Following the success of the Energy & Sustainability Forum (ESF) in Europe earlier this year, Euro Petroleum Consultants (EPC) held the inaugural ESF MENA virtually from 25-27 October, the latest in their global series of conferences dedicated to downstream sustainability and decarbonisation.
Over 200 delegates joined virtually across three days to hear keynote presentations, interactive panels discussion and the latest technologies supporting the development of a sustainable energy future in which the Middle East’s downstream industry continues to play a leading role.
The conference focused on four key themes First was positioning and pathways for a low carbon transition which took place through a series of keynote presentations and panels focused on preparing the downstream industry for tomorrow, through market outlooks and future fuel predictions, as well as the most opportune decarbonisation pathways and implementation roadmaps for the region.
Second was decarbonisation technologies and asset diversification, which looked at how the region’s refiners and producers can carbon base line their assets. Sponsors Wood, Saint-Gobain NorPro, Sulzer, and Lummus Technology presented the latest re-configuration, conversion, and catalysts technologies to support the evolution of the region’s refiners and producers through increased flexibility and (product slate) diversification, including the production and development of new low-carbon and alternative fuels, as well as the delivery of energy and operational efficiency to minimise carbon footprint and operating costs.
The forum’s third session focused on the hydrogen hype and GCC advantage and welcomed a keynote presentation from NEOM’s Executive Director Hydrogen & Green Fuels, Roland Kaeppner on the company’s green hydrogen strategy, a building block of NEOM’s vision and driver of Saudi Arabia’s sustainability ambitions. Presentations from Dii Desert Energy, Axens, Honeywell UOP, Lummus Technology and Alfa Laval explored the latest zero emissions technologies, including CCS and hydrogen, essential to achieving deep decarbonisation targets.
The final session focused on circulatory which included a panel discussion on ‘turning trash into treasure – commercialising circular economy strategies’ and delegates heard from experts from Borouge, Tasnee, IHS Markit and Sabic on the value proposition and commercialisation status of plastics conversion technologies and the tangible steps needed for large scale implementation.
Held just ahead of COP26, which is perhaps the most passionate and purposeful conference on climate change yet, we reflect on the main take-aways from the technology CEO panel ‘The Path to Net Zero: Transformational Technologies and Enabling Engineering’ joined by Bryan Glover, President & CEO, Honeywell UOP, Doug Kelly, President Technology, KBR, Leon de Bruyn, President & CEO, Lummus Technology, Andy Gosse, President, Shell Catalysts & Technologies, Jean Sentenac, President & CEO, Axens and moderated by Stefan Chapman, Vice President, Euro Petroleum Consultants.
ESF MENA 2021 Keynote Technology Panel Discussion: The Path to Net Zero
Our panellists agreed that climate change is real, and it is happening. It has the attention of the world, customers, shareholders, and society, but at the same time we must balance rising energy demand, population growth, and a strive for increased standards of living. Furthermore, it cannot be forgotten that many people are still living in energy poverty.
Looking locally at the Middle East, historically an exporter of energy, as the world will need renewable energy and there is a massive opportunity for the region to create and export renewable energy and become leaders in renewable energy technologies.
The Middle East looks set to continue their role as an energy exporter long-term due to the massive opportunities to create renewable energy and the world’s demand for it.
Reflecting on the strategies being seen across the Middle East, the conference heard they fall broadly into three categories – capture, avoid, and transition.
First on the capture side, a significant one for the region where the natural geology really supports it. There are big opportunities and considerable efforts going into CO2 capture, particularly around blue hydrogen with the potential to sequester the CO2. This is going to be the cheapest, and quickest route to clean hydrogen. There is also interest and opportunities in post combustion capture, both brown and green field.
Looking at the avoid category, certainly in the Middle East with its rich solar resources, green hydrogen is a big topic, and a lot of companies are working to play in that space. Blue or green, we expect to see competition and a race between the two over the coming years.
Furthermore, within the avoid strategies, there is a lot of interest and traction in direct recycling of plastics through advanced mechanical and chemical recycling. Plastics are too valuable to throw away, it’s a reflection of those hydrocarbons that go into the consumer products that are very valuable. Challenges and questions remain including how do we keep them in circulation, and how do we keep them away from just combustion for power production? Going forward we will expect to see increasing plastics recycling in the Middle East and potentially feedstocks coming from outside the region to supplement the cracking units.
Finally looking at transition, the region is showing interest and increasing activity to reduce scopes 1 and 2 emissions by moving up the value chain away from fuels and deeper into petrochemicals. Technologies in the region’s refineries today allow us to go from crude to very high chemical outputs at relatively modest cost.
ESF MENA 2021 Panel Discussion: The Hydrogen Hype and GCC Advantage
The Middle East is home to massive infrastructure that processes traditional feedstocks to traditional markets but what are seeing today is not just a mandate to change product specifications like we saw in the 2000’s, but a change in feedstock which will have a greater impact on the region’s processing facilities. Technology providers and operators must work together to understand these changes.
The region must make the most of its existing assets. The existing refining capacity is not going to be shut down as they are very valuable assets with very powerful reactor platforms. Those platforms can be deployed profitably and sustainably with different feedstocks and with different products.
The challenge will be to source feedstocks that comply with the expectations that we are putting on our systems. Circular feedstocks are not necessarily all available locally and so the complexity of solving the logistics and sourcing the circular or biomass feedstocks and bringing them together with the region’s existing processing industry is substantial.
Discussing refinery transformation and a move towards petrochemicals, driven by the growing demand for polymers from the increasing aspirations of the growing world’s population. The Middle East, with its existing refining base is a fantastic place to apply Crude Oil to Chemicals (COTC). We are seeing refineries turning more and more into crude to polymer machines with a much deeper vertical integration across the whole energy value chain. Since the Chinese COTC grass route investments made only a few years ago, we have seen the bar move so much from up to 50% of output to today’s levels of 75%+ of output, and at a CAPEX considerably below what went into those Chinese refineries. The technology exists to move those levels up and create flexibility between ethylene, propylene, and aromatics but the investment cycles need to pick up to realise the real transitions by 2030.
The inaugural ESF MENA concluded that through collaboration, and deploying the brilliant minds that the industry has, the region will overcome these challenges and be able to fully exploit the opportunities presented by the energy transition. Innovation is a must. The region and industry must keep innovating, and investing, faster than we have done historically.
ESF MENA 2022 will take place in October in UAE. For further details about the ESF Series, visit www.europetro.com