Full Title: Hydrogen Policy’s Narrow Path: Delusions And Solutions: Hydrogen for Refining
Author(s): Energy Innovation
Publisher(s): Energy Innovation
Publication Date: September 10, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Refineries take crude oil extracted from the ground and refine it into fuels that can be used in vehicles, aircraft, and other equipment. The process of transforming and separating out other molecules also results in a variety of products that can be burned on-site for energy or sold to the chemicals industry. These petrochemicals are a small share of overall refinery output but can be a significant part of their revenue and total petrochemical output.
Refineries are one of the top consumers of hydrogen today, using it to remove sulfur from crude oil and as part of other processes like breaking down complex hydrocarbons into refined fuels. A transition to electric vehicles, clean fuels, and clean feedstocks will eventually remove the need for oil refineries altogether (with these sectors covered in separate overviews). In the meantime, as long as refineries exist, their emissions can be reduced by switching from dirty natural gas-based hydrogen to clean electrolytic hydrogen—a shift that is already beginning.