Shell to build 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility in the Netherlands

Shell LNG

Royal Dutch Shell will build an 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands, formerly known as the Pernis refinery.

The facility will be among the biggest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste.

A facility of this size could produce enough renewable diesel to avoid 2,800,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions a year, the equivalent of taking more than 1 million European cars off the roads.

The facility will help the Netherlands and the rest of Europe to meet internationally binding emissions reduction targets. It will also help Shell to meet its own target of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.

The facility is expected to use technology to capture carbon emissions from the manufacturing process and store them in an empty gas field beneath the North Sea through the Porthos project.

“Today’s announcement is a key part of the transformation of one of our major refineries into an energy and chemicals park, which will supply customers with the low-carbon products they want and need,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell’s Downstream Director.

Shell, part of its Powering Progress strategy, is transforming its refineries (which numbered 14 in October 2020) into five energy and chemicals parks. Shell aims to reduce the production of traditional fuels by 55 percent by 2030 and provide more low-carbon fuels such as biofuels for road transport and aviation, and hydrogen.

The Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam is the second park to be announced, following the launch in July of the Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland, in Germany.

The Rotterdam biofuels facility is expected to start production in 2024. It will produce low-carbon fuels such as renewable diesel from waste in the form of used cooking oil, waste animal fat and other industrial and agricultural residual products.