Refinery of the Future Decarbonisation Options

The report assesses decarbonisation strategies for refineries across four major regions, focusing on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. It evaluates technologies such as carbon capture, blue and green hydrogen, and the transition to biorefineries (specifically the HEFA process) or clean fuels facilities. Regional analysis shows that while the US and GCC benefit from cheap natural gas for blue hydrogen, Europe is trending toward green hydrogen imports and biorefinery revamps. Singapore's strategy is heavily influenced by its status as a global trading hub and its lack of domestic natural gas or carbon storage resources. The report concludes that energy efficiency projects are generally the most immediate and viable, while large-scale carbon capture and hydrogen transitions require significant policy support and infrastructure development to be economically feasible.

• Decarbonisation options are split into Scope 1 & 2, which target existing refinery operations through energy efficiency and carbon capture, and Scope 3, which involves changing feedstocks to produce carbon-neutral fuels via biorefineries or clean fuels facilities.
• The Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process is identified as the most mature biorefinery technology due to its simplicity, lower CAPEX, and higher profitability compared to Fischer-Tropsch, Power-to-Liquid, or Alcohol-to-Jet pathways.
• In the USA, HEFA projects are highly profitable, with an archetype providing a gross profit (EBIT) of approximately US$594/t distillate and a pre-tax IRR of 30.4%, largely driven by stacked credit systems including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), LCFS, and RIN.
• European biorefineries are increasingly focusing on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to meet EU mandates, such as a 5% SAF blend by 2030 and 32% by 2040, often by revamping mothballed refineries to reduce CAPEX.
• Singapore's HEFA archetypes achieve the lowest lifecycle emissions (22.5 gCO2/MJ) by utilizing carbon capture to offset Scope 1 emissions, though they rely on exporting products to Europe to maintain profitability.
• Auto-Thermal Reformers (ATR) are preferred over Steam Methane Reformers (SMR) for centralized blue hydrogen production due to lower overall gas consumption, smaller plot area, and higher CO2 capture efficiency (approximately 99% vs 95%).
• Carbon capture on Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units is a critical but challenging target; it requires stringent clean-up of SOx, NOx, and catalyst fines to prevent amine degradation.
• In Europe, energy efficiency and electrification projects are economically attractive with negative abatement costs, while carbon capture remains infeasible at forecasted carbon prices, requiring prices of US$178.8/t to US$338.5/t to break even.
• The GCC region faces high abatement costs for carbon capture due to high forecasted grid emission intensity, which penalizes the electricity-intensive nature of capture and solvent regeneration.
• Industrial carbon clusters can reduce the CAPEX of CO2 transportation and injection infrastructure by approximately 75% compared to standalone emitter projects by sharing compression and pipeline networks.

APA

Clean Air Task Force (2024). Refinery of the Future Decarbonisation Options. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/29181610/refinery-of-the-future.pdf

Chicago

Clean Air Task Force. Refinery of the Future Decarbonisation Options. 2024. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/29181610/refinery-of-the-future.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Clean Air Task Force |title=Refinery of the Future Decarbonisation Options |date=8 May 2024 |url=https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/29181610/refinery-of-the-future.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cleanairtaskforce2024refinery, author = {{Clean Air Task Force}}, title = {{Refinery of the Future Decarbonisation Options}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2024}, month = may, url = {https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/29181610/refinery-of-the-future.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }