BTG and GoodFuels exploring joint investment in a biorefinery to produce an advanced marine biofuel
Type of post: NEWS.
BTG
and GoodFuels are exploring options for a joint
investment in a biorefinery to produce an advanced marine biofuel based on
pyrolysis oil.
- Press release: “BTG and GoodFuels preparing for
major investment in bio-refinery to support shipping’s low carbon fuels demands”, 14/11/2019.
- Posts about Pyrolysis.
- “Fast
pyrolysis plants”, 17/7/2019.
Figure 1. BTG and GoodFuels exploring joint
investment in a biorefinery to produce an advanced marine biofuel
The facility will be operated by a new company
named BTG-neXt. In the first phase, BTG-nexT will focus on building a pilot
refinery for converting pyrolysis oil into sustainable diesel for ships in
order to demonstrate that continuous production is feasible.
Location
|
Pilot
|
The
intended location for the new pilot plant is ‘as close to home as possible’ to
achieve short lines of communication and efficient services.
|
Commercial
|
The ports
of Rotterdam and Eemshaven are the locations being considered for the first
commercial plant.
Rotterdam
would be the preferred location as most of the GoodFuels shipping clients are
active there. In addition, Rotterdam offers many opportunities for further
integration due to the existing infrastructure.
|
|
Production
capacity
|
Pilot
|
1,000
tons of advanced marine fuel per year.
That
capacity is sufficient to demonstrate that the technology works and will
serve as a basis for further scaling up the operations.
GoodFuels
intends to market the pilot volumes produced in order to be able to also
optimise the commercial business case.
|
Commercial
|
The goal
is to use the pre-commercial facility as a reference for rolling out
commercial refineries with a capacity of possibly hundreds of thousands of
tons per year.
|
|
Investment
|
Pilot
|
The pilot
will require a six-figure investment. A more precise estimate of that figure
is being calculated.
|
Commercial
|
Investments
in the order of 200 M€ are being considered.
But it
seems that many potential clients, due to market demand, would prefer
building larger facilities.
|
Biofuels in the shipping sector
At present, most ships, in particular seagoing
vessels, use low-quality fuel oil that is almost tar-like in nature. The
potential for growth in terms of sustainability is therefore extremely high for
this sector. Over the last five years, GoodFuels has prepared the road for the
use of biofuels in the shipping sector. Together with partners such as Boskalis
Loodswezen, Port of Rotterdam, Norden, Jan de Nul and its portfolio of
GoodShipping A-Brand clients have shown that these fuels will play an essential
role in making shipping more sustainable. The next step is to scale up the
processes without making any concessions in terms of the sustainability of the
feedstocks used.
The low-sulphur diesel fuel made from pyrolysis oil
also complies with the stringent standards that will be introduced in 2020 for
sulphur emissions in the shipping industry. BTG’s project meets all the crucial
success criteria.