Sinar Mas Cepsa starts up production at vegetable-based alcohols plant in Indonesia

Recent news from the renewable oleochemicals sector. Sinar Mas Cepsa announced yesterday the official opening of its first oleochemicals plant in Indonesia, which represents an investment of 300 M€ made over 2 years (see press release). Sinar Mas Cepsa is a joint venture between Cepsa, a leading integrated energy company and world leader in the production of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), and Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), part of the Indonesian consortium of Sinar Mas businesses which is the world’s second largest palm oil company focused on sustainable palm oil production. The plant’s inauguration ceremony was attended by officials and dignitaries from the Indonesian Ministry of Industry.

Figure 1. New vegetable-based alcohols plant of Sina Mar Cepsa in Indonesia (extracted from the press release)

Project datasheet:

Location	Dumai (Sumatra, Indonesia).
Owner	Sinar Mas Cepsa (JV between Cepsa and GAR).
Feedstock	Palm kernel oil.
Products and production capacity	160,000 tons/year of fatty alcohols.
Investment	300 M€.
Plot	22 hectares.
Construction direct man-hours	8.5 million.
Steel structure	6,814 tons.

This is the first time Cepsa will produce a product that is not derived from petroleum. The plant will manufacture alcohols from sustainably sourced palm kernel oil. GAR’s Lubuck Gaung refinery, which is certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and located nearby, supplies it with sustainable, traceable palm kernel oil. The Dumai plant is also fully self-sufficient, capable of producing its own electricity, treating its waste water and managing its own logistics.

Sales of vegetable-based alcohols will primarily focus on markets in Asia. The facility will also cover demand from Sinar Mas Cepsa’s surfactant plant in Genthin (Germany), which serves markets in Eastern and Western Europe. The Genthin facility is able to produce surfactants from both LAB and fatty alcohols.

Fatty alcohols are used in many applications which we use in our daily lives: personal care and cosmetics (face creams, shampoos, gels and toothpaste) and liquid detergents. Also, they are employed in other sectors as varied as agriculture, water treatment and food. The global market for fatty alcohols is predicted to expand to 4.1 million metric tons by 2025, up from 3.1 million metric tons in 2016, demonstrating a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5%. Of this, a bulk of the revenue generated will come from Asia which currently commands over 40% of overall demand.

This is not the only recent news related to renewable products involving Cepsa. The company has just resumed production at the former Abengoa biodiesel plant in San Roque (Spain) after 18 months without activity. After purchasing the plant last February for 8 M€, Cepsa had been working on its upgrading. The plant has a capacity of 200,000 tons of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and 25,000 tons of glycerin. Also, Cepsa has produced HVO at its refineries since 2011.