Royal Dutch Shell has announced a final investment decision to build what will be one of the biggest biofuels facilities in Europe.
Located at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the plant will have a capacity to produce 820,000 tonnes of 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.
That’s enough to avoid around 2.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year, the equivalent of taking more than one million European cars off the roads.
The low carbon fuels will help to meet the growing demand from the transport sector, including hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as heavy road transport and aviation.
Once built, the new facility could produce up to 820,000 tonnes a year of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel.
🌿 #Biofuels can help lower carbon emissions from the transport sector from heavy road transport to aviation. (2/6) pic.twitter.com/6cCzEHLJSf
— Shell (@Shell) September 16, 2021
The biofuels facility, which is expected to start production in 2024, will support Shell’s target of becoming a net zero emissions business by 2050 as well as the Netherlands’ and Europe’s internationally-binding emissions reduction goals.
Marjan van Loon, President Director of Shell Netherlands BV said: “Shell has been on the road to a lower carbon future for some time. This investment is an important step as we transform the Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam from a traditional refinery into a sustainable energy park.
“The project will mean hundreds of millions of dollars of investment each year during construction, it will create hundreds of jobs and help to maintain the facility’s competitiveness for years to come.”
