Technology licensors for gas processing, refining and petrochemicals are working ‘around the clock’ to develop new catalysts and new systems to improve existing processes in addition to developing new technologies for our industries.
It is vitally important for producers to be aware and to know which new technologies are in the pipeline, but also to understand the timeline for ‘true’ commercialisation.
With this knowledge and visibility, producers can remain competitive through this challenging economic period. Quite often, it can take as much as 10 years or more to develop new technologies and be ready for commercialisation and at that moment the market environment may have changed. For this reason licensors are careful when selecting which areas to focus on for future research and development. They also need to factor in potential market changes and changes in legislation.
Over the past few years we have experienced a number of interesting developments, notably in the sector of gas monetisation technologies. One such development has been the new solutions for mega methanol plants which due to economies of scale the efficiency of methanol production has been greatly improved.
Another sector which has greatly evolved during the past decade has been the introduction of methanol to olefins technologies – offered by UOP and Air Liquide (Lurgi) – which are now being commercialised in China. These technologies offer new processing routes to olefins.
Solutions for methanol to gasoline have also moved forward with technologies provided by Haldor Topsoe and also by the alliance between Air Liquide and ExxonMobil. This option can be very attractive in regions where there is an abundance of natural gas and an important market demand for gasoline products such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. This solution avoids having to transport methanol large distances if methanol were to be produced for export markets. Such an investment in infrastructure would have serious impact on the project economics.
In the petrochemicals sector and in the context of low crude oil prices, companies which have integrated complexes have performed better over the past couple of years. Technologies are now being developed to improve integration between refineries and petrochemical plants. One such example is to design the FCC and RFCC units to maximise light olefins through specific design conditions and also specific catalysts.
Refineries can also be designed to produce naphtha which can then be used as feedstock to the steam cracker rather than being used as a gasoline feedstock. Of course this depends much on local market requirements and opportunities. An example of implementing this type of strategy can be found at the STAR Refinery in Turkey owned by SOCAR of Azerbaijan.
Improved aromatics production can also be realised by applying certain modern technologies which focus on recovering aromatics from pyrolisis gasoline for example.
Paraxylene licensors such as UOP and Axens have improved catalysts for aromatics production and molecular sieves for the separation of the pxylene as compared to earlier designs. This is offering an opportunity to revamp existing units using these improved molecular sieves and thus gaining the benefits of much increased pxylene production. Licensors of polyolefins, such as LyondellBasel, Univation, Ineos ABB Novolen, etc, are constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their processes and also developing new types of polymer products.
We are seeing that depending on the location of new projects the requirements for the specific polymers varies significantly. Some developing countries need large amounts of polymers for pipe production whereas more developed markets need to produce niche type products for local markets e.g. automotive industries.
Turning our attention to the refining sector, the main challenge confronting many refiners is what to do with large amounts of residue once traditionally used as fuel oil or bunker fuels.
In many regions bunker fuel specifications have changed and very soon sulphur limits will become even more stringent. As a result refiners will have to evaluate and select the best option to convert their residue materials in the refinery. There are various options available and each refinery will have different challenges and opportunities. The final choice will be taken based on a number of factors — location and market opportunities being the most important.
These projects are usually very capital intensive hence it is important to fully evaluate all possible options and to select the specific option best suited to meet the owners’ requirements. Most of the options are well known in the industry and these include: thermal processes such as delayed coking, flexicoking, visbreaking and gasification.
Other processes such as ebullating bed hydrocracking and slurry hydrocracking are used when there is a focus on high yields of middle distillates. Many refiners have opted to go for a combination of both types of processes where delayed coking is applied to the unconverted materials of the ebullating bed hydrocracker.
We have seen over the past few years the introduction of slurry hydrocracking which can offer high conversion to distillates – it will be interesting to see the operating experience from the first units that come on stream; how they have coped with the initial problems that are often encountered with first commercial units e.g. equipment problems, catalyst problems; what to do with unconverted materials, etc.
Another very interesting development is that of solid catalyst alkylation technology now commercialised by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CB&I) in China. It has been a long road to bring such a technology to the market so we are sure that this technology will open new possibilities in revamping existing units in many refineries.
When selecting technologies and licensors it is important to understand the risks and opportunities, but equally, it is important to see the potential benefits when selecting stable partners for a long-term cooperation. We know that technologies are forever evolving hence flexibility in selected options will be the key to future sustainability.
**A shorter version of this article appeared in the September edition of Refining and Petrochemicals Middle East.
Colin Chapman is the president of Euro Petroleum Consultants DMCC. EPC is a technical oil and gas consultancy with offices in Dubai, London, Moscow, Sofia and Kuala Lumpur. EPC also organises leading conferences including BBTC Middle East & Africa 2016 – Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference – which takes place in Bahrain on 26 & 27 October 2016. For further details please visit www.bbtc-mena.biz
