MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fulcrum BioEnergy, a pioneer in the production of low-carbon, transportation fuels from municipal solid waste, has recently announced the site selection and launch of development activities on its first United Kingdom residual waste to low-carbon, Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) plant, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The "Fulcrum NorthPoint" biorefinery will be located at the Essar Oil (UK) Limited refinery at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port, in the North West of England.
"The UK has a rich history in aviation related innovation, and we are proud to be able to continue to support the industry with the introduction of our low-carbon, waste-to-jet fuel platform," said Jim Macias, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fulcrum. "Launching our first UK project at Stanlow, in collaboration with Essar, brings tremendous benefits in terms of plant operability, efficiency of feedstock and fuel product logistics. On-site storage via Stanlow Terminals Limited and direct access to airport pipelines, make this an attractive site for our project. Fulcrum's innovative and patented waste-to-fuels process will help reduce the impacts from climate change, boost the economy by supplying low-carbon, drop in transportation fuel as well as bringing high-paying jobs and investment to the North West of England."
Construction on Fulcrum NorthPoint, subject to planning permission and financing, is expected to begin in late 2023 and will take approximately 18-24 months to complete. Fulcrum NorthPoint will convert several hundred thousand tons of pre-processed waste, which would otherwise be destined for incineration or the landfill, into approximately 30 million gallons of low-carbon Sustainable Aviation Fuel annually. The biorefinery will utilize Fulcrum's proprietary waste-to-fuel process, which will help contribute to the UK's Net Zero ambitions while generating hundreds of jobs in the region during construction and operations of the project.
Fulcrum's first commercial project, the Sierra BioFuels Plant located outside of Reno, Nevada, is in late-stage construction and is set to begin operations in 2021. The Sierra plant will be the first commercial-scale plant in the world to convert municipal solid waste, or household garbage, into low-carbon transportation fuels. In addition to Fulcrum NorthPoint, Fulcrum has an extensive, global development program underway including the 33 million gallon a year Centerpoint biorefinery in Gary, Indiana, and a similar sized project in the United States Gulf Coast region where the company is finalizing site selection.
As MRC reported previously, in November 2018, Praxair, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde plc announced it has signed a long-term agreement to supply oxygen to Fulcrum BioEnergy’s Sierra BioFuels Plant in Storey County, Nevada.
We remind that in January, 2021, Linde said it will build, own, and operate the world’s largest proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer plant for the production of green hydrogen at the Leuna chemical complex in Germany.
We also remind that in late 2019, the TOTAL refinery in Leuna awarded Bilfinger two further major contracts worth roughly EUR30 million: the first involves exchanging the reactor systems; the second, performing the turnaround for the plant’s POX methanol facility.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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