Brownfields Reimagined: Driving Decarbonization and Innovation in Industrial Clusters – MeCCE Plenary Conference

We are undergoing the largest transformation in the power and industrial sectors since the Industrial Revolution. While energy systems are rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels, the chemical industry still depends heavily on them, with only ~10% of EU raw materials coming from renewable sources. Replacing fossil feedstocks with alternative carbon sources such as CO₂, biomass, and waste offers major opportunities but also complex challenges.

Current assessments often analyse technologies in isolation under ideal conditions, ignoring the complexity of real industrial clusters, where interconnected value chains mean that changes in one process affect many others.

In the UNRAVEL project, we studied pathways to defossilize the petrochemical cluster in the Port of Rotterdam using a system-wide optimization model covering 52 processes and 17 alternative technologies. Results show that local infrastructure, resources, and energy constraints are decisive, and that key technologies include gasification, pyrolysis, Fischer–Tropsch, MTO, and MTA.

Full defossilization is not yet achievable due to limited green electricity and carbon sources, highlighting the need for a phased, system-level transition strategy.