MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish oil and gas company Repsol plans to invest EUR80 million (USD90 million) to build two new plants in the Bilbao area as part of efforts reduce its carbon emissions, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Repsol will build what it said would be one of the world’s biggest net-zero emissions fuel facilities, based on green hydrogen generated with renewable energy and carbon dioxide captured at the Petronor refinery in northern Spain, in which it owns a majority stake.
The second plant will generate gas from urban waste, replacing some of the traditional fuels used by the Petronor refinery, Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz told a news conference on Monday.
“With this project, Repsol becomes a relevant player in reducing carbon emissions,” Imaz said.
Repsol had set a target to reduce its carbon emissions to a net zero by 2050 to contribute to the general struggle to avert global warming.
Companies aiming to achieve “net-zero” usually balance emissions from their operations by investing in technology that can store carbon, or in natural sinks such as forests.
Repsol said it could reach at least 70% of its goal using technology that was already developed or nearly mature, and then would implement carbon capture, use and storage to raise that figure, and turn to natural sinks if necessary.
The first project, fuel production from hydrogen and CO2, announced on Monday will be experimental and produce 50 barrels of synthetic fuel a day, Repsol said. The project will be “scalable in a later stage depending on the results obtained.”
The second project will be able to process 10,000 tons of urban waste a year and capacity could be increased to 100,000 tons a year, or all the urban waste produced in the area.
As MRC reported earlier, Repsol's refinery at Puertollano in central Spain will carry out an upgrade of its olefins unit. The modernization will be a part of planned maintenance of the cracker and chemical derivative plants at the end of 2020.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC