SINTEF’s Green Ethylene Tech Targets EU Future Petchem Industry
Steam cracking accounts for over 95% of global ethylene production, and results in approximately 30% of the total carbon dioxide footprint of the chemical industry, according to Norway’s Foundation for Industrial and Technical Research (SINTEF). OPIS editor Leticia Alvarez spoke to Bernd Wittgens, SINTEF chief market developer, to discuss REACT, a Horizon Europe project that uses an electrochemical process to directly convert industrial carbon dioxide emissions into olefines mixtures for sustainable polymers, chemicals and fuels.
OPIS: Could you give a brief overview of the project and your role?
Wittgens: The REACT project (Renewable Electrochemical Advanced Conversion of CO2 to Target products) is designed to deliver an innovative solution for recycling CO2. The project will develop an impurity-tolerant tandem electrochemical process capable of directly converting these less pure industrial CO2 streams into valuable ethylene mixtures.
SINTEF delivers design and technical economic evaluation, which means designing the process and then trying to convert this research into profit. We try to combine the technologies from our partners and build the value chain from the CO2 emissions to final consumer products. SINTEF is the coordinator, which means we maintain the connection between the European commission and the project partners.
It’s part of the EU-call on: “Using captured CO2 as a resource to replace fossil hydrocarbons in industrial production”.
OPIS: What’s the plan for the project once it is complete?
Wittgens: In an EU project, it’s generally the case that new knowledge generated through a project is owned by that consortium. Thus, the consortium jointly develops an exploitation strategy for the results and paves the way for further utilization.
A potential configuration for building the value chain could be a large-scale CO2-emitter contracts a partner who converts the CO2 into ethylene, which is then used in production to replace fossil ethylene. Alternatively, if you produce ethylene, you attract a CO2-source to use the REACT technology. Both configurations are possible. You must find the most economical way to produce ethylene. Is it on the emitter side or is it on the user side? The project will give the answer.
OPIS: Will the ethylene that’s produced be commercially available? If so, in short term or long-term contracts?
Wittgens: No, not in this project. Currently, the amount of material produced is intended to stay inside the project. We have end-users involved in the project, and they want to perform their application testing first, they need quite a few kilograms to make a viable test. However, the knowledge generated will be utilized to develop the concept further towards demonstration and commercialization.
OPIS: So, in the context of the wider market, how have you seen demand for green ethylene, given what’s been happening in the Middle East and how that’s affected fossil fuel-based feedstock prices?
Wittgens: Projects that consider the transition from fossil resources to sustainable production have currently a longer timeline to develop. Economic feasibility depends partly on energy costs. So, to make this project economically viable, there are two possibilities: either, you must have governmental incentives to reduce CO2 emissions, or you need to have oil prices that are high over a longer period. So, if the project is economically feasible and you have political willingness onside, projects can be realized in the next five to six years. But if you have changing priorities in politics, there is much more uncertainty, and this uncertainty will make it more complicated to establish large-scale projects.
OPIS: Will this green ethylene be able to compete in the markets with fossil fuel-based ethylene?
Wittgens: The project needs to prove its economic potential. The initial calculations we made show that it’s possible, but again it depends on quite a lot of factors, such as the efficiency of the process, electricity price and on the cost of the CO2 as feedstock. Compared to ethylene produced from fossil feedstock, oil industries have had about 50 years to optimize their production. The REACT technology is five to six years old, so there’s need for innovation to catch up.
OPIS: For which kind of industries do you see REACT technology being viable?
Wittgens: Basically, all industries that are big emitters of CO2, including metallurgical plants, waste incineration and refineries.
OPIS: Do you plan on taking this technology outside of Europe?
Wittgens: That depends on the time scale. If you say between 2026 and 2030, the technology will stay initially within the EU, because it’s a 48-month EU Innovation Action. Beyond 2030, the business case is basically to go where there is the appropriate combination of CO2 emissions and energy prices. Countries that are large CO2 emitters and have a high potential for renewable energy production will be favorable. Such countries would be ideal for integrating solar or wind power into the energy system and combining it with REACT technology.
Reporting by Leticia Alvarez, leticia.alvarez@chemicalmarketanalytics.com
REACT is funded by the European Union (Grant 101269395). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.