Shell to build new SAF renewable diesel facility

IN BRIEF

UAE: Biofuel producer BioD Technology (BioD) has commissioned a 30,000 tonnes/ year biodiesel refinery in Dubai’s Jebel-Ali Free Zone, Yahoo Finance reported on 7 September. BioD used residues such as used cooking oil, animal tallow, palm oil mill effluent, and acid oils as feedstocks, the report said.

The company’s biodiesel capacity was around 60,000 tonnes/year, its website said.

SWEDEN: Forestry specialist SCA has partnered with Nordic energy firm St1 to produce and sell liquid biofuels, the companies announced on 20 September.

The two firms would be equal shareholders of the joint venture, which would have a 50% share in the St1 Gothenburg biorefinery.

SCA would supply tall oil and invest some US$68.65M in the venture.

With an expected capacity of 200,000 tonnes, the new refinery was due to become operational in second quarter 2023 and would produce HVO diesel and bio-jet fuel. As well as tall oil, it could also utilise a wide range of other feedstocks, the two firms said.

St1 would also become a 50% owner of the SCA Östrand biorefinery, in developmental stage to produce 300,000 tonnes of biofuels based on black liquor (a by-product from kraft pulp production) and solid biomass (such as sawdust or bark).

Shell to build new SAF, renewable diesel facility

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) is set to build a new biofuels facility in Rotterdam, the company announced on 16 September.

The 820,000 tonnes/year plant will be built at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, formerly known as the Pernis refinery.

Upon completion, the facility would be among the biggest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste, the company said.

“Today’s announcement is a key part of the transformation of one of our major refineries into an energy and chemicals park,” Shell’s downstream director Huibert Vigeveno said.

The Rotterdam biofuels facility was due to become operational in 2024 and would produce low-carbon fuels such as renewable diesel from waste in the form of used cooking oil (UCO), waste animal fat and other industrial and agricultural residual products, the company said.

A range of certified sustainable vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, would supplement the waste feedstocks until even more sustainable advanced feedstocks were widely available, Shell said, adding that the facility would not use virgin palm oil as feedstock.

SAF could make up more than half of the 820,000 tonnes/year capacity, with the rest being renewable diesel, with the mix adjusted to meet customer demand.

As part of its Powering Progress strategy, Shell said it was transforming its 14 refineries into five energy and chemicals parks and aiming to reduce the production of traditional fuels by 55% by 2030, and provide more low-carbon fuels such as biofuels for road transport and aviation, and hydrogen.

Pyrocell starts pyrolysis oil production

Joint venture company Pyrocell has started the production of pyrolysis oil for biofuels at its plant in Sweden, the firm said on 23 September.

Founded in 2018, Pyrocell is jointly owned by wood product firm Setra Group and Swedish petroleum company Preem, and produces biooil from a forestry by-product.

Pyrocell’s plant (pictured right) at Setra Kastet sawmill in Gävle on Sweden’s Baltic coast converts sawdust, a by-product from Setra’s industrial process, into non-fossil pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil is then further processed to make renewable diesel and petrol at Preem’s refinery in Lysekil.

The plant would produce around 25,000 tonnes/year of non-fossil pyrolysis oil, the company said.

Pyrolysis is a process which involves the rapid heating of a substance to a high temperature to vaporise the solid material and condense it into a liquid. This process turns forestry waste products, such as branches, roots and sawdust, into oil, which can then be refined into renewable petrol and diesel.

Argentina to appeal US ruling on biodiesel import duties

The Argentine government has said it will appeal against the US Court of International Trade’s upholding of duties on its biodiesel exports to the country, Reuters reported on 22 September.

Argentina’s move follows the US court’s decision on 21 September to reject a motion for judgment from the Argentine government and LDC Argentina, who were challenging steep US levies imposed since early 2018 which effectively shut off Argentine access to the US market, Reuters wrote.

“The Argentine government will work jointly with the private sector of our country to reverse this decision,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it had a 60-day window to appeal the ruling.

The duty rates on Argentine biodiesel imports followed an investigation that found US biodiesel producers were being harmed by unfair trade practices, said a 21 September Biodiesel magazine report.

In May 2020, the US Department of Commerce decided that there were no “changed circumstances” in Argentina’s subsidies to its biodiesel producers that would warrant changes in US duty rates.

The USA was a key market for Argentine exports of biodiesel before the duties were sharply raised, according to Reuters.

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