The AND Equation: ExxonMobil Champions Energy Transformation

Summary

Wade Maxwell, vice president of Engineering at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, delivered a keynote about ExxonMobil’s efforts toward energy transition at the 2024 ARC Forum. He introduced “the AND equation,” which asserts the importance of not only meeting society’s energy and product needs but also reducing emissions at the same time. 

“Alternate sources of energy like solar and wind are playing an increasing role in the global energy mix,” Maxwell noted. “However, under most credible scenarios, including the net zero pathways, oil and gas will continue to play a significant role for decades to come. With that in mind, we are continuing to work in multiple areas to meet the needs of society today for reliable and affordable energy products while working to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions as well as helping others do the same. That’s the ‘AND’ equation.” 

ExxonMobil recently established a central technology and engineering company called EMTech that’s designed to scale capabilities across the corporation. “Watching the collaboration and innovation of our scientists, engineers and project managers who are uniquely called to take on the challenges of today fills me with confidence and excitement about what these advancements mean for the future,” Maxwell said. 

‘The AND equation’ 

For more than 140 years, ExxonMobil has delivered energy and essential products to meet society’s needs to increase living standards and drive economic growth. The key to success in that period of time has been the company’s ability to evolve and meet society’s needs that have changed over time. Underpinning that is the development of new tech, Maxwell explained.  

“As the population grows and becomes more prosperous, the call on energy increases,” Maxwell said. “Getting on a pathway to net zero in that context is an immense challenge that will require unprecedented innovation and collaboration at an immense scale.” 

“The AND equation” involves using various projects to balance the call to provide society with reliable and affordable energy products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Responding to this challenge will involve innovating new technology across multiple disciplines. Maxwell described some of ExxonMobil’s current initiatives working toward these goals. 

Carbon capture: Direct air capture. Last year, ExxonMobil announced the first three agreements to capture, transport and store CO2 from third parties on the U.S. Gulf Coast as part of its Low Carbon Solutions business. The first of those projects is expected to begin in 2025. These projects involve the fertilizer industry, an industrial gas producer and a steel manufacturer. 

Direct air capture (DAC) is a new technology that uses absorbent material to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere. DAC is slated to become one of the pivotal technologies in the energy transition. “Recent IEA Net Zero and IPCC Scenarios estimated the world needs around 400 million to a billion tons of DAC CO2 removal capacity per year by 2050,” Maxwell said. 

“Just outside of Houston, we have recently completed construction of our first DAC pilot plant,” Maxwell said. “We are working with researchers and engineers who are using that pilot plant to develop commercial scale DAC, with the goal of providing a low-cost solution.”

Hydrogen: A carbon-free, low-cost opportunity. “When I started as a process engineer, hydrogen was everywhere,” Maxwell said. “It is carbon free, so it’s a great low-cost opportunity to reduce emissions in the high-emitting industrial sectors. We expect it to play an important role in the energy transition.” 

ExxonMobil currently produces about a million tons of hydrogen per year and is working to develop new technology to produce it at a lower cost. “We are well advanced on developing a project that we think will be the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen facility in Houston,” Maxwell said. “The facility will create up to a billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day from natural gas. That’s enough energy to power 1.5 million homes.” As an added bonus, ExxonMobil will capture 98 percent or more of the associated CO2 from that facility, which equates to 7 million tons per year.

Plastics: Developing more than a billion pounds of plastic waste processing capacity per year by 2027. Plastics are everywhere: phones, laptops, vehicles, packaging, personal protective equipment and surgical devices rely on it. “The AND equation” applies here because it’s a challenge to balance society’s need for these plastic products with the responsibility to deal with the global plastic waste problem. 

“We are addressing plastic waste through a process called Advanced Recycling,” Maxwell said. “Unlike traditional recycling, Advanced Recycling doesn’t limit itself to materials you can grind up and melt into recycled plastic. The process converts plastic waste back to its molecular building blocks that can be used to manufacture other useful products. 

In 2022, ExxonMobil started up an Advanced Recycling facility, which has processed more than 40 million pounds of discarded plastic as of October 2023. “We are working to build our global capacity to process about a billion pounds per year of plastic waste by year-end 2026, assuming supportive public policy,” Maxwell explained. 

Lithium production project: ExxonMobil’s planned lithium project in Arkansas would present a new source of lithium production through a new technology called direct lithium extraction, which will have a significantly lower environmental impact—approximately two-thirds less carbon intensity when compared with hard rock mining. The goal is to begin production in 2027. 

Final thoughts 

“We announced that we plan to invest more than 20 billion dollars in lowering emissions between 2022 and 2027,” Maxwell said. “About half of that investment is intended to reduce emissions from our own operated assets. The balance is reducing emissions from other companies. We are delivering on both sides of the ‘AND’ equation.”  

Maxwell emphasized that no single technology or magic bullet can carry the energy transition on its own. “We need advances in multiple technologies at the same time,” he said. 

Sustainability, particularly through energy transition and decarbonization, was a major theme at this year’s ARC industry forum. Leading end user executives shared their plans for increased investment in sustainability related initiatives, all of which will require advanced forms of technology to make them happen as well as new thinking around legacy investments. Find out more from the ARC Advisory Group.  

_{This feature originally appeared in the May Sustainability issue of AUTOMATION 2024.}