TotalEnergies’ Near Zero Emissions Plant: innovative technologies to reduce emissions
As part of its strategy to reduce its emissions and decarbonize its activities, TotalEnergies has launched a strategic research program on its industrial facilities. The goal is to identify innovative technological solutions to decarbonize the largest emitters among the Company’s sites. In the new Near Zero Emissions Plant entity, spread across the CSTJF in Pau, and sites in Paris, Le Havre, and Belgium, forty or so engineers and researchers are hard at work.
"Our teams follow a four-step agile method. First, they identify emerging innovations by running a continuous technological watch. Then, they analyze how they work and assess their potential. The third step consists in checking how these technologies could be incorporated into our current and future facilities. Lastly, when the technologies’ potential is confirmed, they are tested and qualified to ultimately be deployed on our sites."
Cécile Coudroy, Head of the TotalEnergies Deep Water department - CSTJF Pau
"Innovation is primarily fueled by collective momentum. No one ever works solo: technical specialists, field teams, suppliers, academic partners – everyone works closely together. We also keep an eye on our peers’ practices, as a good benchmark is still the best way to make good progress, fast."
Gaëlle Jousset, Head of the TotalEnergies Combined Cycle Gas Turbine department - CSTJF Pau
Across its operated facilities (Scope 1+2), TotalEnergies aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, while adapting its climate strategy to the realities of the global energy transition. In the shorter term, the objective of the multi-energy Company is a 40% net decrease in Scope 1+2 emissions on operated activities, compared to 2015, and an 80% reduction in methane emissions on operated activities by 2030, or sooner, compared to 2020. To succeed, it has launched a Strategic Research and Technology Program called Near Zero Emissions Plant. The team’s forty engineers and researchers are wrestling with a major challenge: to decarbonize the four types of industrial facilities – offshore deepwater units, Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCTG) plants, LNG liquefaction plants, and steam crackers – which, alone, generate 60 to 65% of all TotalEnergies’ emissions.
A network of in-house and external experts
In Pau, the Near Zero Emissions Plant program draws on a wide range of expertise and includes the Enabling Technology and Tools department, tasked, among other things, with assessing emerging technologies that will allow industrial sites to put together decarbonization roadmaps. The teams also work hand in hand with suppliers and university laboratories to share best practices and ensure an operational and competitive watch. The ambition is clear: to rapidly identify the most promising technologies and to roll them out on a large scale across the Company’s highest-emitting sites.
The deepwater sites team is currently looking into low-carbon electrification solutions for Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platforms.
Solutions for Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plants are also under study: for example, the use of alternative and decarbonized fuels such as hydrogen or ethanol as substitutes for methane, and innovative carbon capture technologies.
The research on natural gas liquefaction plants mainly concerns fatal heat recovery, the objectives being to increase the amount of energy recovered and to improve the overall productivity of the facilities.
Lastly, the priority where steam crackers are concerned is to electrify the energy-intensive industrial furnaces used to rapidly reach very high temperatures, which are currently still gas-powered.
Other approaches are being investigated
TotalEnergies’ global decarbonization strategy is also based on several other approaches, including carbon capture and storage and the use of low-carbon fuel oil. Other areas of research, such as zero flaring and the reduction of methane leaks, further complement the work carried out by the Near Zero Emissions Plant team.