Energy giant Shell has announced billions of investment in its Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk in the Netherlands to support the transition to recycling more materials and reducing carbon emissions.
A pyrolysis oil upgrader unit will be added to the Moerdijk site to enable it to process plastics that would normally be hard to recycle, and produce from them high-quality pyrolysis oil, which can then be used as feedstock for Shell’s other facilities, such as to make lubricant base oils. By the middle of this decade, Shell hopes to be processing a million tonnes of plastic waste each year at its facilities around the world.
Shell Chemicals and Products’ Executive Vice President, Robin Mooldijk, said that Shell was investing in reinventing the chemicals industry to meet changing demands from its customers for more circular and low-carbon chemical feedstock. He added:
“We are working together to deliver on shared decarbonisation and sustainability goals. This pyrolysis oil upgrader investment is part of our commitment to developing the chemical recycling industry, which can turn hard to recycle plastics into new and useful products, helping society tackle the key issue of plastic waste.”
The Moerdijk park is also putting together plans to produce hydrogen from the residual gases of its production processes, with this then being used to power the furnaces for industrial production, while any remaining CO2 will be captured and stored in depleted undersea gas fields. If given a final investment decision, this will help the park reach its goal of becoming a net-zero emitter within a decade.
