Giorgia Burzachechi A study by ENEA and the University of Palermo has shown that integrating concentrated solar heat into oil distillation processes could significantly reduce CO2 emissions and methane consumption in refineries.
@enea
While the energy transition is in progress, the shift to a world dependent on renewable energies has yet to take hold. Oil, also referred to as “black gold,” will be a cornerstone of the global economy and energy infrastructure for the foreseeable future. In any given sector, such as transportation, energy production, infrastructure, or even politics, its replacement is technologically and logistically impossible to replace today.
Industrial activities accounted for 38% of total energy use worldwide in 2022. Of these, the chemical and petrochemical industries are among the most energy-intensive, facing an annual increase in energy demand of 2% during the period between 2000 and 2016. This has gone hand in glove with an annual rise in CO2 emissions at 2.5%.
Despite retirement, energy usage of refineries will further continue for very many decades as transportation depends largely on crude oil-based fuels. Reasons being, all modes of decarbonizing crude oil distillation tasks are of priority already.
Study: potential contribution of solar energy to emission reduction
A recent study from ENEA and the University of Palermo has estimated that applying CSP to crude oil distillation might decrease CO2 emissions by more than 10% (about 59,500 tons/year) and methane consumption by about 22,000 tons/year. It was published on Energy under the title “Concentrated solar heat for the decarbonization of industrial chemical processes: a case study on crude oil distillation”.
About 30-40% of refineries’ overall energy use represents the crude oil distillation process. In a research at the University of Palermo, the researchers referred that temperature supplied by the CSP system in that cases will be economically applied into the current distillation procedure. With such steps substantial refinery de-carbonization was gained in the refinery plant; in addition lower methane consumption came out especially in that refinery plants based in areas characterized by a high solar radiation.
However, solar heat integration with the distillation process is complex because it requires an implemented strategy to equilibrate the intermittency in solar radiation with continuity at refineries.
Scaling the Solution: Practical Implementation and Benefits
The research team estimated that a CSP system with about 82 acres (330,000 square meters) of solar collectors could deliver steady-state solar heat for distillation, including adequate thermal energy storage for 24 hours of continuous operation on clear days.
The technical and economic analysis was also performed by using data from an Italian refinery. It estimated an ROI of 16.2% for the CSP system, taking into account the specific solar irradiation conditions of the region. The researchers further looked at the impact of the technology in the UAE. Though both locations experience similar peak levels of direct solar radiation, the UAE enjoys a better distribution of solar radiation throughout the year. This leads to a higher potential CO2 reduction of up to 17%.
Conclusion: opportunities for solar heat integration in refineries
All findings point out the tremendous potential of high-temperature heat integration, in particular for refineries located at high solar irradiance and sufficient areas for close-by solar fields at distillation units. This type of innovation certainly points to the highly desired objective of significantly alleviating the environmental impact of strictly necessary basic industrial processes in the particularly sensitive energy transition of humankind.
Source: Energy
