Repsol has unveiled plans to build ‘Spain’s first’ advanced biofuels plant.

The new facility is forecast to produce 250,000 tonnes of advanced biofuels every year, for use in aircraft, trucks and cars.

The plant, which will be developed with a €188 million (£170m) investment, will include a hydrogen project that will fuel a new hydrotreatment unit.

The production at the Cartagena refinery is predicted to result in a reduction of 900,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is approximately the equivalent of the carbon dioxide absorption of a forest the size of 180,000 football pitches.

Repsol Chief Executive Officer Josu Jon Imaz said: “Spain must base its decarbonisation strategy on its industrial and technological capabilities because that will be the way to promote a competitive and innovative business fabric.

“All forms of decarbonisation are valid and complementary and incentivising them so that they can all contribute, without exclusion, will accelerate the energy transition and help us, as a society, achieve a speedy economic recovery, so necessary under the current circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.”