Bio-primarily based feedstock and recycling technologies at some stage in petrochemical process gaining traction
By embracing recycling technologies, bio-based feedstock and carbon footprint reduction strategies, the petrochemical sector cannot only meet its sustainability goals but additionally liberate new avenues for increase in a resource-constrained global.
In this context, the leading specialists from petrochemical industry shared the ultra-modern developments at the first session of second edition of PetroChem Summit 2024 titled ‘Recycling Technologies, Bio-based Feedstocks and Carbon Footprint Reduction in Petrochemical Processes’ organized by the Indian Chemical News in New Delhi on December 18, 2024.
The session was moderated by Dinesh Chopra, Chairman, Neochem Technologies who mentioned the industry’s manner forward: “Most of the countries are actually struggling with lots of waste materials and others are exporting it to different countries to manipulate it however we don’t understand how a ways it’ll cross. Whether it is an growth in sea level and temperature, rise in incidents of floods, and environmental degradation, we as human beings have always determined the answers with new technology to deal with our troubles. From recycling the waste and bio-based feed-stock to new molecules and new applications, I am sure there can be new technologies with the intention to assist us discover the new solutions.”
Dr. Samir H. Chikkali, Senior Principal Scientist and Professor (ACSIR), Polymer Science and Engineering Division, CSIR – National Chemical Laboratory, Pune stated, “India produces 20 million tonnes of polymers out of which 60% is polyethylene and polypropylene. Global intake is 400 million tonnes that is stagnant at the same time as in India it’s 20 million tonnes that’s anticipated to grow further. At CSIR, we are running on changing waste plastic into fuel and value added chemicals. One of our ventures focuses on growing the segregation technology for the plastic waste in Pune which generates approximately 99 tonnes of it each day. Generally, even specialists find it difficult to segregate the plastics into various categories. We are seeking to expand a segregator that has NIR coupled with AI generation technology to segregate polyethylene, polypropylene and PET. This technology collects the alerts and separates the polyethylene and polypropylene in distinct bins. At the moment the capacity is 1 tonne according to per plant per day. There are lots of pre-units in which shredding, washing, drying is finished after which it is going to the plant. Then there are two units, one is segregation and second is depolymerization. This is a futuristic technology yet at the lab scale. Though still no longer at the commercial stage, we’re looking to improve it and feature filed sub patents. We are also searching at how we can make the polyethylene from bio-based polymers.”
Lav Kumar, Additional Director, Centre for High Technology, MoPNG stated, “Petrochemical industry in India is mostly integrated with the refineries and it’s far very important for these refineries to hold their profit margins and develop. Globally, 20% of refineries have become close down due to energy transition but in India the situation is distinctive as we have nevertheless now not reached the peak call for yet and we’re developing with greater refineries. In terms of decarbonization of the petrochemical industry, it became recognized beneath PAT Cycle 4 for energy efficiency norms. This is now being replaced with the CCDS system and the compliance has been declared by using BEE in affiliation with the Environment Ministry. It goes to be obligatory from subsequent 12 months. There are short term approaches and long-term objectives for decarbonization of the arena. For the short time period, in terms of energy performance, we are able to study the low placing fruits such as benchmarking, declaring energy baseline and working on enhancing the energy efficiency, upgradation of machinery and the usage of the AI-ML. There are mature technology to be had in the market and want to be applied. For the long-term measures, there may be an offset mechanism including biofeedstock. Another is CCUS that’s a growing technology to offset CO2 emission. Players are moving from the steam crackers to electric crackers and from fossil primarily based energy to green energy.”
Dharmendra Sharma, Managing Director, Mamleshwar Clean Fuel stated, “At our enterprise we accumulate the crop waste and convert it into biofuels. While we can not update coal, we can blend the fossil fuels with ethanol. A lot of coal goes into the electricity generation and the administration has made the 5% mixing of ethanol mandatory for the time being. Putting our efforts at Mamleshwar Clean Fuel, we accumulate the Parali (crop residue) that is regularly burned with the aid of farmers and flip it into bioenergy. We are compressing and densifying the biomass and getting ready biofuel. We are doing the pyrolysis of the equal biomass and converting to higher gross calorific value (CGV) fuel. Whatever C02 is captured through a tree in its life cycle it is stored inner and while it is used for biomass, the carbon footprint is some distance lesser. Similarly, the amount of carbon absorbed by using the crops of their life of six months is better than what is launched into the environment while its residue is used to create biomass. However, notwithstanding the advantages, there are a whole lot of demanding situations in supply chain management of the agri-waste residue that need to be addressed.”
Sumeet Malhan SM (Veteran), CEO & CTO, PRESPL said “A bio primarily based feedstock has many benefits which includes being net zero. The agriculture residue has a half yearly cycle and it is carbon neutral. With agriculture activity going on frequently, the agri-waste will get generated and residue can be used for conversion into fuel and ethanol or methanol. In phrases of challenges, the price of pre-processing is big as we want to process it before it is fed to the technology. Though the adequate availability of biomass from the field is idea to be a advantageous factor, amassing it after harvest period and storing it with out getting broken is another mission. If it is going beyond 50 kilometers then it makes no experience due to the expenditure however if you discover that is somewhere in between the marketplace and biomass availability could be tremendous. There are many technologies to be had to transform the biomass, be it pyrolysis and gasification. We are closer to making breakthroughs but at the moment none of these are comprehensive. Steam boilers are ready made purchasers of biomass and the industry that makes use of this steam energy can get a 30% cut price over the traditional fossil fuel.”
Vineet Bakshi, Director – Business Development, LanzaTech said, “When we say recycling carbon, we use the hydrogen and carbon dioxide for value addition to the facility and producing the carbon. One of the ways is to watch for the electrification of crackers as in the case of Europe wherein the ventures started out 7 years back and remains in development. We commenced a massive steam venture in the US wherein we’re capturing the flow gases from steam crackers and then C02 for manufacturing of ethanol, that’s a constructing block. We are then dehydrating it to turn it into ethylene. We are producing 55 KTA of sustainable ethylene and the venture approved by means of USDOE and U$ 3 billion of funding has been granted for the identical. If you are converting this ethylene into SAF or a T-shirt, you are not sending back the carbon to the atmosphere. For Lanzatech, partnerships are very crucial as at some point of our adventure considering the fact that 2005 we had partners who supported us fully. As an instance, if we communicate about agri-waste, there must be a person who looks after deliver chain and then we can fit in with our technology after which a few other accomplice will do value addition to ethanol. A conventional example is that once we convert our ethanol into ethylene through the ATJ path, from lab scale to demo and field trials and adoption, a whole lot of partnerships are required.”
PetroChem Summit 2024 themed ‘Identifying New Opportunities For Value Creation’ turned into supported by way of the industry associations which includes Alkali Manufacturers Association of India (AMAI) and Chemicals & Petrochemicals Manufacturers’ Association (CPMA). The Platinum Sponsor was Somaiya Vidyavihar University and Gold Sponsor, Tubacex Group.
