Concawe Review 27.1
As the July 2018 edition of the Concawe Review is about to be published, the news and weather channels are reporting the record high temperatures of summer 2018, providing further evidence of climate change. Following COP 21, Concawe initiated several new programmes touching on areas where the refining industry can contribute both in the short term as well as the longer term transition to a carbon-neutral future. In this Review we include four articles emanating from this work.
The first article looks at the latest improvements in the technology to control emissions of unwanted pollutants from diesel engines, vital to maintain diesel engines in the car manufacturer’s arsenal to reduce CO2 emissions in cars. This is followed by an article on the climate impact of reducing SO2 from international shipping and the complication that SO2 in the lower atmosphere can contribute as a climate coolant. The third article in this Review is on the development of a methodology for a life-cycle analysis allowing an assessment of the full impact of different drivetrain options and thereby improving the understanding of the overall CO2 emissions from electric as well as internal combustion engine passenger vehicles.
The fourth technical article summarises the work of the ReCAP project to evaluate the potential for, and the cost of, deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS) in European refineries. My thanks to the authors for these valuable insights into some of the challenges we face as we work to mitigate climate change. I also would like to thank Dr Mike Spence for his contribution to the work of Concawe as Science Executive for both the Water, Soil and Waste and the Oil Pipelines management groups.