Tuesday 28 June 2022

Vattenfall and Preem to explore decarbonising refining sector with offshore wind and hydrogen

Vattenfall and Preem to explore decarbonising refining sector with offshore wind and hydrogen

Vattenfall and Preem have joined forces to investigate the possibility of decarbonising the refining industry in Sweden using offshore wind and hydrogen by 2030.

The Swedish energy company sees huge potential to decarbonise industries like refining, petrochemicals, steel and fertilisers by using the fossil-free technologies on the Swedish west coast.

The region has a highly specialised refinery and petrochemicals industry with “great potential” for offshore wind power.

The Swedish transmission system operator also recently announced plans to expand the transmission network to areas like the Swedish west coast.

Anna Borg, President and CEO of Vattenfall said: “For Vattenfall, the electrification of society and industry is at the core of our business strategy. Our strong and growing Swedish offshore wind development portfolio of currently more than 20TWh offers ample opportunities. Therefore, Vattenfall has taken the initiative for this concept development on the west coast, where offshore wind and hydrogen production can play a key role, in the transformation to a fossil-free industry.

“Cross sector co-operation and partnerships are the way forward.”

Fossil-free hydrogen will enable both decarbonising of refineries and an increased production of renewable fuels such as HVO (hydro-treated vegetable oil), renewable gas and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).

An increased supply of the hydrogen will also enable Preem to explore the development of e-fuels for hard-to-decarbonise industries like aviation and maritime.

Preem CEO Magnus Heimburg added: “The society’s need for renewable fuels is increasing at high speed but the supply of necessary fossil-free hydrogen is still scarce. A new infrastructure for hydrogen from offshore wind could swiftly increase supply and speed up our transition towards a climate neutral value chain and enable production of five million cubic meters renewable fuels and e-fuels no later than in 2035. This can only be achieved if we work together and partner up.”

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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