2023-10-15 06:03:09
An episode of flaring at the TotalEnergies Feyzin refinery / Image: Tom à la rue – Flickr CC.
The French oil giant is seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of its European refineries, by replacing fossil hydrogen with green hydrogen. A strategic choice that has been criticized, but which might ultimately be useful.
TotalEnergies has just launched a call for tenders to purchase 500,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year for its refineries. But what does this much acclaimed energy do in the context of the energy transition, in the midst of the refining of fossil hydrocarbons? Hydrogen is widely used in refineries to remove sulfur naturally present in oil. Because, when it is left in the oil, it generates sulfur dioxide during combustion, a gas harmful to both health and the environment.
Today, TotalEnergies uses hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, but this process is extremely polluting. We are talking regarding 10 to 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions for the production of a single tonne of hydrogen. Thus, to continue the decarbonization of its industry, TotalEnergies wishes to switch to green hydrogen for its European refineries (5 in France and 3 in the rest of Europe). According to Jean-Marc Durand, director of refining and European petrochemical sites at TotalEnergies, this operation would enable a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 5 million tonnes per year.
The different “colors” of hydrogen depending on its mode of production / Infographic: Energy Revolution.
Producing that much hydrogen would consume huge amounts of electricity
However, the publication of this call for tenders raised some criticism, notably from Jean-Marc Jancovici, President of The Shift Project and author of the comic strip “Le monde sans fin”, the highly publicized polytechnician particularly highlights the electricity needs that this will generate. With current technologies, the quantity of electricity required to produce such a volume of green hydrogen would amount to 30 TWh, or only 10 TWh less than the entire electricity production from wind turbines in France in 2020. However, this will only be a small part of European refineries, since Europe has, in total, more than 180.
Why then dedicate such resources to an industry which is supposed to disappear in the years to come? Aren’t there more important priorities such as the direct decarbonization of transport, industries or even heavy mobility?
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However, this might well be excellent news for the climate
While decarbonizing refineries seems strange at first, it is actually good news. First, the road to a world without fossil fuels is still long and refineries still have several years ahead of them. These refineries not only produce transport fuels, but also materials and molecules which are used in the composition of a large number of products, from plastic trinkets to medicines. Reducing their CO2 consumption therefore remains good news.
Moreover, faced with the gigantic financial investments required to succeed in the energy transition, it is today unthinkable to do without the commitment of large private players such as TotalEnergies, even if the solutions put in place are not perfectly aligned. with the priorities of Europe or France.
Finally, the quantities of hydrogen mentioned are such that they might serve as a real basis for real development of the green hydrogen sector in Europe. At present, it is still struggling to develop, particularly in France, despite numerous projects, including some which are supported by the government.
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