Refocusing defossilisation strategies
The role of downstream production in transforming petrochemical clusters
I. V. Stepchuk (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
C.A. Ramirez Ramirez – Promotor (TU Delft - Applied Sciences)
M.D.M. Pérez-Fortes – Copromotor (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
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Abstract
The European chemical industry remains strongly dependent on fossil-based feedstocks, making its defossilisation particularly challenging. In response, growing attention has been directed toward defossilising chemicals building blocks such as methanol and ethanol, from alternative carbon sources (ACS), including biomass, CO₂, and waste. In contrast, the potential of producing downstream derivatives (DDs) directly from ACS has received limited attention. Although these alternative pathways present promising opportunities, replacing fossil-based DD production within established petrochemical clusters may trigger cascading effects across interconnected value chains. Such system-wide implications, however, remain insufficiently explored and understood. This thesis therefore investigates the extent to which the transition to ACS-based DD production influences system interactions, operational performance, and structural changes across multiple levels of a representative petrochemical cluster, using the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands as a case study.
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