KAUST and Aramco Develop a Faster, Greener Refining Process for Petrochemicals

JORGE GASCON Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the KAUST Catalysis Center

TAKEN TOGETHER, OUR RESULTS DEMONSTRATE THAT THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE REACTOR-ENGINEERING CONCEPTS, WHEN ACCOMPANIED BY COMPLEMENTARY MULTIFUNCTIONAL CATALYST DEVELOPMENT, ARE WORTH EXPLORING FOR PROCESS INTENSIFICATION. THIS NEW PROCESS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REDUCE THE NEED FOR DISTILLATION AND STEAM-CRACKING UNITS.

New single-step method supports the global energy transition and meets a Vision 2030 goal

In March 2021, KAUST scientists announced a breakthrough in oil-refining technology – developed in partnership with national energy major Aramco – that could help secure the Kingdom’s leading role in the international energy sector over the long term. The new one-step method for turning crude oil into chemical feedstock promises to simplify what is currently a multi-step process.

Vision 2030 considers advanced crude-to-chemicals technology to be a strategic industrial goal and a core element of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program. This latest development places the Kingdom at the forefront of global technological innovation in energy, in addition to supporting other Vision 2030 goals.

It also has important and wide-reaching implications for the worldwide economy in the context of the changing future of oil. With the rise of electric vehicles and alternative energy sources, demand for gasoline, diesel and other liquid petroleum products is likely to decline in the coming years. However, some of that lost demand will be compensated for by other sources, such as chemicals. As of 2020, 16% of crude production was refined into feedstock destined for petrochemicals producers, and that share is likely to increase to 34% by 2040.

innovative refinery complex where an estimated 45% of output will be earmarked for petrochemicals production.

The prevailing method of turning crude oil into chemicals feedstock requires multiple steps, but the collaboration between KAUST and Aramco could shorten it to one. KAUST’s team, led by Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the KAUST Catalysis Center Jorge Gascon, worked with Aramco scientists to refine Arabian light crude into light olefins such as ethylene and propylene – important building blocks for the plastic, textile and construction industries.

Directly converting crude into chemicals optimizes or does away with several energy-intensive refining processes while producing fewer emissions, generating greater cost savings and improving operational efficiency. Conventional alternatives, such as steam crackers, are among the most energy-intensive facilities in the chemicals industry.

Writing for the scientific journal Nature Catalysis, Professor Gascon and his colleagues said the new process has the potential to reduce worldwide demand for traditional oil refinery distillation and steam-cracking units. Distillation, which takes place in a conventional refinery, is the process of heating crude oil until it separates into different hydrocarbons that can be further refined to produce gasoline, diesel and other liquid fuels and is usually done on site; or into petrochemicals building blocks such as naphtha, which are typically shipped elsewhere for steam- or hydrocracking. The secondary process converts naphtha into other hydrocarbons, including light olefins. to the changing situation. Professor Gascon and his team at KAUST recently published research in the journal ACS Catalysis describing a refinery-of-the-future concept that offers a strategic response to changing demand patterns for oil, such as situating refineries within industrial complexes that also house petrochemicals production.

Several first-generation examples of this process have already been commissioned in the Middle East and Asia, including the refinery under construction at Yanbu, the Zhejiang Petrochemical crude-to-chemicals complex in China and ExxonMobil’s existing steam cracker in Singapore. If industrial complexes such as these were to leverage renewable energy in addition to carbon capture-and-storage technologies, the process has the possibility to achieve an even greater degree of sustainability.

ARAMCO

“This breakthrough catalyst and reactor innovation to convert crude oil to chemicals in a single step is the initial outcome of our long-term research collaboration with leading researchers at KAUST, where the focus has been to fundamentally reimagine crude oil-conversion chemistry.”

Ahmad O. Al Khowaiter, Chief Technology Officer at Aramco