A recent Reuters article describes Aramco's push into chemicals by teaming with
petrochemicals giant SABIC to build a complex that converts crude oil into chemicals directly, bypassing the
refining stage.
Here are excerpts from the article …
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7/19/2018
DUBAI, (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco said it
is looking to buy a strategic stake in Saudi petrochemical maker SABIC, a move
that could boost the state oil giant's market valuation ahead of a planned
initial public offering.
Riyadh-listed SABIC, the world's fourth-biggest petrochemicals company, is 70
percent owned by the PIF, Saudi Arabia's top sovereign wealth fund. It has a
market capitalization of 385.2 billion Saudi riyals ($103 billion).
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Saudi Aramco had invited banks to pitch for
an advisory role on the potential acquisition of a strategic stake in Saudi
Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), citing two sources with direct knowledge of the
matter.
Aramco wants to develop its downstream business as the government prepares to
sell up to 5 percent of the world’s largest oil producer, possibly by next
year. Boosting its petrochemicals portfolio further could help attract
investors for the IPO.
Aramco's push into chemicals includes a mega-project it is building at home
with SABIC. The $20 billion project would be to build a complex that converts
crude oil into chemicals directly, bypassing the refining stage.
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Rania El Gamal, additional reporting by
Marwa Rashad and Katie Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin and Adrian Croft)
source: http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2018/07/saudi-aramco-in-talks-to-buy-stake-in-worlds-no-4-chemical-firm
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TIP: Google
the phrase Crude to Chemicals for items like the following …
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Why Crude Oil to
Chemicals?
In many parts of the world today, the demand for chemicals is growing at
a much higher rate than the demand for transportation fuels. With advances in
catalytic technology, modern complex refineries can be configured to convert
crude oil directly to chemical feedstocks instead of transportation fuels.
A crude-to-chemicals plant would use the latest refining technology that mixes
innovative configurations with proven catalytic conversion processes to create
an integrated petrochemical complex.
The CB&I Solution
We offer one of the industry’s most extensive technology portfolios to the
hydrocarbon processing sector and have commercialized, on average, a new
technology every year for the last decade.
CB&I can provide reliable technology solutions that enable not only crude
oil to chemicals conversion, but also a full range of refining, gas processing,
petrochemicals and gasification applications.
In addition, with our integrated project delivery model, we can combine our
technology portfolio with our other products and services to support customers
through the entire plant life cycle.
source: https://www.mcdermott.com/C/Crude-to-Chemicals
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Crude Oil-to-Chemicals and Other Disruptive
Technologies Will Have a Significant Impact on Chemical Industry, IHS Markit
Says
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The convergence of two significant and
revolutionary technological developments in the petrochemical industry -- crude
oil-to-chemicals (COTC) and oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) -- are poised
to have a very significant impact on the chemical industry, according to new
analysis from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), the leading global source of critical
information and insight.
“would cut capital costs by 30 percent compared to conventional refining.”
This analysis from Don Bari, vice president of chemical technology at IHS
Markit, follows on an announcement made earlier today by Siluria Technologies,
which has joined forces with Saudi Aramco Technologies: Siluria Technologies
and Saudi Aramco Technologies Company join forces to maximize chemical
production.
In the past decade or so, disruptive technology development and deployment have
been dominant on a global basis in the petrochemical industry and largely
driven by the extreme pricing dynamics of the energy industry, translating
directly to fundamental petrochemical feedstocks; where such new technology has
enabled deployers of capital and technology to use low-cost and locally
abundant feedstocks.
One of the most significantly disruptive technologies or categories of
technologies being developed, based on their sheer volume, is crude
oil-to-chemicals. These projects, in effect, merge a refinery and petrochemical
plant into one, and thus, go well beyond the state-of-the-art refinery
petrochemical integration by the implementation of new/reconfiguring unit
operations into a refinery.
The objective is to shift the product slate derived from a barrel of oil to a
range of 40 percent to 80 percent chemical feedstocks and non-fuel products, up
from the traditional range of 15 percent to 25 percent, in order to
significantly increase the value of crude oil reserves. For example, Saudi
Aramco Technologies Company publicly announced (in a joint news release with
Siluria Technologies issued earlier today, Siluria Technologies and Saudi
Aramco Technologies Company join forces to maximize chemical production):
“Maximizing the output of high-value chemicals products from our future
crude-oil processing projects is one of the key objectives in our downstream
technology strategy, said Ahmad Al Khowaiter, chief technology officer of Saudi
Aramco.”
The Siluria Technologies process, which produces olefins directly from natural
gas through oxidative coupling (chemistry) of methane (OCM), is expected to
further allow Saudi Aramco’s future crude oil-to-chemicals facilities to create
more value by converting the very low-value off-gases (largely methane) into
higher-value olefins products, which improves carbon efficiency and increases
the volume of the barrel of oil directed to valuable fundamental
petrochemicals.
Competitive and sustainable advantages of such a fully integrated crude
oil-to-chemical facility:
• Upgrades a lower-value stream into a higher-value product through greater
operational efficiency and optimization of assets. Greater capital
efficiency--leverages a well-integrated upstream (refinery) with the downstream
(chemicals) operations to increase efficiency of deployed capital (maximum
investment-per-ton of production capacity) through scale; and decreases
operating costs through carbon efficiency and low fixed operating costs. (In a
Reuters News article published Jan. 18, 2018, Aramco chief technology officer
Ahmad Al-Khowaiter said the process called thermal crude-to-chemicals
technology “would cut capital costs by 30 percent compared to conventional
refining.”).
• Sustainability gains through the reduction in the overall carbon footprint of
a facility due to integration and optimization of assets, which become more
efficient.
The “disruption” to conventional petrochemical producers would likely be the
loss of market position due to COTC’s immense petrochemical volume. For
example:
• The global demand for ethylene and propylene are 160 million metric tons
(MMT) and 111 MMT per year, respectively, and at approximately 4 percent annual
growth rate, the required global annual capacity additions would be 6.4 MMT and
4.4 MMT of ethylene and propylene, respectively.
• These volumes could nearly be supplied from two large-scale 200,000
barrel-per-day COTC complexes (see analysis below and note that multiple FCCs,
cracking furnaces and cracked gas compressor/separation trains would be
required); instead of four conventional state-of-the-art naphtha-cracking light
olefins plants.
• If multiple COTC facilities are eventually built, the export dynamics would,
over time, change significantly and put pressure on olefin and
feedstock-related derivative exports from the U.S. According to our IHS Markit
estimates, U.S. exports of these olefin and feedstock-related derivatives will
reach approximately 14 MMT by 2020.
Siluria Technologies: Addressing sustainability through carbon efficiency—A new
operational metric?
Siluria Technologies’ oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene (and propylene)
process converts methane to olefins in the presence of a catalyst in an
oxygen-rich environment. The catalyst reaction “diverts” roughly half of the
carbon to the undesirable co-products of carbon monoxide (CO) or carbon dioxide
(CO2). In this highly exothermic (heat generating) reaction. Siluria exploits
this exotherm by injecting ethane or propane into a second reaction chamber,
where the light alkane is thermally cracked to the olefin.
Moreover, to enhance the overall carbon efficiency of the process, a catalytic
methanation step is embodied in Siluria’s process. This reaction converts all
generated CO and a portion of the CO2 oxidative coupling reaction co-product
back to methane by using the hydrogen generated in both the OCM and the
ethane/propane-cracking reaction in the post-OCM section of the reactor.
In fact, the Siluria process design philosophy is all about less total carbon
(methane) consumed per unit of light olefins produced, because the process is
“indifferent” to methane as a feedstock, or as energy (process utility).
Therefore, one would expect that a design philosophy that equates British
thermal units (BTU) of energy savings to a reactor-conversion-per-pass percent
increase should drive that most optimum overall process design.
Significant carbon reduction through process design
The Siluria OCM process also delivers significant reduction in carbon emissions
over traditional ethylene production processes. IHS Markit evaluation of total
carbon dioxide emissions to the production of ethylene by various feedstock
types shows that the Siluria technology is expected to be a net-negative CO2
producer per ton of ethylene/olefins produced because of the heat generation
for the OCM exotherm, and methane production (partly) from CO2 is considered in
our methodology as an offset to CO2 emissions. IHS Markit estimates that the
Siluria Technologies OCM process generates negative 1 ton of carbon dioxide
emissions equivalents per ton of ethylene produced as compared to the more
conventional naphtha-cracking process for converting crude to olefins, which is
estimated at greater than 1.4 tons of CO2 produced per ton of ethylene
produced. This is a significant improvement in carbon emission reduction, while
at the same time capturing greater value from the molecules.
How can Siluria Technologies add to the impact of crude oil-to-chemicals mega
complexes?
Independent and detailed technical analysis by IHS Markit of a Saudi
Aramco-type COTC approach (as described in Saudi Aramco’s patent literature)
projects that crude oil feedstock will be converted to chemicals at a higher
intensity than conventional processes, increasing the yields of crude oil
feedstocks converted to chemicals to 72 percent. (Note that a January 18, 2018
Saudi Aramco announcement by Reuters states that it expects, with its
developing COTC technology, “70 percent to 80 percent of the crude intake will
be converted into chemicals….”).
With the recent cooperation announcement by Siluria Technologies and Saudi
Aramco Technologies Company to work together in the COTC process to maximize
the production of chemicals from a barrel of oil, IHS Markit speculates that if
the methane off-gas and a portion of the ethane in a hydrocracked Arab Light
crude oil feedstock were to be fed to the Siluria OCM technology, then a net
increase of 300 thousand metric tons (TMT) to 350 TMT of ethylene and 200 TMT
to 250 TMT per-year of propylene, would be generated (based on 10 million
metric tons (MMT) per year (200,000 barrels per day) of crude feed). With
methane valued at U.S. $1.25 per MMBTU in the Middle East, the Siluria OCM
technology appears to be an attractive approach to enhance the value of a
barrel of oil.
Direct oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene has been an elusive goal
The oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) to ethylene has attracted significant
attention since its discovery in the early 1980’s. Compelling efforts to
produce ethylene directly from natural gas have been made, yet no OCM process
has been commissioned at commercial scale.
The two major companies that tried to commercialize OCM, ARCO and Union Carbide,
did extensive catalyst screening studies in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. ARCO
reviewed several transition metal oxides as oxidative coupling catalysts.
Manganese oxide catalysts on silica support where found to be the most
attractive for methane conversion to ethylene. However, high-product yields
required operating temperatures above 800°C. Higher operating temperatures led
to methyl radicals forming higher-carbon number products, and undesirable
products (CO, CO2, and coke) formed.
A similar conclusion was reached by Union Carbide. The Union Carbide research
showed that the development of more active (and selective) catalysts
potentially operating in the 400°C to 600°C range might permit industrial
operation. Although those catalysts showed promising yield and selectivities,
they were significantly hampered by long-term catalyst stability issues,
largely due to the required high-reactor inlet temperatures.
Siluria has developed and scaled-up a proprietary commercial, low-temperature
OCM catalyst that can operate adiabatically with fewer stages at several
hundred degrees °C lower inlet temperatures, and at higher pressures. This
catalyst produces a favorable yield and has a standard lifetime for a
commercialized process; and it has a relatively high-space velocity. According
to U.S. provisional patent applications, Siluria’s proprietary catalyst is
based upon mixed-metal oxide nanowires.
The heart of Siluria’s process technology is a two-stage adiabatic reactor.
Within the reactor, heat recovery is a significant technology feature, where
the exothermic heat from OCM is used to thermally crack the by-product and
fresh ethane and propane to ethylene and or propylene. As previously mentioned,
a methanation step is employed to convert co-product CO, CO2 and H2 back to
methane, and to enhance overall carbon and energy efficiency of the process.
To enhance the overall carbon efficiency of the process, a catalytic
methanation step is included in Siluria’s process. This reaction converts all
generated CO, and a portion of the CO2 OCM, back to methane by using the
hydrogen generated in both the OCM and ethane-propane cracking-reaction
sections of the post-OCM section of the reactor.
The product gas from the OCM reactor moves downstream to the generally
conventional olefins cracking separation, recovery and fractionation steps.
However, Siluria has developed proprietary separation and recovery technology,
including optimizing system hydraulics, thermodynamics (pressures and
temperatures) and heat integration, to minimize energy consumption.
This is especially necessary given that the methane-per-pass-conversion is
relatively low due to the thermodynamic limitations of the OCM
adiabatic-reaction design. The low methane-conversion-per-pass means that a
large amount of methane must be recompressed and cryogenically cooled at great
capital and energy expense, to recover the olefin products.
In short, the intersection of a global hydrocarbon resource powerhouse such as
Saudi Aramco, with Siluria Technologies, a small, but innovative,
process-technology company, is expected to yield significant returns for both
entities, but also drive the industry forward in process improvements, greater
carbon efficiency, capital efficiency and value creation. While these
technologies are capitally intensive, the commercial application of these two
revolutionary technologies not only enables greater carbon efficiency,
flexibility and value to the petrochemical producers, but also a significant
route to greater carbon emission reduction, which has an untold value to
chemical producers and to the sustainability of the industry. This
sustainability value will likely only continue to increase as more consumers,
investors and regulators seek greater environmental stewardship from
petrochemical producers.
For more information on the Siluria Technologies OCM process, the crude
oil-to-chemicals technologies, the IHS Markit Process Economics Programs (PEP)
covering these and other disruptive technologies, or to speak with Don Bari,
please contact: melissa.manning@ihsmarkit.com.
About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com)
IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) is a world leader in critical information, analytics
and solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies
worldwide. The company delivers next-generation information, analytics and
solutions to customers in business, finance and government, improving their
operational efficiency and providing deep insights that lead to well-informed,
confident decisions. IHS Markit has more than 50,000 business and government
customers, including 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 and the world’s
leading financial institutions.
IHS Markit is a registered trademark of IHS Markit Ltd. and/or its affiliates.
All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective
owners © 2018 IHS Markit Ltd. All rights reserved.
source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180613006109/en/Crude-Oil-to-Chemicals-Disruptive-Technologies-Significant-Impact-Chemical
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