Shell Joins W2C Rotterdam

The British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, joins as equity partner with Air Liquide, Enerkem, Nouryon and the Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe.

The proposed project in Rotterdam will be the first of its kind in Europe to make valuable chemicals and bio-fuels out of non-recyclable waste materials, said a press release from the Netherlands-based seaport.

A consortium of world-leading companies comprising Air Liquide, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Enerkem and the Port of Rotterdam – has announced that Shell will join as a partner in Europe’s first advanced waste-to-chemicals facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Shell will become an equal equity partner in the proposed commercial-scale waste-to-chemicals (W2C) project, which will be the first of its kind in Europe to make valuable chemicals and bio-fuels out of non-recyclable waste materials.

“We are thrilled to have Shell join our group of partners,” says Marco Waas, Chairman of the waste-to-chemicals project in Rotterdam and Director RD&I at Nouryon. “The EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) coming into effect in 2021, as well as other environmental initiatives such as the Circular Economy Package are creating an ideal environment for leading companies to drive sustainable growth through innovation. The project will be further strengthened with the addition of another leading global partner.”

The planned facility will convert up to 360,000 tons of waste into 220,000 tons (270 million litres) of bio- methanol – a chemical building block that is used to manufacture a broad range of everyday products, as well as being a renewable fuel.

This represents the total annual waste of more than 700,000 households and represents a CO 2 emission savings estimated at about 300,000 tonnes when compared to the production of methanol from fossil fuels.

The project is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy, which has agreed to develop mechanisms and regulation that will help bring this new technology to full scale to support the low-carbon transition of the Dutch economy.

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