Technologies enabling the Energy Transition and Innovating for materials change
8:00 AM: Welcome to Innovation and Emerging Technologies - Richard Charlesworth, Executive Director, Industry Processes and Cost Analytics, S&P Global Commodity Insights
8:05 AM: Keynote - How SABIC is Embracing Innovation, Risk, and Collaboration to Deliver a Sustainable Future For our Customers and Value Chain - Bob Maughon, EVP, CTO and CSO, SABIC
The petrochemical sector is undergoing a significant transformation driven by factors such as (de-)globalization, China’s industry transformation, sustainability, the energy transition, and the emergence of disruptive exponential technologies. For ex., societal concern over plastic end-of-life and carbon emissions is placing unprecedented pressure on the sector from NGOs, governments/regulatory bodies, brands, retailers, and the consumers. The value plastics bring to many applications like packaging, PPE, hygiene and medical applications is clear and even reaffirmed during COVID-19, but this must be balanced with their environmental impact - circular and low-carbon solutions are essential to address these challenges. This requires a renewed focus on innovation, an openness to work together in new ways across the industry and the new evolving value chain, and a willingness to embrace risk in testing new technology solutions and business models; all of these in an industry that has seen limited disruption in core technologies and processes for decades. Although there are challenges, the opportunity here to innovate, collaborate, and transform the industry is enormous. SABIC efforts to deliver solutions to address the challenges here, key barriers, and the needs in science and technology, infrastructure, policy and finance to overcome these will be discussed.
8:25 AM: Unlocking Operational Excellence: AspenTech's APM Revolutionizing the Petrochemical Industry Through Predictive Analytics - Don Busiek, Strategic Business & Technology Leader, AspenTech
Asset reliability, health, sustainability, and safety are paramount in daily petrochemical operations. Meeting productivity goals while curbing environmental impacts of the operation (whether GHG emissions, solid or liquid waste generation or personnel hazardous material exposure) is a priority for the chemical industry executives. High maintenance costs, unforeseen downtime, missed production targets, wasted raw materials or products, and environmental penalties result from lack of asset visibility and upkeep. As such, digital innovative solutions open new frontiers in asset maintenance maximizing availability and use while minimizing risk and downtime. These solutions ensure sustainable and resilient operations. AspenTech's Asset Performance Management (APM) solutions seamlessly integrate predictive analytics and IoT to monitor and protect asset reliability delivering concrete business value to the operations and decision makers.
8:45 AM: Accelerating the Delivery of Industrial Decarbonization - Aniruddha Sharma, Chair and CEO, Carbon Clean
9:05 AM: Q&A
10:30 AM: Moderator's Remarks - Richard Charlesworth, Executive Director, Industry Processes and Cost Analytics, S&P Global Commodity Insights
10:35 AM: The present and the future of carbon capture - Rajiv Narang, Executive Director, Process Economic Program, S&P Global Commodity Insights
Net zero scenarios by all major researchers demand a significant role for carbon capture. Estimates range from 4 to 15 Gt/y. The present capture plant capacities, mostly in gas processing or EOR applications, are negligible. However, the ramp up can be seen by the number of projects announced. Some of the technologies needed are tweaks to traditional absorption, while membrane, adsorption and cryogenic are to be watched. There are low hanging fruits is in industries where CO2 is being separated, but not captured. For future low carbon fuels, capture may be the pivot point. And for sunk assets there are few options. As the technology ramps up, there is a need to clear the air around the newer technologies, challenges of the value chain, the window of opportunities for a facility and key parameters. This talk will attempt to present a clearer view of future technologies and applications.
10:55 AM: Living a Carbon Smart World: Carbon Recycling for a Circular Economy - Aura Cuellar, EVP, Growth & Strategic Projects, LanzaTech
11:15 AM: Communication Principles for EPC Constructability - Robert Hurd, Business Development Associate, Bechtel Energy
11:35 AM: Economics of producing EV batteries and precursor materials - Marianne Asaro, Research and Analysis Director, S&P Global Commodity Insights
Global demand for lithium is currently about 173 kta, is forecast to more than double by the end of 2027, and could increase an additional 3-fold by 2040. Almost all of this new consumption will go into batteries for passenger electric vehicles. The costs and locations for manufacture of these batteries and their precursors are of keen interest.
The Process Economics Program of S&P Global Commodity Insights has recently published reports RP310, Batteries for Electric Vehicles, and RP310A, Lithium-based Materials for Battery Production. This presentation will overview the factors impacting production cost and return on investment for pegmatite ore, spodumene concentrate, lithium hydroxide monohydrate, lithium carbonate, NMC-type cathode active materials and their precursors, and EV batteries containing NMC cathode active materials. The results for different geographical regions will be discussed in relation to market factors.
11:55 AM: Q&A
Panel Discussion - Aromatics Sustainability - Moderator: Katie Elliot, Director, Aromatics, S&P Global Commodity Insights