Atlas Copco to supply CO2 compressors to biofuels plant

Atlas Copco will supply a five-stage turbocompressor designed to compress 43.5 t/h of CO2 to a pressure of 42.5 bar.

Atlas Copco Gas and Process will supply CO2 compression equipment to one of Europe’s most ambitious renewable biofuels plants.

The equipment will be used in an 820,000-tons-a-year biofuels facility, located at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a facility formerly known as the Pernis refinery.

Shell announced plans for the facility earlier this fall. Once completed, the facility will be among Europe’s largest for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable diesel and renewable naphtha made from biowaste.

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

Atlas Copco will supply a five-stage turbocompressor designed to compress 43.5 t/h of CO2 to a pressure of 42.5 bar. The unit will support the pipeline transportation of CO2, a byproduct of different processes from the plant.

The new facility will help both the Netherlands and the rest of Europe in meeting internationally binding emissions reduction targets when it starts 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, using advanced technology developed by Shell.

As part of its strategy, Shell is currently transforming its more than a dozen refineries into five energy and chemicals parks. Following the launch of the Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland, in Germany, the new Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam is the second such park to be announced.

With its involvement in this project, Atlas Copco Gas and Process extends its support of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) installations worldwide.