ABSTRACT
The global economy needs to be decarbonized at a rapid pace in the coming decades to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. This transition is particularly challenging for global oil refineries; not only do these industrial facilities themselves emit an estimated 1.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) a year (ClimateTRACE 2021), but they are also responsible for 8.2 gigatons CO2e a year primarily from the combustion of fuel products in the transportation sector (IEA 2020). As such, shifting refinery product slates away from select fuels needs to deliver both lower refinery greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and an overall reduction in end-use fuel combustion emissions. Simply lowering individual product demand will not necessarily achieve these goals; refiners will have to figure out how to decarbonize their highly integrated operations while shifting to profitably making a slate of products that will still be needed in a decarbonized world. This chapter will describe in detail the challenges the oil and gas industry will need to confront as the world decarbonizes, with particular emphasis on design and operational changes in refining that will be necessary for the sector to align with 1.5°C. New refinery configurations, alternate feedstocks, and novel technologies will be discussed.
