REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Renewable gasoline, SAF, hydrogen takes center stage in Europe

Renewable gasoline, SAF and hydrogen are increasingly taking center stage in Europe as refineries focus on energy transition.

Swedish refiner Preem has carried out the first tests to produce renewable gasoline from sawdust at its Lysekil refinery as it has started to process pyrolysis oil. "Extensive tests have now begun in Lysekil on the catalytic cracker, one of the refinery's largest plants," the company said June 21. The tests consist of two parts -- an initial batch of 300 mt of pyrolysis oil, followed by a longer test operation that will process up to 50,000 mt of pyrolysis oil for two years.

The renewable gasoline testing comes after Finnish refiner and biofuels producer Neste at the end of May started testing a renewable gasoline as a potential drop-in, lower-carbon fuel for conventional internal combustion engine cars.

Meanwhile, the UK's Heathrow Airport has started stocking sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, produced by Finland's Neste and supplied by trading house Vitol, as part of a pilot project, the companies said. This is the first major UK airport to supply the greener jet fuel and comes as more and more airlines are planning to use SAF for their flights as the global aviation sector starts to take more steps to decarbonize.

Separately, hydrogen fuel cell trucks could compete with diesel engine vehicles on a total cost of ownership basis before 2030, the head of new power engineering at engine and generator producer Cummins told S&P Global Platts. Falling costs of renewable hydrogen and fuel cell production were bringing down the total cost of ownership, or TCO, of fuel cell electric trucks, Cummins Vice President for New Power Engineering Jonathan Wood said in an interview. "We think towards the end of this decade, we will be getting closer to TCO parity with a diesel engine," Wood said.

In other news, Eni's Porto Marghera biorefinery in northern Italy, which is currently restarting following widescale maintenance and upgrade works that began in early March, will be fully operational by June 21, according to information provided to Platts by trade union sources close to the complex. The maintenance works involved most of the refinery, though specific details on which plants were specifically worked on were not available. The city council of Venice, where the refinery is located, confirmed it will be fully operational on June 21 and that in addition to standard maintenance works, the upgrades also boosted Marghera's overall capacity of processed products such as animal fats, vegetable oils and other waste products.

Conventional upgrades

New and revised entries

** An upgrade work to the Puertollano petrochemical complex included a modification to the olefins cracker to cut CO2 emissions by 68,000 mt/year, with the steam turbine being replaced by an electric motor. Overall, energy consumption should fall around 25%, it said. There was also upgrade works in the polypropylene unit, the low density polyethylene, EVA, polyols and butadiene units. Repsol started the upgrade work to its petrochemical complex at the Puertollano site as part of a turnaround.

** Austria's OMV is planning an upgrade during a turnaround at its Burghausen refinery in Germany in the third quarter of 2022. "We are expanding and modernizing the steam cracker in Burghausen, Germany, which will increase the capacities for ethylene and propylene production. Essential integration works for this project will take place during the turnaround," a source at the company said. The expansion is expected to facilitate increased annual ethylene and propylene production by around 50,000 mt/year.

Existing entries

** Portugal's Galp will build a desulfurization unit at the Sines refinery which could process 20,000 b/d for a cost of around Eur300 million, company management said June 2, 2021. The new project will allow the company to widen its crude slate. Galp did not provide a date for the project as it presented its 2021-25 strategic plan.

** Greece's Hellenic Petroleum said in its Q1 2021 report that at Thessaloniki, a Eur35 million has been approved for a capacity increase of the PP production unit to 300,000 mt/year, with implementation targeted in the next two-and-a-half years. "This investment increases the vertical integration with refining" as well as the group's exports, it said.

** The Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment Fund, or FIEKR, has started the construction of the cogeneration plant at Romania's Petromidia refinery, Rompetrol said in a statement in May. The plant, whose investment amounts to around $148 million, is expected to be commissioned by the end of July 2023. The cogen plant "will be able to use and transform the natural gas extracted from the Black Sea into finished products," the statement cited Virgil Popescu, Minister of Energy, as saying. In August 2020, the Investment Fund signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract for Turkey's Calik Enerji to build the cogeneration plant. The new combined electricity and heat production plant will use natural gas as the main fuel. It will have capacity of 80 MW, of which 60-70 MW will fully cover the Petromidia plant's electricity needs with up to 20 MW used to heat water for the town of Navodari's heating system. Furthermore in 2020, two other projects have been approved, aiming at the modernization of the Petromidia refinery. They consists of building a diesel dewaxing unit which will allow the refinery to improve the production of winter diesel and increase the production of special aviation fuel. In addition, the refinery is working on increasing by more than 30% its polymer production by converting the high density polyethylene, or HDPE, installation into a polypropylene, PP, installation.

** Works on the construction of a residue upgrade unit at Croatia's INA Rijeka plant are underway. The project, which includes building a delayed coker, had its final investment decision made at the end of 2019 and works started in 2020.

** Poland's largest refiner PKN Orlen said May 24 it has approved the development of a Zloty 13.5 billion ($3.7 billion) olefins complex at its Plock refinery, paving the way for the signing of an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract with the preferred bidder, Hyundai Engineering and Tecnicas Reunidas, to build the Olefins III complex. Construction work on the complex is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2024 to enable commissioning at the start of 2025, PKN said. PKN has said the Olefins III complex is part of investments planned under its petrochemicals development program, which will include the construction of a new steam cracker and products recovery system, and will add 30% to the company's existing capacity. Separately, PKN Orlen laid the foundation stone in 2020 for a Zloty 1 billion ($250 million) investment to build a visbreaking unit at its Plock refinery. The unit, which will increase diesel and gasoline yield at the refinery, is being built by a consortium of KTI Poland and IDS-BEU under a turnkey contract. It will be completed by the end of 2022. The visbreaker will allow the refinery to reduce fuel oil output and increase its production of distillates. The unit will have a capacity to produce 200,000 mt/year of diesel. Ongoing modernization of the hydrocracking and diesel hydrodesulfurization units at Plock will also increase the refinery's diesel production capacity. PKN Orlen, said it has purchased a license and basic design for the modernization of a hydrodesulfurization (HOG) unit to increase the production of high-margin products at its Plock refinery. PKN signed a contract to buy the license from Axens. The HOG unit at Plock was launched in 1999. The modernization will allow the unit to produce more diesel and gasoline.

** During planned maintenance and an upgrade at Germany's Leuna refinery, which started in May, a major investment entitled 'Leuna 2020+', which has been underway since before the shutdown, will be integrated during the shutdown, the company said, adding that it is investing around Eur150 million in modernizing and expanding the POX methanol plant and "another conversion plant" in order to adapt better to "the changing market situation". It has previously said it would reduce production of heavy products as demand decreases, and increase production of methanol, a key feedstock for the chemical industry. The project will deepen the integration of refining and petrochemical operations and increase the competitiveness of the plant, Total said previously.

** Turkish refiner Tupras' upgrade plans for its four refineries include a number of new units as well as works for modernizing existing ones. The company has opened an EPC tender valued at around $400 million for the construction of new sulfur units at its three main refineries, Izmit, Izmir and Kirikkale. Tupras has also signed a $66 million tender for the revamp of the FCC unit at Izmit, which will include the installation of flue gas treatment and energy back recovery systems. The revamp of the FCC unit at Izmit which started in Q1 2021 and is planned to take 30 weeks was reported as ongoing. Work had already started on a $3.9 million modernization of the PLT-7 LPG Merox unit at Izmir designed to reduce sulfur content to 30 ppm from 50 ppm to meet new emissions standards. Further upgrades planned at Izmir include a $25 million project to increase the capacity of the CCR U-9200 Platformer Unit from 160 cu m/hour to 225 cu m/hour, as well as a $69 million project to revamp the FCC unit and install flue gas treatment and energy recovery systems.

** Greece's Motor Oil Hellas said that its Corinth refinery continues with the construction of the naphtha treatment complex, which is expected to be completed by the end of Q1 2022. Construction started in 2020.

** Bosnia's Brod refinery has launched a solar power station, according to owner Zarubezhneft. The refinery suspended its operations in 2019 for an upgrade and to prepare for the use of natural gas. It remains offline, local media reported. A pipeline is being built to supply the refinery with natural gas to fuel its internal processes and was expected to be ready in late 2020 although the company was not available to comment on the progress. The gas will replace fuel oil as a power source for the refinery processes. According to local media reports in March the pipeline has been laid under the Sava river, which is a key phase in its completion. Its commissioning is planned for the second quarter.

** Serbia's Pancevo refinery said it expects to complete its FCC project by 2023. The refinery also plans to build a unit for the production of the octane enhancement chemical ETBE by 2024 and is currently awaiting a final investment decision on its catalytic cracker upgrade, which would enable it to increase propylene production.

** Poland's PKN Orlen said it was launching construction of a Zloty 145 million ($37.7 million) unit at its Orlen Unipetrol-branded Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic to produce up to 26,000 mt/year of dicyclopentadiene, or DCPC, used in the automotive, construction and electronic industries. The unit is planned to be completed in the second half of 2022. Once ready, the unit will account for about a quarter of Europe's total DCPC production capacity, PKN said. DCPC is a liquid hydrocarbon created during the refining and cracking of crude oil. Separately, PKN Orlen has completed the Czech Crown 9.6 billion ($410 million) polyethylene 3 unit investment at its Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic. The refinery's owner, Unipetrol, a 100%-owned PKN subsidiary, has now taken charge of the black polyethylene unit, the second part of the investment. The first part, the natural polyethylene unit, was completed in April 2020. The polyethylene 3 unit, which can produce 270,000 mt/year of high density polyethylene, will replace production of one of the two existing production units with a capacity of 120,000 mt/year. Litvinov's polyethylene capacity will increase from 320,000 mt/year to 470,000 mt/year as a result of the investment, PKN said. Separately, McDermott International has been awarded a contract for engineering, procurement and construction management services for an upgrade of the hydrocracker at the Czech Litvinov refinery.

** The cogeneration project at UK's Pembroke refinery was on track to be completed in third-quarter 2021, Valero said in a conference call. It previously said the project had slowed, "pushing out" the mechanical completion by six-nine months. In 2016, Valero submitted a planning application to build a 45 MW combined heat and power generation plant at Pembroke, which will provide power to the refinery and supplement its steam demand.

** At Spain's Coruna refinery, construction of a new distillation unit at the petrochemicals facility has started, to produce polymer-grade propylene with an investment of Eur29 million ($35 million) in May 2020, which is planned to be online in 2021. The unit will boost propylene production at the refinery by 35% to reach 81,000 mt/year.

** Poland's second-largest refiner, Grupa Lotos, is looking at developing a hydrocracker unit at Gdansk for the production of base oils.

** Total said the modernization of the Donges in which it is investing Eur450 million will continue. This include Eur350 million for a desulfurization unit, Eur50 million for participating in the bypassing of the rail lines, and Eur50 million in a unique control room. Separately, the refinery has started preparations for installing a new diesel hydrotreater, expected to come online in 2023. Kinetics Technology said it had been awarded the contract for building the 40,000 b/d hydrotreater. The French government, local authorities, railway operator SNCF and Total signed a memorandum of intent in 2016 to build the railroad track bypassing the Donges refinery. Total said previously following the bypass agreement, it would proceed with the planned upgrade. The bypass will be ready in 2022.

** Cepsa's San Roque has received a favorable environmental impact assessment for its Eur1 billion "bottom of the barrel" project, which includes the construction of a new hydrocracker and the idling of the visbreaking unit, among other work, according to a publication in the country's official gazette, the Boletin Oficial del Estado, or BOE. The project has been delayed due to local objections which caused earthworks at the site to be halted in 2019 and then further delayed by pandemic-related measures in the country and other legal challenges. The project entails the construction of a new LC Fining hydrocracking unit which will provide 36,700 b/d of LC Fining technology and 27,600 b/d of isotreating, strengthening Cepsa's marine diesel and bunker fuel oil output, as well as a sulfur unit and new hydrogen unit. The production of diesel should increase to 55% from 40% once the project is concluded. No date has been announced for the start of the work, which was initially due to begin in 2019 and conclude in 2022. Separately, Cepsa will revamp Isomax, fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation units at San Roque and will construct a methylene unit (Sorbex II).

** Bulgaria's Burgas refinery has awarded a contract to US Lummus Technology for a 280,000 mt/year polypropylene plant. The contract includes a technology license as well as as basic design engineering, training and services, and catalyst supply, Lummus said. "This award is the second significant polypropylene contract we have signed with Lukoil recently," Lummus Technology President and CEO Leon de Bruyn said. Lummus said it has earlier been awarded a contract for a propylene unit at Lukoil's Russian Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod.

** PKN Orlen is holding talks with the Lithuanian government about it co-financing a bottom-of-the-barrel processing investment at the country's Orlen Lietuva refinery. "Without in-depth processing there will be no future for this refinery. With the bad macroeconomic environment and margins as low as they are now, if the refinery is not modern it has problems with efficiency," PKN CEO Daniel Obajtek told state news agency PAP Biznes. Obajtek said the investment would be PKN's largest in Lithuania and it would increase the refinery's diesel, gasoline and jet fuel yield by around 10 percentage points. Obajtek said once a final investment decision was taken, the project could be completed within three years.

** The industrial complex in Tarragona will adapt one of its units to manufacture advanced high resistance polypropylene with start-up in 2021, Repsol said. When operational, the plant will be the first of its kind in the Iberian peninsula to produce the highly specialized polymers for use in the automotive sector, Repsol said. At Spain's Cartagena, work restarted on a lubricants unit at the Ilboc plant alongside Korean partner SKSol, after being halted amid COVID-19 restrictions. The lubricants plant will see capacity increase 50% to 1.0 million mt/year when work is concluded, with no date supplied.

** ExxonMobil said it has "made a final investment decision to expand" the Fawley refinery in the UK to increase production of ULSD by 45%, or 38,000 b/d. The more than $1 billion investment includes a hydrotreater to remove sulfur from diesel, supported by a hydrogen plant. Start-up was expected in 2021.

** Russian Lukoil plans to invest in its ISAB refinery in southern Italy and has also dropped plans announced in 2017 to sell the plant having not received suitable offers. Lukoil will invest $60 million in upgrades, including two hydrodesulfurization units.

** Cepsa said it will carry out upgrades to its aromax and hydrocracker units at Huelva. It is also carrying out an aromatics optimization project at the refinery.

** Israel's Haifa District Court has rejected an appeal by Haifa municipality along with six other neighboring communities and environmental groups against the proposed expansion of the Bazan refinery.

Biofuel, hydrogen upgrades

New and revised entries

** The new electrolyzer at Germany's Rhineland refinery will go onstream July 2, the company said June 21. Rhineland previously said it would start producing green hydrogen in July as it carried out the installation of Europe's biggest polymer electrolyte membrane, or PEM, electrolyzer. The five electrolyzer modules, with a total 10 MW of capacity, have been installed at the Wesseling site. The investment project will generate hydrogen from electricity that comes from renewable energy. The hydrogen will be then used by the refinery. The PEM is part of the Refhyne project, aimed to produce up to 1,300 mt/year of hydrogen. The project has been delayed by COVID-19, Platts reported previously. Separately, Shell is planning to build the first commercial bio-PTL (power-to-liquid) at the refinery, which will involve expanding its electrolyzer project at the site to 100 MW. The new project (Refhyne II), which would produce 100,000 mt/year of synthetic kerosene and raw gasoline (naphtha) using green hydrogen generated in the electrolyzer as well as biomass (waste wood), could start commercial operations beginning in 2025, Shell said previously. Construction for the expanded electrolyzer project, Refhyne II, could start 2022 pending a final investment decision. The refinery consists of the Wesseling (south) and Godorf (north) sites, which have combined capacity of 327,000 b/d.

** Finland's Neste said it is working on two projects at its Porvoo refinery aimed at developing it into "renewable hydrogen and CO2 utilization as well as advanced biofuels production from lignocellulosic wastes and residues." The project for clean hydrogen and recovery of carbon aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by introducing carbon capture and storage at Porvoo as well as "electrolysis solutions that allow decarbonization of production at the refinery." The lignocellulosics project aims to convert "forestry-based waste and residue raw materials into advanced biofuels" at the Porvoo refinery. Neste also said that as part of its aim for 100% renewable electricity globally by 2023 it will increase the use of renewable electricity at its Porvoo refinery. Approximately 40% of the electricity used at the refinery will be renewable wind power in 2025, following agreements signed with wind power company Ilmatar and Fortum.

** Swedish refiner Preem has carried out the first tests to produce renewable gasoline from sawdust at its Lysekil refinery as it has started to process pyrolysis oil. "Extensive tests have now begun in Lysekil on the catalytic cracker, one of the refinery's largest plants," the company said June 21. The tests consist of two parts -- an initial batch of 300 mt of pyrolysis oil, followed by a longer test operation that will process up to 50,000 mt of pyrolysis oil for two years. Separately, Preem and Vattenfall will investigate the possibilities of building a large facility at Lysekil refinery for producing hydrogen. Preem's goal of producing 5 million cu m of biofuels by 2030 "requires large-scale supply of hydrogen," the companies said. They will, therefore, investigate the possibilities of supplying Preem's hydrogen needs with fossil-free hydrogen from large-scale electrolysis of water. Depending on the results of the study, which is due to be completed by the summer, the next step "may be to prepare the construction of a first electrolysis plant at the refinery in Lysekil in the order of 200-500 MW." An investment in fossil-free hydrogen could "create opportunities for increased biofuel production while we reduce emissions at our refineries," said Peter Abrahamsson, head of Sustainable Development at Preem. In October, Preem started a conversion of Lysekil in a move that will make it the biggest producer of renewable fuels in Scandinavia. The development followed a statement by the company in September that an upgrade of the conventional oil productions refinery had been abandoned. In an initial phase, Preem plans to carry out a redevelopment of the existing Synsat plant, which currently produces environmental Class 1 diesel. When the conversion is complete, the plant will have the capacity to process up to 40% of its renewable raw materials, with the ambition to reach higher levels in the long term.

Existing entries

** Croatia's INA is looking at potentially developing its Sisak plant into a biorefinery. "The biorefinery is one of the sustainable alternatives planned for the Sisak industrial site," it said in a statement, adding that the plant could produce second-generation biofuels. "We are currently working on further development and opportunities for additional co-funding of this project, which is a key prerequisite for making a final investment decision," the company said. The company had previously said it was looking at various options for the conversion of Sisak, including a bitumen production site and logistic hub.

** Portugal's Galp said that the Sines industrial site around the refinery will undergo a gradual transformation into a green energy hub which Galp expects to be leveraged on the access to green hydrogen, which will allow further industrial applications, such as synthetic fuel, and support a significant emissions reduction by 2030. The upgrade could entail a 270,000 mt/year HVO production site, which Galp will take a final investment decision on next year, Brown said. The company will be able to save costs on its construction by recycling equipment from its Matosinhos refinery, which it closed in 2021 and can be fed by surplus hydrogen from the Sines complex.

** Essar Oil UK said it has secured a GBP7.2 million ($10.2 million) grant from the UK's Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to install a new furnace in the crude distillation unit at its Stanlow refinery. The new furnace will be able to run on a 100% hydrogen, making it the UK's first refinery-based furnace able to be fueled entirely by hydrogen. The furnace will use hydrogen produced by the HyNet North West blue hydrogen project at Stanlow, with the first stage of the initiative set to come on stream in 2025, Essar said. Essar Oil UK had set up a joint venture with Progressive Energy, developers of UK's leading industrial decarbonization cluster HyNet North West, to produce low carbon hydrogen at its Stanlow refinery. Natural gas and fuel gases from Stanlow will be converted into low carbon hydrogen "with carbon dioxide safely captured and stored offshore in sub-surface reservoirs in Liverpool Bay." Separately, Essar Oil UK said that together with Fulcrum BioEnergy Ltd. it will build a new facility to convert non-recyclable household waste into sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, to be used by airlines operating at UK airports. "This innovative bio-refinery will convert several hundred thousand tonnes of pre-processed waste, which would have otherwise been destined for incineration or landfill, into approximately 100 million liters of low carbon SAF annually," the company said. Fulcrum will build, own and operate the plant within the Stanlow manufacturing complex. Plans are expected to be completed at the end of 2021 subject to planning consent. The facility will be operational in late 2025. The facility will utilize direct pipeline access to transport the SAF to UK airports through the Manchester Jet Line and the UK Oil Pipeline network.

** Phillips 66 said it secured more than GBP500,000 to switch industrial fired heaters from gas to low carbon hydrogen at its Humber refinery. The company is working with the UK's Gigastack consortium on a project that involves the use of renewable hydrogen at Humber to reduce the carbon content of fuels produced there. Separately, Phillips 66 said its UK refinery was moving to produce 5,000 b/d renewable diesel by 2024 after recently expanding capacity to 3,000 b/d from 1,000 b/d. Humber produced 1,000 b/d of renewable diesel in 2020, after starting production in 2019. Humber is also a valuable contributor of coke and can play a role in the UK's energy transition while contributing to the local production of batteries for electric vehicles, the company said.

** Green hydrogen company Everfuel is planning a 300 MW electrolyzer project adjacent to the 70,000 b/d Fredericia refinery in Denmark to supply renewable gas to the plant and for local zero-emission transport by 2025, the company said in a statement May 11. The HySynergy Phase II plant will send 80% of the hydrogen produced to the refinery for use as a feedstock in the refining process. The remaining 20% will go to hydrogen mobility applications. The commissioning of the plant is expected in late 2024. Shell sold the Fredericia refinery to private investment company Postlane Partners in early 2021. Postlane's development plans for the refinery include co-processing renewable feedstocks and will focus on green hydrogen, and the potential for advanced biofuels.

** In Q1, Polish refiner Grupa Lotos launched its Pure H2 project, which includes the construction of a hydrogen purification unit and a system for supplying hydrogen to vehicles that haul compressed hydrogen. The project is scheduled to be completed in Q4 2023. Lotos plans to build a pilot 100 MW electrolysis installation and 20 MW power generation unit by 2025. The company has chosen technical advisers and completed preliminary studies, and will partner with the country's electricity transmission system operator PSE, it said. The first stage of the investment will be a pilot project in 2020-2025 including a 100 MW electrolysis installation, a 20 MW power generation unit, hydrogen storage and fuel cells. The company said its location in Gdansk on the Baltic Sea coastline was favorable for cooperation with planned offshore wind farms for the production of renewable hydrogen. The hydrogen would be stored in salt caverns and used in energy production during peak demand. During a first stage, Lotos planned to develop a pilot program to build a large-scale electrolysis installation to produce low carbon hydrogen mainly for these refining purposes.

In the second stage between 2025-2030, Lotos would look to expand the capacity of the electrolysis installation to 1 GW, and the associated gas-fired generation unit to 200 MW. Storage capacity would be increased to 2,500 mt of hydrogen. In a third stage to 2040, Lotos aimed to become the regional leader in the production and distribution of green hydrogen with plans to supply the gas to refineries and power generation plants, as well as injecting hydrogen into the gas grid. The electrolysis installation would be expanded to 4 GW with a 1 GW gas-fired generation unit, it said.

** Finnish refiner and clean fuels producer Neste will modify its existing biorefinery in Rotterdam so it can significantly boost production of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. This will involve an investment of approximately Eur190 million ($230 million), enabling it "to optionally produce up to 500,000 mt of SAF per annum as part of the existing capacity," Neste said. The project is estimated to be completed in the second half of 2023. This is also part of Neste's ambitious target to be able to produce 1.5 million mt of SAF by the end of 2023. The Finnish refiner also recently picked Rotterdam as the most likely site for its new renewable products refinery. A final investment decision on the project will be taken either by the end of this year or early in 2022. Neste also said that its Singapore renewables capacity expansion project is proceeding according to the revised schedule. Neste's current renewable products' capacity in Finland, the Netherlands and Singapore is approximately 3.2 million mt/year. The Rotterdam and Singapore facilities both have an annual capacity of more than 1.3 million mt of renewable products. The capacity expansion in Singapore is aimed at bringing its total renewables product capacity to 4.5 million mt/year in 2023. The company's 260,000 b/d Porvoo refinery is also being revamped to focus on co-processing renewable and circular raw materials.

** Italy's Eni said it will build new units at its Porto Marghera biorefinery in Venice which will allow it to "eliminate the use of palm oil in its production of biofuels." From 2023 Eni will no longer use palm oil in its production processes, it said in a statement. The refinery has submitted documentation for an environmental impact assessment for the new units which will allow the treatment of crude vegetable oils, used plant-based cooking oils and used animal fats. The 400,000 mt/yr biorefinery, which was converted in 2014, is producing HVO which is added to diesel fuel to meet European and national regulatory requirements. It processed around 220,000 mt of raw materials last year, of which more than 25% consisted of used cooking oils, animal fats and other waste vegetable oils.

** TotalEnergies plans to produce SAF from its "zero-crude" Grandpuits platform from 2024. Total said it would convert its French Grandpuits refinery "into a zero-crude platform". The plant will focus also on production of bioplastics, plastics recycling and the operation of two photovoltaic solar power plants. Crude oil refining has been discontinued and storage of oil products will end in late 2023.

** French oil company TotalEnergies' Antwerp refinery is interested in adding coprocessing biofuel units to the refinery, the company said March 2021, clarifying details in media reports. The company said it was considering adding units to its existing refinery. There is currently no timeline for making a decision about the project, the company said. De Standard newspaper cited Jacques Beuckelaers, CEO of Total Antwerp, as saying the units would have capacity of 150,000 mt/year and would process cooking oil and animal fats.

** Hungary's MOL said in March that it has started biodiesel production at the Danube refinery using coprocessing technology, with plans to produce more than 100,000 mt by 2030. The company said it plans to invest $1 billion in low-carbon and sustainable projects in the next five years.

** Austria's OMV said it plans to build a pilot plant at its Schwechat refinery for the production of second-generation biofuels. The plant, which is to start production from 2023, involves "advanced biofuels that are not in competition with foodstuffs," the company said. Construction will start in the second quarter of 2021. The plant will use an in-house developed catalyst to produce propanol (or alcohol) from glycerin, which is a byproduct from the production of biodiesel. The pilot plant will produce 1.25 million liters/year of propanol. "The long-term plan is to commercialize the technology in order to produce around 125 million liters/year of propanol and reduce CO2 by around 180,000 mt," OMV said. Germany's Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz, or CAC, said it has been contracted by OMV to build its biofuel plant. OMV said it is investing around Eur200 million ($243.1 million) in biofuel production at Schwechat. The refinery will convert up to 160,000 mt of liquid biomass into carbon-neutral fuels, it said, adding that with this process the HVO "should lead to an annual reduction in OMV's carbon footprint of up to 360,000 mt of fossil CO2." Separately, OMV said recently it will build the country's largest electrolysis plant at the Schwechat refinery through a joint investment with Kommunalkredit Austria AG. The plant is expected to start in the second half of 2023. The 10 MW polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis will produce up to 1,500 mt/year of green hydrogen which will be used "to hydrogenate bio-based and fossil fuels, substituting grey hydrogen in the refinery."

** Italy's Enel Green Power and Saras said they have signed a memorandum of intent to develop a green hydrogen project at the Sardinian refinery Sarroch operated by Saras with an initial 20 MW electrolyzer. The hydrogen produced would be used at the refinery based at the Sarroch industrial site.

Through a distributed network, hydrogen is an integral part of Saras' refining process for its use in hydrocracking and hydrotreatment processes. It is currently provided by the IGCC complex and two reforming units on the industrial site.

** Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a bio-refinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and aims to double its bio-refining capacity to around 2 million mt/year by 2024, increasing this capacity at least five times by 2050.

** Germany's MiRo refinery in Karlsruhe is considering launching production of synthetic fuels, pending approval by the local government, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported. The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg plans a large renewable fuels pilot project at the MiRo refinery to be developed by research institute KIT, with electrolyzer spin-off INERATEC currently developing a similar project with an up to 10 MW electrolyzer at Frankfurt-Hoechst, a spokeswoman said Jan. 25. Baden-Wuerttemberg's environment ministry on Jan. 22 started a green hydrogen and fuel cell research platform H2BW, while the transport ministry on Jan. 20 said it planned to advance a pilot project for renewable fuels (ReFuels). The pilot project at the MiRo refinery would be led and developed by INERATEC, it said, with no details as yet on the size and scale of the project.

** French oil company TotalEnergies and utility Engie have signed a cooperation agreement to design, develop, build and operate France's largest renewable hydrogen production site near Total's La Mede biorefinery. The Masshylia project at Martigues, west of Marseilles, will be powered by a 100 MW solar farm with a 40 MW electrolyzer set to produce 5 mt/day of green hydrogen to meet the needs of the biofuel production process at Total's nearby biorefinery, avoiding 15,000 mt of CO2/year, the companies said in a joint statement. Construction will start next year following the completion of the advanced engineering study. Production could start in 2024, subject to financial support and public authorizations, the partners said.

** Repsol has increased its 2025 and 2030 targets for sustainable biofuel production, targeting 1.3 million mt/year of sustainable biofuel production by 2025 and more than 2 million mt/year by 2030, senior management said Nov. 26. By 2025 the company aims to nearly double sustainable biofuel production from its current output of 700,000 mt/year. Of the new production total, up to 250,000 mt/year will be from an advanced biofuels plant at its Cartagena refinery in Spain able to produce 250,000 mt/year of biofuels for aircraft, trucks and cars; up to 130,000 mt/year will be methanol supplied from its new waste pyrolosis plant in Bilbao, and up to 300,000 mt/year will come from debottlenecking activity at all five refineries, in their hydrodesulfurization and hydrotreatment units to produce HVO. Separately, Repsol has joined the H24All consortium as lead partner as the project seeks European funding for a 100 MW alkaline electrolysis plant in Bilbao to produce renewable hydrogen. Repsol is to lead the project in conjunction with Norwegian developer Hydrogen Pro. The proposed site is at the Petronor refinery in Bilbao. Repsol is targeting 64,000 mt/year of renewable hydrogen production by 2025 and 192,000 mt/year by 2030. The production will be integrated with the refineries as much as possible meaning a feedstock of 50% biomethane, which will be produced by modifying its steam reformation units, and 50% by electrolyzers fed by its own renewable generation. Repsol said it will build a 10-MW, green-hydrogen plant which it will use to produce synthetic fuels in collaboration with Saudi Aramco at its Bilbao refinery. The plant is part of an Eur80 million decarbonization project that will also include a carbon-capture project and a fuel-from-waste plant, and should be completed by 2024.

** Germany's Heide refinery along with their partners Orsted and EDF would build a 30 MW electrolysis plant, calling it hydrogen ecosystem, replacing grey hydrogen with green via electrolysis unit, powered by an offshore wind farm. Heide plans to utilize green hydrogen towards methanol in the production of sustainable aviation fuel, rather than bio-components and the Fischer-Tropsch method. The company plans to commission a pilot plant unit at the refinery in 2021, before moving to scale up the project in the next three to six years.

** Orsted and BP are to jointly develop a 50 MW renewable hydrogen project at BP's Lingen refinery in Emsland, northwest Germany, Orsted said. The project, expected to be operational in 2024, would comprise a 50 MW electrolyzer capable of generating 9,000 mt/year of hydrogen, 20% of the refinery's current fossil-based hydrogen consumption. The electrolyzer is expected to be powered by an Orsted North Sea offshore wind farm. The partners have a longer-term ambition to build more than 500 MW of renewable hydrogen capacity at Lingen, providing renewable hydrogen to meet all the refinery's hydrogen demand and provide feedstock for future synthetic fuel production.

** Gunvor is studying the potential installation of an HVO unit at the Rotterdam refinery.

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Existing entries

** Turkey's Ersan Petrol plans to start construction of its 1.4 million mt/year Nazli refinery at Kahramanmaras in southeast Turkey in mid-2020, with the plant expected to begin operations in less than four years, company owner Ecvet Sayer said.

** Azerbaijani state oil company Socar is considering the development of a second refinery in Turkey, in addition to its existing 214,000 b/d Star refinery at Aliaga on Turkey's central Aegean coast.