FEATURE
A “ beautiful combination ” - Jos says SABIC ’ s transformed Olefins Cracker will combine legacy technology with innovative concepts . was just fields and lots of sheep ! I didn ’ t think it was the most exciting place but , in hindsight , it has so much to offer – from beautiful villages to cities not too far away if you want those , plus the fantastic coastline and moors .
Are you and your family living locally ? I ’ m living in a cottage just off the High Street in Yarm while my family stayed in the Netherlands . Therefore , most weekends I ’ m back in the Netherlands , flying from Teesside to Amsterdam . Teesside Airport is fantastic for me . In the past , the airport wasn ’ t such a friendly place but they ’ ve done a fantastic job with it .
“ People like stability in their lives but we need to embrace change to ensure we differentiate ourselves in a very competitive industry , and we are doing that .”
Has PD Ports CEO Frans Calje , as a fellow Dutchman and adopted Teessider , been able to help you settle into Teesside life ? Yes , Frans and I have a business connection , while we also see each other outside of work every now and again . He told me where the nice restaurants are . I do like Cena and Muse in Yarm but also Crathorne Arms , Chadwick ’ s in Maltby and the Bay Horse
in Hurworth . I do enjoy fish and chips . The parmo looks appealing too though I haven ’ t tried one yet – I ’ ll do it when I ’ m really hungry ! At Frans ’ suggestion , I also bought a mountain bike which I ’ ve been riding in Hamsterley Forest , Dalby Forest , Guisborough Woods and around Roseberry Topping and Captain Cook ’ s Monument . I also enjoy running up Eston Hills , close to the Wilton site .
Have you been to a Boro game yet ? Yes , while Twente are my team , I ’ ve been to some midweek Boro games with a neighbour of mine . In fact , the young Dutch player , Rav van den Berg , sat next to me on the plane when he came over for his medical and signed for Middlesbrough .
You ’ ve been brought over here to carry out a big job at a challenging time for SABIC UK . Tell us about that . It ’ s a challenging time but it ’ s also a huge opportunity as we ’ re making a significant multi-million pound investment to carry out a truly complex transformation of our assets and embark on new avenues for the business .
The Covid crisis and Ukraine war caused us to lose some of our market at the same time that high energy prices and rising feedstock prices increased our costs . So what we are doing with our Olefins Cracker is helping to make it far more sustainable and energy efficient for the future , significantly reducing our costs by becoming less dependent on European feedstock prices .
When we restart the Cracker next year we will also reduce its carbon emissions by 60 per cent . We then have a further plan to remove the remaining 40 per cent by applying blue or green hydrogen , rather than natural gas , to fuel our Cracker furnaces . That will create a fully net zero production facility .
The timeline for the carbon capture infrastructure that ’ s being built on Teesside , with plants that will produce blue hydrogen set to go live in around 2027-28 , is in sync with our own plans . That gives us an opportunity to convert our Cracker to eliminate its last carbon emissions .
It ’ s a beautiful combination of a 50 or 60-year-old legacy technology - producing the building blocks of the plastics industry - that will then incorporate innovative concepts , meeting all of the expectations and standards of sustainability that our industry demands .
I imagine SABIC ’ s Teesside team is looking forward to getting the Cracker back in operation ? We ’ re progressing well but this type of project takes time and people are naturally impatient , so the challenge is to motivate and inspire our people as we move on to a new way of operating our assets . People like stability in their lives but we need to embrace change to ensure we differentiate ourselves in a very competitive industry , and we are doing that .
After much uncertainty , our people have confidence that the strategy and investment we ’ ve undertaken is the right thing to do and they are looking forward to finalising these projects and operating our assets .
The voice of business in the Tees region | 139