INA submits a request of strategic investment status for the Sisak biorefinery project
Type of post: NEWS.
INA has submitted a request to the Ministry of
Economy of Croatia for the Sisak biorefinery project
to be awarded strategic investment status.
Press release: “INA prijavila projekt Biorafinerije
za status strateškog investicijskog projekta za Republiku Hrvatsku”, 23/6/2020.
Related posts:
- “DSEC signs basic engineering
contract for the 2G ethanol biorefinery project of INA in Croatia”, 17/1/2020.
- “INA chooses Futurol technology
licensed by Axens for its 2G ethanol project in Croatia”, 12/3/2020.
Figure 1. Biomass availability and supply for
the biorefinery project of INA in Sisak (extracted from “Concept of Converting Oil Refinery
to Biorefinery”,
IEA Bioenergy Task 43 Workshop, University J.J. Strossmayer, Osijek, March
27th, 2018)
The total investment is worth 250 M€ and part
of that figure is expected to be covered from the EU innovations funds. INA confirmed
that despite the challenging business climate, it is continuing strategic
projects and the transformation of the Sisak refinery complex. One of the
activities in Sisak would be to develop a biorefinery to produce 2G bioethanol along
with green energy. The company underscored that support from the EU and the
Croatian government is a key precondition to finally realise this significant
project for Croatia and INA which entirely fits into Europe’s Green Deal energy
strategy.
At the end of last year, INA signed an agreement with the
Belgian De Smet Engineers & Contractors to design the integration of the biorefining
unit in the existing refinery structure. And, in February, it selected Futurol technology for
the 2G ethanol production process.
Regarding the establishing a feedstock supply chain,
two harvests of the energy crop miscanthus were conducted on the demonstration
field in Rugvica near Zagreb, in cooperation with the Bc Institute. The collected
biomass of the first harvest was sent for testing within the BBI GRACE project
(GRowing Advanced Industrial Crops on marginal lands for biorEfineries) and the
results confirmed miscanthus as a good raw material for the production of 2G
bioethanol. The second harvest of miscanthus was carried out in March this
year, during which INA tested agricultural machinery of renowned EU manufacturers.