(9a) Crude to Chemicals:  The Reasons, The Hurdles, and The Approach

Modern refineries have been designed based on the current/historical uses of petroleum. Currently a significant portion of crude is utilized for transportation fuels. With more and more electric vehicles, fuel demand is expected to decrease as an overall percentage of production while demand for chemicals is expected to increase for the foreseeable future.

While refineries have been debottlenecked and capacities increased, greenfield development has been limited. With current fuel production capacity being sufficient, building new refineries designed to go directly to petrochemicals makes sense and greenfield construction of new refining capacity is now being planned to go directly to chemicals.

As of yet, standardization of products to produce and technologies to utilize has not occurred. The decision of what to produce and how is dependent on future demand. As Niels Bohr said “It is very hard to predict, especially the future.” Production will be determined by which conversion technologies to utilize and when. Saudi Aramco is going through this process of making its technology selection. This discussion will be about the perceptions and opportunities being considered and potential implications for process engineers going forward.