[ Sustainability ] the adjacent ExxonMobil( Esso) refinery for critical desulfurisation and refining processes. The facility is undergoing a massive transformation to become Europe’ s largest blue hydrogen production site. While traditional grey hydrogen production releases CO 2 into the atmosphere, the HyCO 4 project involves retrofitting the plant with advanced carbon capture technology. By the end of 2026, the facility is expected to capture over half a million tonnes of CO 2 annually, roughly equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road. The captured CO 2 will be transported through the Porthos infrastructure and stored beneath the North Sea.
[ Sustainability ] the adjacent ExxonMobil( Esso) refinery for critical desulfurisation and refining processes. The facility is undergoing a massive transformation to become Europe’ s largest blue hydrogen production site. While traditional grey hydrogen production releases CO 2 into the atmosphere, the HyCO 4 project involves retrofitting the plant with advanced carbon capture technology. By the end of 2026, the facility is expected to capture over half a million tonnes of CO 2 annually, roughly equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road. The captured CO 2 will be transported through the Porthos infrastructure and stored beneath the North Sea.
BIOFUELS Neste bio-fuels refinery doubling capacity Neste is expanding its production capacity in Rotterdam by 1.3 million tonnes to 2.7 million tonnes of renewable products per year by the end of 2027. This includes a sustainable aviation fuel( SAF) production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per year. Neste’ s bio-fuels refinery on Rotterdam’ s Maasvlakte is already the largest biofuel refinery in Europe, with a current renewable products production capacity of 1.4 million tonnes per year.
The expansion of the Neste biofuel plant will see it produce 2.7 million tonnes of renewable products per year by the end of 2027. Photo © Neste.
e-SAF production Swiss aviation technology company Metafuels AG is to open a new synthetic sustainable aviation fuel( e-SAF) production plant in the Port of Rotterdam, marking another key milestone in the commercial deployment of its proprietary aerobrew methanol-to-jet technology. Metafuels is collaborating with Evos to integrate the plant into their Rotterdam site. The Rotterdam plant, named Turbe, will initially produce 12,000 litres of e-SAF per day, with plans for a second phase to increase production tenfold to 120,000 litres per day.
BIO CHEMICALS Blue Circle Olefins 100 % circular MTO plant Blue Circle Olefins has selected Rotterdam as the site to develop a commercial Methanol-to-Olefins( MTO) production plant. If the facility becomes operational in 2030, it will reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from plastics( PP, PE and PVC) by more than 80 % compared
Stainless in biofuel production
Stainless steels are used throughout biofuel production for their corrosion resistance, durability, and ease of cleaning. They are found in feedstock handling and pre-treatment systems, reactors, piping, heat exchangers used in fermentation, transesterification, and hydrotreatment processes. Stainless steel is also critical in separation and purification equipment such as distillation columns and filtration systems, where product purity is essential. In more aggressive environments( high temperatures, chlorides, or corrosive by-products) duplex and higher-alloy grades are selected to ensure long-term performance.
Metafuels AG will open a new synthetic sustainable aviation fuel( e-SAF) production plant in the Port of Rotterdam. Photo © Metafuels.
to current fossil-based production processes. The electrified 200-kilotonne-capacity plant will convert renewable methanol into 100 % circular ethylene and propylene, the basic building blocks for about 60 % of all products manufactured by the chemical industry in Europe. Blue Circle Olefins is a scale-up aimed at building a future-proof chemical industry in Europe by producing and selling circular olefins as drop-in replacements for fossil equivalents. The use of green methanol, produced from mixed plastic waste, agricultural and forestry residues, offers the Netherlands and Europe a commercially viable route for producing fossil-free plastics and chemicals. The production facility will also contribute to the industry’ s strategic autonomy and help reduce dependence on oil and gas imports in Europe.
www. stainless-steel-world. net Stainless Steel World May 2026 35