Tag: Hydrogen

As the world looks to a lower carbon future, refineries are having to examine their operating models, and look to, for example, renewable hydrogen production for desulphurisation technologies.

Global demand for oil products has seen strong recovery in 2021, but depressed kerosene demand from the aviation sector continues to be a major barrier to full recovery, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. The company’s analysis of oil product flows suggests that when kerosene is excluded, oil product demand in Q3 2021 had fully recovered compared to the same period in 2019. However, demand for kerosene, mostly used for jet fuel, has hovered at around two thirds of pre-Covid-19 levels throughout the year, and when that is taken into account, total oil product demand was 3% below pre-Covid levels for Q3 2021. Kerosene demand saw the greatest impact from Covid-19 due to restrictions on air travel. While the sector recovered, to an extent, in the second half of 2020, recovery stalled in 2021 due to new waves of infections and restrictions, with new restrictions linked to the Omicron variant likely to have hit demand again in Q4.

Sulphur processing from sour gas fields dominates regional production, but the geographical remoteness of the area from end use markets and restrictions on sulphur storage means that producers often opt to reinject acid gas into oil and gas wells.

Like the vital nitrogen fertilizer they handle, seasonal cheer will be in short supply for Europe’s ammonia producers and buyers this festive season, after many difficult months in which upward price trajectories showed no sign of slowing.

Topsoe has begun operations at a demonstration plant for the production of methanol from biogas. The aim is to validate the company’s electrified technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable methanol from biogas as well as other products. The project is supported by the EUDP Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program and is developed together with Aarhus University, Sintex A/S, Blue World Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Energinet A/S, Aalborg University, and Plan-Energi. The demonstration plant is located at Aarhus University’s research facility in Foulum, and will have an annual capacity of 7.9 t/a of CO 2 -neutral methanol from biogas and green power and is scheduled to be fully operational by the beginning of 2022. It uses Topsoe’s eSMR ™ technology, which is CO 2 -neutral when based on biogas as feedstock and green electricity for heating. It also uses half the CO 2 that makes up about 40% of biogas and typically is costly to separate and vent in production of grid quality biogas.

Reducing carbon footprint in the synthesis of chemicals is a new challenge, a necessary requirement in the pursuit of sustainable products designed to minimise environmental impacts during their whole lifecycle. So-called “green” technologies for ammonia, methanol and hydrogen are being developed to meet these challenges. Casale, Linde, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, Toyo Engineering Corporation, Haldor Topsoe and Stamicarbon report on some of their latest developments.

Global nitrogen and methanol markets are currently in the grip of a crisis in feedstock prices. Mostly this is about Europe’s dependence on imported natural gas, but – particularly on the methanol side – it has also been exacerbated by high coal prices in China, where heavy rains have led to flooding in Shanxi province, the source of one third of China’s coal. These have followed similar floods in Henan in July, and come at a time when China is facing power rationing due to a lack of electricity supply. The world economy’s long-awaited bounce back from the covid pandemic has also led to a general global surge in energy demand, and consequently higher oil and gas prices.

As sulphur recovery units operate at progressively higher temperatures, creep stress in the furnace refractory lining can lead to deformation or even failure of the bricks and require the shutdown of the SRU. UK-based DSF Refractories have developed a product which minimises creep stress damage at high temperatures, for a longer-lived furnace lining.

RSK and its subsidiary ADAS have developed a sustainable solution for the disposal of sulphur waste generated from a natural gas processing facility in Iraq. C. Teulon of RSK reports on the research that was carried out to test whether the waste sulphur from a biological sulphur removal process could be applied in agriculture to increase the quality and quantity of crops in Iraq.

Considering the current shift to produce biofuels instead of conventional oil products, M. van Son of Comprimo discusses the impact that this may have on the ability to process the sour water acid gas streams produced in existing or new sour water strippers.