Disruptive Technologies

Last March, I presented on the topic of Disruptive Technologies at the World Petrochemical Conference.

In the past decade or so, disruptive technology development and deployment has been dominant on a global basis in the petrochemical industry and largely driven by the extreme pricing dynamics of the energy industry, translating directly to fundamental petrochemical feedstocks.

The most significantly disruptive technologies or categories of technologies being developed are: crude oil-to-chemicals and the next generation of coal-fed chemical production technologies.

In addition to "molecular-valorization" of coal and oil, and capital and operating cost reductions, disruptive technology developments are also aimed at positive environmental impacts, such as a one-step coal-to-light olefins technology in China where the CO2 emission footprint could be achieved.

The "double" dimension of disruptive technology is infrastructural. Regional competitiveness with respect to build a at lower local cost per ton of capacity. In addition to a feedstock cost advantage, low capital intensity is a new and major dimension of global competitiveness, e.g., being able to exploit plant that is scale, simplicity and low-cost construction.

I'm providing a link to my presentation, for those interested. Feel free to comment with your thoughts.

View presentation

Don Bari, Vice President, Chemicals Technology & Analytics, IHS Markit