MOSCOW (MRC) -- Until now, there have been no commercial drop-in solutions for replacing fossil gasoline to reduce high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from conventional petrol cars, without investing into new vehicles or modifying the old ones. Neste, the world's leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), may be the first to have developed a renewable gasoline for such commercial use in the existing fleet, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The final phase of testing is now beginning with the target to complete commercial tests of the fuel, and thereby enabling significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline and hybrid cars.
The EU recently increased its target for the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. There are also ambitious national targets in Sweden and Finland, for example, including separate emissions reduction mandates for the gasoline pool. However, the currently existing alternatives for gasoline-powered cars do not enable a significant reduction in fossil gasoline use in a short enough time frame.
Steps are now being taken to solve this challenge: with Neste's renewable gasoline, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by up to 65% over the fuel’s life cycle when compared to fossil fuels. The aim for Neste is to improve this figure, to eventually achieve up to 90% emission reduction with the fuel use. This would mean that greenhouse gas emission over the life cycle of the fuel would be equivalent to those from an electric vehicle.
The product fulfills EN228 standard and can be used in both existing and new gasoline and hybrid cars. Renewable gasoline can, therefore, provide yet another tool for the EU to achieve the ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 from the levels in 1990.
As MRC reported earlier, Neste, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Toyota Tsusho Corp. have announced they are joining forces to enable Japan’s first industrial-scale production of renewable plastics and chemicals from 100% bio-based hydrocarbons. In this collaboration, Mitsui Chemicals will use Neste RE, 100% bio-based hydrocarbons produced by Neste, to replace a part of the fossil feedstock in the production of a variety of plastics and chemicals at its crackers within Osaka Works during 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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