INHALT
European refineries face rising EU ETS costs, stricter climate policy, changing fuel demand, and increasing competition from lower-cost refining regions. At the same time, they remain strategically important for energy security, aviation, maritime transport, petrochemical supply and industrial competitiveness. Existing research often treats technology, economics and policy separately; this thesis analyses their interaction. |
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AUFGABENSTELLUNG
Theoretical tasks:
Review refinery decarbonisation literature and energy-transition frameworks. Analyse relevant policy instruments such as EU ETS, CBAM, carbon pricing and low-carbon fuel regulation. Discuss key pathways including hydrogen integration, electrification, efficiency measures and CCUS. Define research questions, scenarios, evaluation indicators and assumptions for the techno-economic assessment. The results will be critically discussed in relation to refinery competitiveness, investment signals, policy constraints and the limitations of the available data.
Practical tasks:
Apply scenario assumptions and evaluate outputs provided by OIES to one or two selected European refinery use cases, with a focus on the DACH region where data availability allows.
Analysis evaluation, how relevant policy instruments, such as the EU ETS, CBAM and support mechanisms for hydrogen, renewable energy and CCUS, influence the economic feasibility and strategic attractiveness of refinery decarbonisation pathways. Objective, use available OIES data and scenarios to assess selected transition pathways under current European market and policy conditions. |