ABSTRACT THEMES & TOPICS
1) REINVENTING THE REFINERY; BUILDING AN INTEGRATED ENERGY SYSTEM FOR A LOW-CARBON FUTURE
- Outlining the decarbonisation roadmap and putting the sustainability agenda at the forefront
- Organisational initiatives toward achieving low-carbon operations
- Managing carbon in a fossil-fuel-based value chain
- Electrification and decarbonisation – the displacement of traditional transportation fuels and resulting effects on refineries
- Refining and petrochemical integration; Refining technology and processing developments
2) PLANT PERFORMANCE AND OPEX OPTIMISATION
- Realising exceptional plant performance through data science and advanced technology
- Driving plant improvements, achieving operational excellence and improving quality through asset management and IoT
- Using big data and machine learning for process monitoring, optimisation and prediction
- Mitigating challenges faced in reducing project risks and cost optimisation
- Risk management; Work hazard management; HSE and security management within the plant
- Reducing OPEX and keeping up with process and production reliability
3) SUSTAINABILITY & THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
- Asset management in energy efficiency and sustainability
- Hydrogen economy: Viable business models and commercialisation
- Hydrogen production and safety; Potential technologies to support other hydrogen types
- Exploring the potential of ammonia as a possible solution for hydrogen storage and transportation
- CCUS technologies and innovations
4) DIGITALISATION
- Advances in cybersecurity technologies
- Taking integrated approaches to combat cyber risks in refineries
- Future challenges for industrial cybersecurity
- Digital Twins – applications in refining and petrochemicals
- Digitalisation as a competitive advantage
- The era of the connected plant
5) BIO- AND ALTERNATE FUELS
- Refinery waste handling and disposal
- Advancements in biofuels, co-processing technologies and applications
- R&D in the production and processing of natural gas
- Advancements in natural gas to olefins technology
- Waste plastics sorting, treatment and handling
6) WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE
- Motivating the workforce of the future
- Meeting expectations of young engineers in the decarbonisation era
- Renewing, retooling and re-energising the workforce, and ensuring their relevancy in a fast-changing external world
- Exploring similarities and differences in Millennial VS Gen Z demographics in the workforce; How the next generation of workers will change the future of the downstream