Page 13 - EurOil Week 38 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

Shell to build new biofuels

plant in Rotterdam

NETHERLANDS SHELL announced plans on September 16 to would need for the plant to run at full capacity.
build an 820,000 tonne per year (tpy) biofuels But its decision to invest in biofuels production
Shell is under pressure refinery in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, with its comes amid a dramatic increase in demand for
to make its business commercial launch expected in 2024. such feedstocks, as a number of oil refiners move
cleaner following a The Anglo-Dutch major said the facility into the sector to produce low-carbon products.
Dutch court ruling. would produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) At the same time, supply is constrained as a result
and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also of poor harvests in some regions as a result of
known as renewable diesel. As feedstock, it will extreme weather.
use used cooking oil, waste animal fat and “other Used cooking oil supply is also low as a result
industrial and agricultural residual products.” of the wave of restaurant closures that has fol-
SAF would account for more than half of the lowed coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
plant’s output, with HVO making up the remain- Prices for this oil, along with rapeseed oil and
der, although Shell will “adjust this mix to meet soybean oil, have recently surged to record
customer demand,” it said. heights.
Shell intends to implement the waste feed- To minimise its carbon footprint, Shell plans
stocks with a range of vegetable oils until sustain- to use carbon capture technology at the plant,
able advanced feedstocks that are characterised and store the CO2 in a depleted North Sea gas
as sustainable under the EU’s Renewable Energy field off the Dutch coast as part of the Porthos
Directive (RED) II become more widely availa- project. A final investment decision (FID) on
ble. The plant will not handle any virgin palm oil that initiative is anticipated in 2022.
as feedstock. The biofuels project should also help towards
“The main start-up feedstocks will be rape- Shell’s own target of reaching net-zero emissions
seed and sunflower oil, but Shell may use soy oil by 2050. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in
initially as part of the start-up of the facility,” the mid-June that it would fast-track its decarboni-
major explained in a statement. “Shell requires sation strategy after a Dutch court ruled that the
that 100% of its South American soy oil be certi- company was not doing enough to address the
fied as sustainable. If we are unable to purchase emissions from the products it produces. Van
certified material, we purchase RTRS offset Beurden said the group would take “some bold
credits from the Roundtable on Responsible Soy but measured steps over the coming years” in
Association to cover the balance.” response to the ruling, but it has also launched
Shell did not say how much feedstock it an appeal. ™

Week 38 23•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13