The petrochemical industry needs to reduce the use of fossil fuel as carbon feedstock to reduce its CO2 emissions. Several alternative carbon sources (ACSs), such as biomass, CO2 and plastic waste are being proposed to replace fossil carbon. As each of these ACS process routes has its tradeoffs, it is essential to identify the defossilization pathways that will have the most significant impact. In this work, a superstructure-based optimization approach is presented that can be used to assess defossilization pathways in existing petrochemical clusters. The small case study shows that CO₂ is a promising ACS to replace fossil fuel as the main carbon source but requires a large amount of green hydrogen and significant modifications to the existing cluster.

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The reliance of the petrochemical industry on fossil-based sources will need to be reduced by the introduction of Alternative carbon sources (ACS). Introducing ACS in a petrochemical cluster will require existing processes to be modified or replaced, potentially affecting other chemical processes within the cluster due to existing material and energy interconnections. Therefore, it is important to understand the current level of interconnections, functioning, and performance of the petrochemical cluster before introducing ACS. In this work, a representative cluster model based on the petrochemical cluster of the Port of Rotterdam was developed and considered as a case study. This model was analyzed using complex network analysis and environmental and technical key performance indicators. The selected key performance indicators (KPIs) provide insight into the performance of a petrochemical cluster, while the network properties give an understanding of the exchange of material and energy in an industrial cluster.@en