies where the exhaust of an industry is used as feedstock into another one or into different processes.
Industries are demanding abundant clean energy supply and feedstock diversification which has implication for the bulk liquid storage sector and the entire supply chain. Oil infrastructure is more widely spread and distributed, offering flexibility and adaptability to supply alternative conventional fuels. Depending on product, most existing infrastructure can be used, without changes or minimal modifications.
Refineries are facing a similar challenge. Different sectors are shifting away from diesel and gasoline consumption, transportation being a front runner. Therefore refineries have to adapt their infrastructure and operations. As utilization declines, many refiners are considering shifting away from refining crude into mostly fuels and are instead looking to refine crude into chemicals. Although, direct crude to chemicals technologies are not widely used yet.
Oil and gas terminals are the gate way to energy trading and they play a pivotal role in the transport and logistics of new low carbon alternatives to fossil fuels. Currently, only about 10% of global capacity can handle and store biofuels. Examples of ports with biofuel capacity include Rotterdam, Gothenburg in Sweden, Klaipedos in Lithuania, and Singapore.
Many challenges need to be overcome before crude oil can be replaced by sustainable feedstocks.
A front-runner in the feedstock transition: Feedstock Transition for Harbor Industrial Cluster Rotterdam
Four main sustainable feedstock pathways are expected to shape the future fuels/chemicals value chains:
Bio oils, imported or produced locally from e.g., residual vegetable oil, animal fat or used cooking oil
Pyrolysis oil, imported or produced locally from plastic waste
Green methanol, imported or produced locally from hydrogen and biomass or residual gas
Hydrogen (or hydrogen carriers), as a key enabler for processing sustainable carbon feedstocks.
The availability of sustainable feedstocks and space constrains due to the lower energy densities and conversion efficiencies will required more changes to the energy infrastructure. Additionally, the crude oil potential replacement leaves, in the case of HIC, a long term gap up to 50% of the balance, that will need to come from additional sources. Partnering to explore opportunities to import-export hydrogen carriers are strategic choices that terminals are taking to actively contribute to the introduction of future vital products and try to close the sustainable feedstock foreseen gap.
