Green and low-carbon transformation, leading companies are taking action
"Currently, more than 150 countries around the world have proposed carbon neutrality targets, accounting for 94% of global GDP and 91% of carbon emissions." At the 2024 Tsinghua University Carbon Neutralization Economic Forum held recently in Beijing, Wan Tao, member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy General Manager of China Petrochemical Group Corporation, said that the current green and low-carbon development is the common action of the international community to deal with global climate change. Leading petrochemical companies have taken actions in green and low-carbon transformation, providing a model for follow-up companies.
Low-carbon transformation is urgent
The reporter learned from the meeting that the global low-carbon process is accelerating. Since the Ukraine crisis, while promoting energy diversification, Europe has continuously accelerated the process of green and low-carbon energy transformation; the United States has signed the largest climate bill in history to comprehensively promote clean and low-carbon transformation; my country's "double carbon" and "1+N" policy system has been established, and the comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society is accelerating.
In addition, many international leading petrochemical companies have reshaped their green and low-carbon strategic concepts. British Petroleum Company (BP) proposed a "reshaping BP" plan: to build four major business segments: production and operations, customers and products, natural gas and low-carbon energy, and innovation and engineering, positioning the company's business in "highly competitive oil and gas business, low-carbon power and energy, convenient retail and mobile travel" three parts, and formulated a more radical energy transformation strategy. ExxonMobil divides the company's business operations into three major lines: upstream, product solutions and low-carbon solutions to enhance its low-carbon business status and help customers reduce carbon emissions. Petroleum China proposed Green and Low-Carbon Development Action Plan 3.0, striving to reach 7% of new energy production capacity by 2025 and achieve three-division of new energy, new business and oil and gas business by 2035.
Wan Tao believes that faced with the constraints of "double carbon" goals and transformation needs, domestic and foreign petrochemical companies must firmly grasp the general trend of green and low-carbon development, accelerate the transformation of industrial structure and energy structure, and continuously reduce energy consumption and carbon emission intensity.
Industry pioneer experience can be learned
Experts attending the meeting mentioned that in recent years, leading petroleum and petrochemical companies have continued to explore green and low-carbon, and the green and low-carbon development of the international petrochemical industry has also formed some stable trends, which can provide reference for the low-carbon transformation of petrochemical companies.
The first is to optimize the business asset allocation portfolio: accelerate the divestiture of high-carbon non-core assets and significantly increase the allocation of natural gas assets. Total proposed that by 2030, natural gas will account for more than 50% of its energy structure, petroleum products will account for 30%, and electricity will account for 15%. Shell proposes that natural gas production will account for 75% in 2030. BP sold its global chemical business and gradually withdrew funds from its traditional oil and gas business areas, optimized its balance sheet and investment portfolio, reduced carbon emissions, and provided financial support for the company's transformation and development in the natural gas and new energy fields. Wan Tao said that over the next decade, BP is expected to gradually increase the proportion of natural gas in its sales portfolio, supplemented by the growth of biogas.
The second is to lay out a diversified energy supply system. International oil and gas companies are deeply engaged in their main businesses, extending and deepening upstream and downstream along the industrial chain, and increasing investment in new energy projects such as hydrogen energy, wind power, photovoltaics, and energy storage on a global scale. As a clean and efficient secondary energy source, hydrogen energy is known as the "ultimate energy source of the 21st century" and has become the focus of the current petroleum and petrochemical industry.
The third is to tackle green and low-carbon technologies. The promotion and application of low-carbon technologies has become a typical practice for major countries around the world to control carbon emissions. The speed of upgrading green and low-carbon technologies has been significantly accelerated, becoming a new direction of competition in the petroleum and petrochemical industry. Since the new century, ExxonMobil has invested more than US$10 billion in research and development in the CCUS field. In August 2022, my country's largest carbon capture, utilization and storage entire industrial chain demonstration base and the country's first million-ton CCUS project, the "Qilu Petrochemical-Shengli Oilfield Million-Ton CCUS Project", were officially put into gas injection operation, which also marks that my country's CCUS industry has entered the stage of commercial operation.
China Petrochemical actively explores
Wan Tao said that in recent years, China Petrochemical's green and low-carbon development practice and exploration have achieved many results in promoting energy complementarity, refining and transformation, pollution reduction and carbon reduction.
The first is to accelerate the construction of a multi-energy complementary pattern. In 2023, China Petrochemical's annual oil and gas output was 68.13 million tons, a record high. We will better serve as the leader of the hydrogen energy industry chain, steadily lay out the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and high-purity hydrogen supply centers, and the Kuqa green hydrogen project in Xinjiang will be completed and put into operation. Vigorously develop the geothermal industry, open up seven geothermal areas, and create more than 10 geothermal heating "smoke-free cities". This year, the geothermal heating capacity will exceed 100 million square meters, ranking first in the country. In the photovoltaic and wind power industries, the installed capacity of wind and light has reached 1932 MW. A 100,000-ton/year biological aviation fuel unit received Asia's first global certification certificate for sustainable aviation fuels from the Sustainable Biomaterials Roundtable.
The second is to promote the quality improvement and upgrading of the refining and chemical industry. In recent years, China Petrochemical has shut down a total of 4.8 million tons/year of small refining units and 300,000 tons/year of ethylene units. 17 refineries have reached 10 million tons, accounting for 79.1% of production capacity; actively promote "oil conversion" to match the development pace of chemical business; Promote the reengineering of petrochemical processes and build green hydrogen refining and chemical projects.
The third is to continue to optimize the energy structure. Carrying out flexible transformation and energy-saving transformation of coal-fired power units, the company's average standard coal consumption has dropped below 290 g/kWh, completing the consumption reduction target ahead of schedule. Accelerate the promotion and implementation of electrification transformation and comprehensively promote technological innovation in refining and chemical re-electrification in the refining and chemical sector. Deepen cooperation with surrounding "green power" companies and purchase 3.4 billion kilowatt-hours of green power in 2023, making it the central enterprise with the largest consumption of green power transactions.
The fourth is to promote synergy and efficiency in pollution reduction and carbon reduction. A total of more than 5000 energy efficiency improvement projects have been implemented, resulting in an energy-saving capacity of approximately 9 million tons of standard coal. The country's first million-ton CO2 long-distance pipeline has been completed and put into operation, promoting new steps in the integrated development of upstream, middle and downstream of CCUS. Strengthen the recovery and utilization of methane emissions, recover nearly 900 million cubic meters of methane annually, and correspondingly reduce carbon emissions by 13 million tons. Carry out coordinated management of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. In 2023, the company's hazardous waste generation per unit of revenue will decrease by 6.5% year-on-year, implement 302 VOCs treatment projects, and reduce VOCs emissions by 1405 tons year-on-year. A total of 114 carbon neutrality demonstration projects have been completed since 2021.
The fifth is to improve the efficiency of comprehensive utilization of resources. Successfully built the country's first "waste-free group" construction pilot. In 2023, 28 petrochemical companies in China will reach the level of "waste-free enterprises", forming 59 typical cases, and the comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste will reach 90.2%. The creation target will be completed two years ahead of schedule, and economic benefits will be 540 million yuan.
Sixth, we will focus on tackling green and low-carbon technologies. The "Ten Dragons" scientific and technological research mechanism has been effectively operated, completing the industrial transformation of more than 200 major complete sets of technologies; the cumulative number of patent applications has exceeded 110,000 and authorizations has exceeded 60,000. It has won 78 National Technology Awards and 385 National Science and Technology Progress Awards., 22 China Patent Gold Awards.
