Product category:
Engineering Industry Reports and Surveys
News Release from: Frost and Sullivan
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 29 July 2004
Study details new petroleum refining
technologies
Soaring energy requirements are motivating new investments in refining technologies.
Soaring energy requirements are motivating new investments in refining technologies At the same time, technological developments are likely to be shaped by stringent new environmental regulations
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 9 Aug 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Robotics market offering big opportunities
Rates of technical change are mounting in the European Robotics for Material Handling Markets, providing manufacturers with opportunities, according to a new study by Frost and Sullivan
Drying equipment market to grow, says report
Latest research unveiled by Frost and Sullivan shows that the European industrial drying equipment market will continue to display robust growth
Demand for petroleum products - particularly transportation fuels (such as gasoline and diesel) and petrochemical feed stocks (such as aromatics and olefins) - is projected to rise moderately in the "traditional" markets of North America and Europe and with greater rapidity in emerging markets such as India and China.
The resultant pressure on existing refineries is poised to trigger the search for innovative technologies that can optimise efficiency and throughput.
Investment in refining technologies is set to increase across most regions.
Tighter environmental regulations in Europe and the USA are likely to impact the profitable transportation fuel sectors.
Adherence to the new rules mandating lower sulphur levels is likely to compel fresh investment and technology changes.
Further reading
Recovery for positive displacement pumps market
Following an overhaul of existing production capacity and investment in new products, the positive displacement pumps market is continuing to see a strong recovery.
Industrial Paints Market Service launched
The new Industrial Paints Market Service (IPMS) from Frost and Sullivan offers subscribers an insight in to the industrial paints market in Western Europe
Transmitters as part of an Asset Management System
Utilising smart transmitters for anomaly detection, in addition to introducing open-networking and on-line software systems, will ultimately improve both economic efficiency and plant performance
"These changes impact all other world regions because petroleum products are shipped worldwide and fuels sold to regions with tighter regulations need to meet those standards", notes Peter R Savage, Research Analyst from Technical Insights.
"Such rules have been emulated in Japan, Singapore and elsewhere, and are likely to take hold as other world regions confront environmental issues like smog".
Popular technologies such as isomerisation, alkylation, hydrotreating and desulphurisation are set to gain appeal due to these changes.
The likely ban on the gasoline additive MTBE is expected to provide further momentum to isomerisation.
Environmental concerns about alkylation units - nearly all of which use large inventories of sulphuric and hydrofluoric acid as catalysts - are likely to promote the commercial development of new technologies using superacids or solid state alkylation as an alternative.
Total refining markets are estimated to grow from US $48.16 billion in the period from 2004 to mid-2006 to US $52.3 billion in the period mid-2006 to 2008.
At this point, the major technologies are expected to be FCC and hydrocracking, desulphurisation and heavy crude upgrading.
"Environmental changes are also prompting renewed research into the implications of heavier crude oil choices - themselves inevitable -since processes to crack heavier crudes must also deal with issues of accompanying sulphur and other contaminants plentifully produced in the lighter fractions after cracking", says Savage.
"This requires greater investment in desulphurisation technology".
Processes such as pressure swing adsorption and membrane separation are expected to conserve and recover hydrogen in offgases - an imperative in "hydrogen poor" heavier crudes.
These processes, however, still require significant modification and scaling up for efficient refinery use.
Tighter environmental regulations have centred on reducing the sulphur levels of finished products.
Several advances in refining operations, therefore, have been geared toward overcoming the "sulphur problem".
With the overall efficiency of a catalytic process being a critical driver in enhancing refining margins, several sophisticated new approaches have aimed at reducing the sensitivity of catalysts to sulphur or preventing the sulphur from reaching the catalyst through pretreatment.
"Now we have a much deeper understanding of how catalysts work - chemically and physically - and there is greater scope for continuing improvements", adds Savage.
"Nanotechnology and combinatorial chemistry are among the techniques that are expected to help push the frontiers of efficiency and selectivity".
"Alternative energy" sources still remain a long way from commercial realisation.
Refiners are, in the meantime, trialling innovative technologies.
This is apparent from the emerging use of ultrasonic technology and novel forms of separation technology.
"Emerging petroleum refining technologies", a part of the Oil and Gas Vertical Subscription, examines the evolution of new petroleum refining technologies and their impact on the oil industry.
The study analyses the key regulatory factors influencing technology evolution and adoption, discussed from the standpoint of gasoline, diesel, petrochemicals, and intra-refinery issues.
Various catalytic processes (such as isomerisation, alkylation, desulfurisation, and hydrotreating) and the role of catalytic cracking and reforming are discussed in detail.
• Frost and Sullivan: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Engineeringtalk email newsletter
• Engineeringtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
