Neste begins construction of world’s first Bio LPG plant

Neste begins construction of world’s first Bio LPG plant

Neste has begun the construction of the world’s first Bio liquid petroleum gas (LPG) production facility at its renewable product refinery in Rotterdam.

The €60 million facility will start production of Bio LPG in the end of 2016.

Bio LPG will enable users of existing fossil fuels to reduce their carbon footprint without any modifications to existing gas applications technology.

It can be used within a full range of existing LPG applications, from transport and commercial heating to retail leisure cylinders.

The new facility will have a production capacity of 40,000 tonnes per year of Bio LPG for the European market.

SHV Energy will be the exclusive distributor, supplying the 160,000 tonnes over four years.

‘Bio LPG can be used within a full range of existing LPG applications. This provides our customers with an even cleaner rural energy alternative to the high-carbon fuels many are dependent on in off-grid areas,’ says Fulco van Lede, management board member of SHV Energy.

The new fuel is already being recognised by policy makers as an effective method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting sustainability targets.

The UK Department for Transport has issued Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates for Bio LPG under their Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation accreditation, and SHV Energy is working with customers and policy makers in France, Germany, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, and Ireland on similar schemes.

Neste’s Rotterdam refinery primarily produces NEXBTL renewable diesel from various waste residues and vegetable oils.

The €60 million investment to produce and store Bio LPG in Rotterdam was announced in autumn 2014.

The new unit will purify and separate Bio LPG from the sidestream gases produced by the refinery.

Technology, engineering, and project management company Neste Jacobs has designed the Bio LPG production process.

Biofuels Plantation Services International