Joris van der Schot: "Oil Refining 101 and Other Energy Stories"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 553 Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode, Nate is joined by energy industry professional Joris van der Schot to explain the basics of oil refineries, their limitations, and other cultural narratives about energy. Oil is the lifeblood of our economies, yet most of us know so little about how it actually becomes all the different final products that we use. Just how massive is the scale of our energy consumption? How flexible and resilient are oil refineries to shifting oil demand? Can we keep an open mind to realistic and helpful innovations while also grounding our preparations for the future in practical energy strategy ahead of The Great Simplification?
About Joris van der Schot
Joris van der Schot is a former Royal Dutch Shell executive with over a decade of international experience in the oil industry, where he held roles as a control systems engineer, corporate strategy advisor, refinery economist and lastly, the company's global aviation gasoline supply manager.After a sabbatical year in Provence, Joris left the oil industry and set out on a quest to accelerate the clean energy transition through breakthrough technology. He currently works at french scale-up Energy Pool, providing storage and other flexibility services that enable the integration of renewable energy on the electricity grid.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kmzzIWkTLyU
More info, and show notes: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/93-joris-van-der-schot
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.3 | That's me. |
| 0:07.7 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, in our society. |
| 0:17.0 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's eye |
| 0:23.3 | view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a |
| 0:29.1 | society and as individuals. |
| 0:33.0 | Today's guest is Dutch energy expert Joris van der Schott, currently living in Switzerland. |
| 0:40.3 | Joris worked at Royal Dutch Shell for over a decade as a refinery expert, an executive at Shell. |
| 0:50.3 | Before turning his attention to the clean energy transition, he now works for a French scale-up energy pool, providing flexibility services to the electricity grid with a focus on energy storage. |
| 1:03.0 | We today talk about oil refining, this incredibly complex process that is in between the oil from the ground and the gas at the |
| 1:14.8 | pump. Uh, how flexible is it? How does it work? We used his son's Legos to demonstrate, uh, |
| 1:21.2 | the cracking and, and distillation aspects. Uh, this was a very interesting conversation. Please |
| 1:27.3 | welcome Joris van der Schott. |
| 1:29.3 | What do they say in your part of Switzerland? |
| 1:48.8 | Yeah, so I'm actually, just across the border, I'm in Jurassic Park, can you believe it? |
| 1:57.3 | Jurassic Park? |
| 1:57.7 | And they say, bonjour in this place here. |
| 2:01.9 | What's Jurassic Park? |
| 2:04.2 | Well, the Jurassic was named after a mountain range where they found these fossils. |
| 2:10.1 | And that happens to be the Jura Mountains, |
| 2:13.2 | which are, if I look out of the window this way. |
| 2:16.6 | And they face the Alps, which is if I look out of the window this way. And they face the Alps, |
... |
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