PROCESS Insights 2020-03
Oil Price Crash and Consequences for the Petrochemical Industry

Crude oil prices are at an all-time low due to reduced demand, lockdown, and oversupply. As crude oil products are used as raw materials for the Petrochemicals, also the markets for Petrochemical products will be affected in addition to a declining demand.

In this exclusive Special Report , Heinz Zimmermann analyses the effects of the current low crude oil prices on important Petrochemicals like PE, PP etc. as well as structural changes of the market and the effect on future projects.

Covestro (Germany): Washing with CO2-Technology – Surfactants based on CO2

CO2 instead of petroleum – Covestro is pursuing new avenues for turning the waste gas into a useful raw material. The goal is to use CO2 as resource in as many applications as possible. And the next scope is here to come: Surfactants based on CO2! First application tests have shown that these CO2-based surfactants can be used in a standard detergent formulation. The product development process is still in progress and the boundary conditions are already set: less fossil-based, less global warming potential, readily biodegradable and comparable washing performance – a new class of more sustainable surfactants for the everyday businesses.

Dimensional Energy (USA): HI-Light Reactor Platform

Dimensional Energy (DE) has developed a concentrated solar fuels platform technology for converting CO2 to syngas (CO + H2 mixtures) with remarkable efficiency of > 50 % CO2 conversion (3rd party verified by 350 Solutions during the XPrize competition in Gillette, Wyoming, USA). The robust platform technology utilizes DE catalysts, reactor designs, and software in an integrated unit, and was tested on-sun during the Carbon XPrize Finals. The 5 tons/year demonstration plant was shown to work during variable weather and with no catalyst degradation. The reactor is scalable to parabolic dish size, and the modular system can be easily expanded by additional units. Continued development of the platform will yield > 70 % conversion in 2021, and will integrate a Fischer-Tropsch reactor for kerosene production from the syngas.

Lanza Tech (USA): Carbon Smart Ethanol

The Carbon Smart Ethanol technology relates to capturing carbon and creating value from waste; effectively turning pollution into products. Lanza Tech uses microorganisms to make ethanol from the carbon emissions of industrial processes like steel, syngas from municipal solid waste, waste wood or waste plastics. Ethanol is a chemical building block that can be used to produce a broad range of everyday products from household cleaning products, plastic shampoo bottles, furniture and toys, to fine fragrances and sporting goods. With a commercial plant in China that has produced over 20,000 tons of ethanol and mitigated over 100,000 tons of CO2 since 2018 and the first EU plant in Belgium in 2021, the technology is rapidly gaining traction in the market.

UR One (Canada): Dissociation of Greenhouse Gas Oxides using Plaron Technology

Commercially ready carbon capture with 80 % lower operating and capital costs and dissociation of greenhouse gases including CO2, CO, NOx, SO2, SO. Carbon is captured as high value allotropes Buckminster Fullerenes with > 90 % capture rate. No consumables except electricity, and a small amount of water. All greenhouse gases from a 300 MW coal plant can be treated using only 3 MW of power and no back pressure. Only small amounts of electricity are required to separate molecules into their elemental components. Carbon is collected in water in the form of Buckminster Fullerenes (C60, C70, C80 and nano tubes) and other high value carbons.

(ID:47186077)