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Search results for: “methanol”

  • Organic Rankine Cycles: the energy economics?

    Organic Rankine Cycles: the energy economics?

    This data-file captures the energy economics of an Organic Rankine Cycle to recover low-grade waste heat (at 70-200C) from an industrial facility, or in the geothermal industry. A CO2 price of $50-75/ton could greatly accelerate adoption and improve the efficiency of industrial facilities.

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  • Oil crops: the economics?

    Oil crops: the economics?

    The costs of oil crops, a crucial input for bio-diesel and SAF, will usually range from $900-1,200/ton, in order to generate acceptable 6-15% IRRs for producers. This translates into $3-4/gallon in feedstock costs. These oil crops also likely embed over 2 kg/gallon of CO2 intensity. The economics of oil crops can be stress-tested in this…

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  • Plastic products: energy and CO2 intensity of plastics?

    Plastic products: energy and CO2 intensity of plastics?

    The energy intensity of plastic products and the CO2 intensity of plastics are built up from first principles in this data-file. Virgin plastic typically embeds 3-4 kg/kg of CO2e. But compared against glass, PET bottles embed 60% less energy and 80% less CO2. Compared against virgin PET, recycled PET embeds 70% less energy and 45%…

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  • Eastman: molecular recycling technology?

    Eastman: molecular recycling technology?

    This patent screen reviews Eastman’s molecular recycling technology. Specifically, Eastman is spending over $2bn, to construct 3 plants, with 380kTpa of capacity, to break down hard-to-recycle polyesters back into component monomers, with 20-80% lower CO2 intensity than virgin product. We find evidence for 30-years of fine-tuning, and can bridge to 10% IRRs if buyers pay…

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  • BrightLoop: clean hydrogen breakthrough?

    BrightLoop: clean hydrogen breakthrough?

    Is Babcock and Wilcox’s BrightLoop technology a game-changer for producing low-carbon hydrogen from solid fuels, while also releasing a pure stream of CO2 for CCS? Conclusions and deep-dive details are covered in this data-file, allowing us to guess at BrightLoop’s energy efficiency and a moat around Babcock’s reactor designs?

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  • Global energy demand by end use?

    Global energy demand by end use?

    This data-file is a breakdown of global energy demand by end use, drawing across our entire research library, to disaggregate the global energy system across almost 50 applications, across transportation, heat, electricity, materials and manufacturing. Numbers, calculations, efficiencies and heating temperatures are in the data-file.

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  • Market concentration by industry in the energy transition?

    Market concentration by industry in the energy transition?

    What is the market concentration by industry in energy, mining, materials, semiconductors, capital goods and other sectors that matter in the energy transition? The top five firms tend to control 45% of their respective markets, yielding a โ€˜Herfindahl Hirschman Indexโ€™ (HHI) of 700.

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  • Renewable diesel: the economics?

    Renewable diesel: the economics?

    Our base case is that a US renewable diesel facility must achieve $4.6/gallon sales revenues (which is c$200/bbl) as it commercializes a product with up to 75% lower embedded emissions than conventional diesel. Similarly, a bio-diesel facility must achieve $3.6/gallon sales on a product with 60% lower embedded emissions.

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  • Commodity prices: metals, materials and chemicals?

    Commodity prices: metals, materials and chemicals?

    Annual commodity prices are tabulated in this database for 70 material commodities, as a useful reference file; covering steel prices, other metal prices, chemicals prices, polymer prices, with data going back to 2012, all compared in $/ton. We have updated the data-file for 2024 data in May-2025.

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  • Propylene oxide: production costs?

    Propylene oxide: production costs?

    Propylene oxide production costs average $2,000/ton ($2/kg) in order to derive a 10% IRR at a newbuild chemicals plant with $1,500/Tpa in capex. 80% of the costs are propylene and hydrogen peroxide inputs. 60-70% of this $25bn pa market is processed into polyurethanes. CO2 intensity is 2 tons of CO2 per ton of PO today,…

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