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Fig. 1 - Main chemicals from long-term liability issues, problems with public ac- 1. Facing up to the problems,
carbon dioxide getting down to the solutions
ceptance of onshore storage locations and limited
To overcome these operation and environmental
problems we propose a cross cooperation among
industries and power generation sector including
mainly refineries and steel factories (figure 2). This
cooperation could allow to:
• mitigate the ongoing challenges of these three
industries due to the strong impact of renew-
ables;
• due to continuous high power load require-
ment of a huge refineries and steel plants, op-
portunity to operate power plants at full load
for long time avoiding cycling and stop of the-
se plants during week ends when the total grid
load is covered by renewables.
storage capacity in some essential regions.
Due to the increase of renewables power capac- Many of the CCU options are well known by che-
ity within the generation mix, it is so important to mists and belong to the development of inorga-
move to an alternative to geological storage: the nic and organic chemistry finalized on commer-
CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilization). cial basis during the twentieth century. Therefore,
CCU isisdmefoinveindgastoaspertocuepsnsewwhemreobleyctuhleesCtOh2romuoglh- CCU could realistically contribute to sreetduucpeaCt Oits2
ecule emissions if this cooperation will be
dedicated processes (figure 1). CtoOm2 cinoeuraldl be used best. Furthermore, due to the energy penalty of
to produce chemical products, carbon-
CCU, it is important that the conversion steps will
ation and to grow microalgae. Although these op- take place using electricity produced by renewa-
tions (many of them also funded by US DOE, De- bles when users consumption is low and electri-
partment Of Energy) are for the most part in the city price is moving almost to zero or also under
R&D phase, they are offering potential for value- zero.
added applications of carbon dioxide captured This proposed important synergy between power
from industrial installations or power plants. In this generation, refineries and steel plants is based on
framework CCOO22 storage technology could have a the following assumptions:
role storing for future utilization.
• petrochemical and chemical companies can
offer adequate technical knowhow to utilize
CcoOm2 mmeorcviinagl pwlainthtsin; short time from demo to
• opportunity for investors to profit from the
production of consumer chemicals by treating
CprOod2 uacst.a commodity rather than as a waste
Fig. 2 - Cross cooperation among refineries, steel plants and power generation sector This option could be of great interest of petro-
chemical sector also due to the refining changes
in progress.
From 2008 to 2014 due to the liquid fuel con-
sumption reduction of about 20% the European
refining moved through a critical period. From
2009 closed in Europe 11 small and old refiner-
ies with a total refining capacity of 1.4 Mbbl/day.
Important also to underline that the 2000/28/
EU Renewable Energy Directive is compelling
EU members states to include from 2020 within
liquid fuels an energy content from renewables
of at least of 10%. In addition the 2009/30/EU
Directive Fuel Quality Directive is defining the liq-
uid fuel quality introducing mechanisms suitable
to control and reducing emissions (sustainability
criteria of biofuels).
26 Impiantistica Italiana - Luglio-Agosto 2016
