Energy Transition Portfolio
Find ways to maintain competitiveness while moving the world to a new energy system.
The energy transition presents a major challenge to organisations in a wide range of industries, from energy companies through to those in the power, steel, cement and paper and pulp sectors, which are known as ‘hard to abate’ due to a number of technical and economic factors.
Energy transition pathways
The energy transition presents a major challenge to organisations in a wide range of industries, from energy companies, who must find ways to maintain their competitiveness while moving the world to a new energy system, through to those in the power, steel, cement and paper and pulp sectors, which are known as ‘hard to abate’ due to a number of technical and economic factors.
Shell’s response involves three decarbonisation pathways: energy efficiency; making or using lower-carbon energy products; and capturing and storing the remaining emissions. These pathways also form the basis of how Shell Catalysts & Technologies is helping customers work towards their energy-transition-related strategic visions.
As the changes that lie ahead may affect companies’ business fundamentals, we also consider a fourth pathway: adapt to the energy transition.
For example, we are helping:
- petrochemicals companies to reduce their carbon footprint by switching to our ultra energy efficient catalysts,
- refiners to create lower-carbon energy products such as biofuels and
- companies from hard-to-abate sectors such as power, steel, cement and paper and pulp to decarbonise through the use of blue hydrogen.
To see how these pathways align with Scope 1–3 terminology, click here.
Navigate the energy transition
Adapt your business to the energy system of the future and improve competitiveness.
Real-world examples of our energy transition solutions
30–50°C lower
operating temperature by switching to our latest-generation ethylbenzene dealkylation catalyst, Zataris-21.
$15 million a year
with a payback period of under six months from helping a refinery to co-process biofeeds in its diesel hydrotreater.
6 Mt of CO₂ in CCS
equivalent to annual emissions from 1.5 million cars, captured and safely stored by the Quest facility at a lower cost than expected.
Select a pathway for more information
Increase energy efficiency
Improving energy efficiency in the facilities that bring energy products to consumers
Shell, as an operating company, has broad experience in meeting energy efficiency challenges and has developed a set of industry-leading tools and techniques. Tap into this know-how through our services.
Did you know? Over 30% of sites worldwide receive our technical support.
Make lower-carbon products
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from products’ end use
The facilities that bring energy products to the customer are typically responsible for less than 15% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with an energy product.
Around 85% of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the products’ end-use – by consumers driving their cars, for example, which demonstrates the importance of lower-carbon energy products such as biofuels.
Did you know? In 2020, Shell’s Rheinland refinery in Germany produced enough low carbon diesel to fill over half a million vehicles a year, removing 50kt of CO₂ in the process, and has ambitions to further increase production.
Capture and store emissions
Any serious ambitions to reduce a facility’s carbon intensity are likely to require carbon capture and storage (CCS). According to the International Energy Agency, this is a key technology for reducing CO₂ emissions in carbon-intensive industrial processes and offers one of the lowest-cost ways of doing so.
Shell is helping to develop large-scale commercial CCS projects and is an owner-operator of a global refinery network, and Shell Catalysts & Technologies has developed two leading carbon capture technologies.
Did you know? Shell is working with Equinor and Total to inject and store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year at .
Adapt to the energy transition
One consequence of the energy transition is growing demand for battery electric vehicles. This could have a major impact on refiners, as about 50% of refinery output is directed towards road transportation fuels, so any substantial moves towards electrification have significant potential to reduce demand for diesel and gasoline.
Meanwhile, other challenges remain, including pressure on margins and utilisation, responding to tightening environmental regulations and finding ways to minimise the amount of bottoms sent to the bunker fuel pool.
Did you know? Shell Catalysts & Technologies helped Hyundai Oilbank to enter the lubricant base oil business by providing base oil technology and also revamping its vacuum distillation and hydrocracking units to ensure the new plant received the right quality feed.
Ethylene oxide catalysts
The high selectivity and activity of our latest-generation ethylene oxide catalysts means less ethylene is consumed and, therefore, less CO₂ is produced.
Hydrocracking
Our designs provide a 35-40% reduction in fractionation furnace energy consumption when compared with the conventional stripper-fractionator configuration.
Hydrotreating
Design factors such as fractionation improvements and low gas circulation in the high-pressure loop help reduce CO₂ emissions by 5-20% compared with standard designs.
Sulfinol-X
This sour gas treating process, which has application in LNG and natural gas facilities, has low solvent regeneration requirements.
Shell Renewable Refining Process
A hydroprocessing technology for producing renewable fuels from a wide range of vegetable oils, fats and greases.
Co-processing biofeeds
Our consultants can help refiners to identify and mitigate the risks associated with co-processing biofeeds in an existing hydrotreater.
Shell Fiber Conversion Technology
A bolt-on technology that enables first-generation ethanol producers to generate higher-value products, including second-generation ethanol and corn oil from corn waste.
Shell gasification process
Enables unwanted streams such as steam cracker residues to be converted into syngas, a high-value product that can be used for producing chemicals, hydrogen and power.
Shell Blue Hydrogen Process
Enables heavy industries, refiners seeking to decarbonise operations and resource holders looking to create value from natural gas, to create affordable blue hydrogen.
Helping hard-to-abate sectors make low-carbon products
Power, steel, cement and paper and pulp companies can make low-carbon products by capturing and storing CO₂ emissions with ADIP ULTRA or the CANSOLV CO₂ Capture System.
ADIP ULTRA
Captures CO₂ from high-pressure process streams. At the Quest project in Canada, this solvent technology is capturing CO₂ from hydrogen manufacturing units.
CANSOLV CO₂ Capture System
Captures CO₂ from low-pressure streams. At SaskPower’s Boundary Dam power station in Canada, this technology is capturing CO₂ from flue gas.
Producing more petrochemicals
We work with refiners to help ensure that they are directing hydrocarbons to the highest-value applications and to provide additional flexibility.
Increasing residue conversion
Cost effectively increase residue conversion by revamping existing units and combining them with another residue upgrading technology, such as solvent deasphalting.
Producing refining specialities
We have supported several refiners as they have reconfigured their hydrocrackers to generate high-quality feed for new base oils plants.
Decarbonisation solutions
Companies across a wide range of sectors are under growing pressure to decarbonise, but deciding which pathways to adopt can be challenging.
“Pathways” or “scopes”?
The four pathways described above provide useful segmentation, but we understand that many in the industry may be more familiar with the scope 1–3 terminology. So how do these compare?
Your Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions include the emissions from your plant. To address these, you can increase energy efficiency (Pathway 1) and capture and store the remaining emissions (Pathway 3).
However, the bulk of your emissions are likely to come from your products’ end use – from the use of gasoline and diesel in cars and jet fuel in planes, for example. These are Scope 3 emissions, and you can address these with the technologies in Pathway 2, which can help you to create energy products with a lower carbon intensity.
Differentiating and limiting scope 1–3 emissions
2. Scope 2 emissions
Scope 2 emissions are indirectly attributed to the organisation from the generation of electricity, heat, steam or cooling in owned, leased or controlled equipment or operations. They can be addressed by increasing energy efficiency (Pathway 1) and capturing and storing the remaining emissions (Pathway 3).
3. Scope 3 emissions
Scope 3 are the emissions that occur as a consequence of the organisation’s operation, but are not directly controlled or owned by it, such as use of sold products. These can be addressed by making lower-carbon energy products (Pathway 2).
4. A path towards lower emissions
Scope 1–3 emissions lead to CO₂ and other greenhouse emissions such as nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride and methane. But organisations can limit these using the four energy transition pathways
Access additional energy transition resources
A Path to the Future Report
Learn more about our approach to helping customers plan and execute energy transition projects.
Biofuels: Trends and advantages
Learn more about biofuels and their role in achieving decarbonisation targets and reducing transportation emissions.
Make Every Molecule Matter
Watch the on-demand webinar 鶹ý about our organisational commitment to Make Every Molecule Matter.
Retrofitting CO₂ Capture webinar
Watch the on-demand webinar to learn how CO2 capture can be retrofitted to SMR-based HMUs to improve sustainability.
From uncertainty to transformation
Hear from our President Andy Gosse as he reflects on what the future holds for refiners and petrochemical manufacturers.