Introduction

In the past years, IEAGHG has undertaken a series of projects evaluating the performance and cost of deploying CO2 capture technologies in energy intensive industries such as the cement, iron and steel, hydrogen, pulp and paper, and others.

In line with these activities, IEAGHG has initiated this project in collaboration with CONCAWE, GASSNOVA (via CLIMIT Programme) and SINTEF Energy Research, to evaluate the performance and cost of retrofitting CO2 capture in an integrated oil refinery.

Key Messages

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the cost of retrofitting CO2 capture in simple to high complexity refineries covering typical European refinery capacities from 100,000 to 350,000 bbl/d. Specifically, the study will aim to:

• Formulate a reference document providing the different design basis and key assumptions to be used in the study.
• Define 4 different oil refineries as Base Cases.
• Define a list of emission sources for each reference cases and agreed on CO2 captures priorities.
• Investigate the techno-economics performance of the integrated oil refinery (covering simple to complex refineries, with 100,000 to 350,000 bbl/d capacity) capturing CO2 emissions from various sources using post-combustion CO2 capture technology based on standard MEA solvent.
• Investigate the techno-economics performance of a medium to high conversion refineries (220,000 bbl/d capacity) capturing CO2 emissions using pre-combustion CO2 capture technology capturing CO2 emissions from the hydrogen production facilities (as base case). A sub-case will also be evaluated to assess the possibility to increase capture rate based on the principle of expanding the hydrogen production facility and the conversion of fired heaters and utilities boilers using hydrogen enriched fuel.
• Investigate the techno-economics performance of an integrated oil refinery (covering medium to high conversion complex refineries with 220,000 bbl/d) capturing CO2 emissions using oxyfuel combustion technology applied the Fluid Catalytic Cracker (as base case). A sub-case will also be evaluated to assess the possibility to increase capture rate using oxyfuel combustion application to various fired heaters.
• Develop a case study evaluating the constructability of retrofitting CO2 capture in a complex oil refinery providing key information on the following (but not limited to): plant layout, space requirement, safety, pipeline network modification, access route for equipment, modular construction vs. stick-built fabrication, and others.