(572f) Source-to-Customer Integration for Sustainability

The easiest molecule to make is the one you already have. Molecule management is the art of moving the molecules to the right place. The right place includes the right stream within a plant and the right plant within a processing sequence. This paper concentrates on the sustainability, and profitability, benefits of integrating processing sequences to get the right molecules to the right plant.

For the foreseeable future, the hydrocarbons will remain the dominant source of chemical feedstocks. Every step of the processing chain has some molecules unwanted in their current location. More efficient molecule use requires extended integration of the manufacturing chain.

Problems preventing integration include sunk investments, differing economies of scale between processes, and geographical separation between supply and consumption. This paper focuses on intermediate steps to taking existing facilities and building integrated processing sequences to overcome these problems. Heavy emphasis is placed on the refinery-petrochemical-chemical interface for the hydrocarbon industry. The focus is on strategic analysis of systems to identify major opportunities.