Thermal Integration of Advanced Nuclear Reactors with a Reference Refinery, Methanol Synthesis, and a Wood Pulp Plant
- Idaho National Laboratory
Though most decarbonization efforts have focused solely on electricity generation, electric power only accounts for 25% of the total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2021, the industrial sector was the third largest source of direct U.S. GHG emissions (at 23%), just behind the transportation sector (at 28%). If electric power emissions are categorized by end use, industry accounts for 30% of emissions [3]. In 2022, industrial sector GHG emissions totaled 1,393 million metric tons (MMT). By 2050, this is expected to decrease by 7% to 1,282 MMT. The industry sector consumes a large portion of energy in the form of electricity, heat, and steam generation. In 2022, the total U.S. energy consumption was ~106 EJ (100 quads), of which industry accounted for ~35 EJ (33 quads) [4]. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that U.S. energy consumption will total about 104 EJ (98 quads) in 2027, with the industrial sector accounting for about 36 EJ (~34 quads) (i.e., 35%) of that amount. Annual energy consumption in the industrial sector is expected to increase by 17% to 40.8 EJ (38.5 quads) by 2050, bringing energy use in the industrial sector to over 7% of the total U.S. energy consumption. Many low carbon technologies for producing electricity are now available, but new technologies must be developed to afford clean fuel, heat, and steam generation so as to decarbonize the other sectors. Integrating nuclear power with industry represents a special opportunity, as nuclear power is a low carbon source of both heat and electricity. Achieving net-zero status in the United States by 2050 will require an additional ~550–770 GW of additional clean, reliable power. According to the report “Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear” [5], this will necessitate over 200 GW of new nuclear capacity. Despite the deployment of renewable energy sources, system level decarbonization modeling suggests that nuclear power remains one of the most feasible clean energy options, having proven itself at a large scale (i.e., around 100 GW worth of nuclear reactors currently operate in the United States, most having been constructed between 1970 and 1990). However, to meet national energy demands and foster deep decarbonization of heavy industries, nuclear must also support applications beyond simply electricity production. This report evaluates how various nuclear energy pathways interact within multiple industries to expand the role of nuclear energy to the generation of commodities. While many of these use cases stem from nuclear power’s firm, reliable thermal generation capabilities, the integration of nuclear power requires a deep evaluation of current industrial energy requirements and pathways across all industries. This work aims to support the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s vision for its Integrated Energy Systems program by assessing the potential of nuclear-generated energy to displace petroleum, coal, and natural gas (NG) across various sectors of the economy. Building on prior efforts that led to the identification of five candidate industries [6]—ammonia production, refining, chlor-alkali production, methanol synthesis, and pulp and paper mills—the focus of this work is to provide, at the individual process level, an in-depth analysis that prioritizes oil refineries, methanol production, and pulp and paper plants. To better understand the decarbonization and nuclear integration potential, this work compiles, for each industry studied, comprehensive information and original assessments pertaining to the following: 1. Nationwide plant-level production capacities, distributions, locations, and emissions. 2. Process flow diagrams (PFDs) of reference plants, detailing the main process unit operations and the energy and material flows. 3. Overall balance data sheets detailing each of the main process unit operations, along with the corresponding electric power consumption, heat demand from fuel combustion, steam consumption, steam generation, steam quality, heat loss, hydrogen demand, heating value of byproducts, and CO2 emissions. 4. Evaluation of nuclear integration opportunities considering the overall processes. 5. Reference plant layouts (satellite top-view images) showing the dimensions and plot plan of a typical reference plant for each industry.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- 58
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 2480855
- Report Number(s):
- INL/RPT-24-76435-Rev001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Technical and Economic Assessment and Gap Analysis of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Integration with a Reference Oil Refinery
Related Subjects
42 - ENGINEERING
32 - ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
Advanced Nuclear Reactors
Industrial integration
decarbonization
integrated energy systems
nuclear heat integration
Nuclear Methanol integration
nuclear pulp and paper integration
nuclear integration with iron and steel
nuclear refinery integration