Measuring the Resource Productivity of Crude Oil: A Chemical Network and its Application

Yanan Ren, Xiaojie Liu, Litao Liu and Lei Shi

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2018, vol. 22, issue 6, 1331-1338

Abstract: The resource productivity (RP) of crude oil is an important indicator to measure the utilization efficiency of a petroleum resource. In this article, we proposed a methodology to calculate the RP of crude oil from a complex network perspective. We constructed a chemical network comprising 578 chemicals and divided all chemicals into six hierarchical levels according to their processing steps. We put forward two indicators to represent two calculation methods: resource productivity based on material flow analysis and resource productivity based on carbon flow analysis (RPCF). To clarify the differences in the meanings of these two indicators, we extracted the para‐xylene (PX) production chain, which is composed of crude oil, PX, pure terephthalic acid, and polyethylene terephthalate, from the network as an example. Finally, we adopted the RPCF indicator. We calculated that the average RPCFs of the six hierarchical levels of crude oil in China from 1992 to 1999 are 145, 219, 601, 929, 1,474, and 4,076 US$/(tonnes carbon). The results show that there is a value‐added effect in the extension of petrochemical industrial chains. Among the derivatives of crude oil, the RPCFs of chemicals are obviously higher than those of oils. Countries, regions, industrial parks, and chemical companies can improve RP by extending and choosing chemical production chains and combinations thereof. We can also use the calculation methodology to compare RP of other sources of carbon like carbon dioxide and biomass with that of crude oil, and promote the development of circular economy in energy and chemical production.

Date: 2018
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