ECB Group will build a renewable diesel biorefinery in Paraguay
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
The Paraguayan government and ECB Group, an investment holding
company founded in 2011 by the Brazilian entrepreneur Erasmo Carlos
Battistella, signed a memorandum of understanding on February 25 to continue
the group's investments in the country. The largest of them is the first HVO biorefinery in South America. In a meeting at the Palacio de Los López,
Paraguay’s president stated that the government will give all possible support
to the project.
Press release: “In
an unprecedented initiative in the Southern Hemisphere, ECB Group and the
Government of Paraguay come together to produce advanced biofuels”, 25/2/2019.
Figure 1. Signing of the agreement between the
Paraguayan government and ECB Group
Name of
the project
|
Omega
Green.
|
Location
|
The unit
will be installed on the banks of the Paraguay River and will have a logistic
port and port terminal.
|
Estimated
cost
|
800 M$.
|
Feedstock
|
Soybean
oil, recycled animal fat and recycled cooking oil.
Hydrogen
will be totally obtained through the electrolysis of water, not by natural
gas reform.
|
Products
and production capacity
|
16,500
barrels per day of diesel and renewable kerosene (enough to meet more than a
third of Paraguayan consumption of fossil diesel).
|
Technology
|
Honeywell
UOP’s Ecofining.
|
Employment
effect
|
The
industrial complex will generate more than 3,000 jobs during its construction
and 2,400 direct and indirect jobs during the operation, in addition to
increasing income for local farmers.
|
Timeline
|
- Start of
the works: 2019.
- Full
productive capacity: 2022.
|
In addition to providing an annual reduction of 1.3
billion tons in carbon dioxide emissions by replacing fossil fuels, Omega Green
will have solutions designed specifically to strengthen sustainability, such as
generating steam from biomass and the treatment of all wastes and by-products. The
entire industrial structure will be supplied by world leader companies: Crown
Iron Works in extraction and treatment of vegetable oils, ThyssenKrupp in
electrolysis and Honeywell UOP in hydrotreatment.