Neste Corp. will receive funding from the EU Innovation Fund to implement a renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) project at its 206,000-b/d refinery in the Kilpilahti industrial area of Porvoo, Finland.
Neste will use the €88 million in funding to introduce CCS and electrolysis technology solutions that will enable the refinery to decarbonize production processes to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions quickly and efficiently at the site, laying the groundwork for Porvoo’s transformation into a European hub for renewable hydrogen and CO2 utilization, the operator said on Nov. 17.
One of seven projects to be granted funding by the EU Innovation Fund’s more than €1.1 billion investment in low-carbon technologies, the grant award also strongly supports Neste’s goal of making Porvoo Europe’s most sustainable refinery by 2030, said Peter Vanacker, Neste’s president and chief executive officer.
With grant agreements scheduled to be completed during first-quarter 2022, Neste said it plans to gather a network of European technology suppliers as well as research and development institutes to participate in the project, which is currently in the feasibility phase.
Aligned with Neste’s target to achieve carbon neutral production at its operations by 2035 alongside and supporting both Finland’s and the EU’s climate targets in step with the European energy transition, the proposed Porvoo CCS and renewable hydrogen project will be able to reduce CO2 emissions at the site by more than 4 million tonnes during the first 10 years of operation, according to the company.
Further details of the project, including a timeline for its anticipated completion, have yet to be disclosed.
Confirmation of the planned Porvoo CCS and renewable hydrogen project follows Neste’s late-2020 announcement that it will proceed with restructuring of its Finnish refining operations under a program that will involve permanently shuttering processing and production at its 58,000-b/d Naantali refinery and transforming it into a terminal, as well as upgrading the Porvoo refinery to co-processing renewable and circular raw materials (OGJ Online, Mar. 31, 2021).
Neste—which ceased refining operations at Naantali refining earlier this year—executed unidentified preparatory works to enable processing of renewable and recycled materials at Porvoo during a major turnaround completed in June (OGJ Online, June 24, 2021).
