The Catalyst Review July 2019 - 13

SPECIAL FEATURE
About the Author

Carmine D'Agostino received a BEng and MEng in Chemical Engineering from the Università di Napoli "Federico II,"
Italy. After working few years in the Oil & Gas sector, he undertook a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of
Cambridge, UK. He is currently a lecturer and a research fellow at the University of Manchester, where he works on
development of new methodologies to characterize the behavior of fluids in catalytic materials using NMR and other
spectroscopic methods. He also works closely with the industry to promote technology transfer from and to academia.

JUST COMPLETED!
"Oil-to-Chemicals II: New Approaches from Resid and VGOs"
Crude Oil-to-Chemicals (COTC) continues to be a powerful industry
driver, and a strong trend of high interest to all integrated refineries
and chemicals producers in Asia/Pacific, China, the Middle East and
Eastern Europe! This is reinforced by a number of factors, most notably
the forecasts which predict a slowing of transportation fuels growth
approaching 2040 (with hybrids and EV's), while the growth in chemicals
(e.g., olefins and aromatics) is expected to increase as the population
and middle class wealth continues to rise, increasing demand for
packaging, consumer goods and even including automobiles (see
Figure 1).

FIG. 1. Global chemical demand growth is forecast to outpace
GDP and energy demand. Source: IHS.

In response to these trends and requests from industry supporters,
TCGR undertook its first comprehensive industry study "Oil-toChemicals: Technological Approaches and Advanced Process
Configurations" (completed in December 2017). In that study, which
benchmarked ExxonMobil's Singapore, ethylene cracker advances
against the then proposed Aramco/SABIC Oil-to Chemicals project
(TC2C™), we examined the technical and economics of greenfield
vs revamp options for advanced configurations with new pipeline
technologies in commercial and pilot for the next 5-10 years, which
concluded that using light tight oils (LTOs), condensates and LNGs with
feedstocks 35 API and higher with low metals and sulfur, indeed a ratio
of 80/20 chemicals to fuels was achievable, with an advantage of up to
$200/mt of margin was available over utilizing naphtha feedstocks.
Fast forward to today. As a result of TCGR's 2017 report, and the
overwhelming interest and ongoing field discussions as a consequence,
we were convinced by industry leaders to revisit the subject area
because our first report, while extremely valuable, did not cover or
closely examine existing infrastructures configured more towards
Resid and VGO feedstock processing, in an effort to re-examine
options for "Carbon-Out" and "Hydrogen-In." TCGR has examined
these and newer options which offer a different but plausible
approach, including:

Carbon Rejection:
*	 Visbreaking Coil (FW/UOP), Soaker (Shell)
*	 Delayed Coking (Conoco Phillips/Bechtel), Others
*	 Fluid and Flexicoking™ (ExxonMobil)
*	 Deasphalting/Solvent Extraction, SDA (KBR Rose, IFP HyvahlSolvahl)
*	 Resid FCC (R2R+, S&W/Axens; Flexicracking, EM/KBR; RFCC,
UOP; Milos, Shell; Others)
Hydrogen Addition:
*	 Ebulating Bed (H-Oil, Axens; Hycon, Shell; L-C Fining, McDermott)
*	 Slurry HC (HDH+, Intevep; EST, ENI; HC3, Headwaters; Microcat
RC, ExxonMobil; Uniflex, UOP; BP; Others)
Configuration Issues and Advances:
*	 OCP, Metathesis
*	 Influences Regarding CAPEX Constraints
*	 Tricks and Traps
Of the main interests of producers, the two most important are:
1) to decrease the capital intensity through scale, simplicity and
location; and 2) to expand/maximize flexibility towards use of current
(heavier) feedstocks in considering the "oil-to-chemicals" approach.
The idea that better utilizing assets from within an integrated
refinery site means that most likely you are already dealing at 10x,
plus, the size of a world-scale petrochemical plant. Although scale
counts, it is also only one of the many factors. New advanced
configurations will now start to incorporate the planning of
improved efficiency gains and reduced CO2 emissions, as well.
This "Oil-to-Chemicals II" provides subscribers with:
*	 Technical state-of-art (SOA) detail on recent 3-5 year
improvements that have been commercialized.
*	 A professional assessment of advantages and disadvantages on
each process technology.
*	 Publicly available economics for each standalone process
technology.
The results provide practitioners, developers and prospective partners/
evaluators, especially the major global chemical (olefins, aromatics)
producers, with the tools needed to evaluate technology options in
specific case study applications, via mixing and matching unique
solutions, in order to determine viability in practice or worthiness of
further investment.
*****
Additional information, including the complete study presentation,
the actual Table of Contents and the Order Form, is available at:
http://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/oil-chemicals-iinew-approaches-resid-vgos/ or by contacting John J. Murphy at
+1.215.628.4447 or John.J.Murphy@catalystgrp.com.

The Catalyst Review 										

	

July 2019

13
http://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/oil-chemicals-ii
The Catalyst Review July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review July 2019
