LanzaTech and Brookfield form strategic partnership

LanzaTech NZ, Inc. announced a funding partnership with Brookfield Renewable, and its institutional partners, to co-develop and build new commercial-scale production plants that will employ LanzaTech’s CCT technology, which transforms captured carbon into valuable raw material commodities, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The funding partnership commits an initial $500 MM to be invested by Brookfield Renewable in constructing and operating new CCT projects that have achieved certain pre-agreed milestones. The funding will be provided through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund (“BGTF”), which is the largest fund in the world focused on the energy transition. Brookfield will be LanzaTech’s preferred capital partner for LanzaTech CCT opportunities in Europe and North America and following initial investments totaling $500 MM, Brookfield could commit to making an additional $500 MM available for investments in the strategic partnership if sufficient projects are available at the agreed milestones. Brookfield will also invest USD50 MM in LanzaTech to support further corporate development.

“LanzaTech’s technology provides a new way to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors across the economy,” said Natalie Adomait, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of BGTF. “We view this as an attractive opportunity to accelerate deployment of this technology at scale and be a partner to grow in an emerging area of infrastructure in a decarbonized economy."

“Creating a new carbon economy will require new ways of financing technology scale up and deployment,” said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. “We are excited to partner with Brookfield to accelerate deployment and achieve exponential growth. Together, we have the potential to target significant commodity markets and keep fossil resources in the ground. Each additional plant deployed has the potential to keep the equivalent of around 100,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year. This is the new carbon economy in action!"

LanzaTech converts carbon through the power of biology, using a biocatalyst to transform emissions into fuels and chemicals. Through application of their technology, steel mill emissions have been converted into sustainable aviation fuel, clothing ranges, laundry detergent, household cleaner and fine fragrances. LanzaTech creates industrial symbioses where the emissions from heavy industry can be used by consumer goods companies to make products that would otherwise come from fossil inputs. LanzaTech aims to contribute to a world where your plane is powered by recycled GHG emissions, and your shampoo bottle started life as emissions from a steel mill.

We remind, LanzaTech NZ Inc has struck a deal with Brookfield Renewable Corp for a USD500 MM commitment by the investment firm to finance upcoming projects using LanzaTech's technology.
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ExxonMobil's French business Esso is trying to resume operations as soon as possible now that an agreement has been accepted by two trade unions, but the restart will depend on the decision made by the next shift of workers, said Reuters.

ExxonMobil asked the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to move back by a month a hearing on a complaint the company unlawfully locked out more than 600 workers from its Beaumont, Texas, refinery.

We remind, ExxonMobil is gradually shutting down its 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) Fos-Sur-Mer refinery in France as a result of ongoing strike action. Walkouts caused the gradual shut down of Exxon's 240,000 bpd Port Jerome-Gravenchon oil refinery and Notre Dame de Gravenchon (NDG) petrochemical site in France on Sept. 20 before spreading to Fos-Sur-Mer 24 hours later.
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Some units at Kuwait's Mina al-ahmadi oil refinery abruptly stopped on Monday evening due to a cooling water cut, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) said, adding that local supplies and exports have not been affected, said Reuters.

Work at the refinery's gas plant was also halted, the company said in a post on its Twitter account without specifying a date for the resumption of operations.

As per MRC, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) successfully started full operation of an environmentally friendly project to expand refining capacity and produce fuel that generates lower emissions and less pollution.

As per MRC, Kuwait National Petroleum Company restarted the steam production system in Kuwait’s Mina Abdulla refinery. The steam production system was shut down temporarily as it was replaced hot circulation system.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) was established in 1980, as the State owned asset and all other oil companies in Kuwait, including KNPC, became KPC subsidiaries. Currently, KNPC has two state-of-the-art Refineries, namely Mina Abdullah Refinery (MAB) and Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery (MAA). Shuaiba Refinery was shut down in March 2017 after the kick-off of the Clean Fuels Project (CFP). The total production capacity of both Refineries is 736,000 bpd of crude oil, and a gas processing capacity of 2.5 billion scfpd.

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Shell has qualified Johnson Matthey’s (JM) PURAVOC GREENTM purification catalysts for use in its global hydrogen production projects, said the company.

JM’s catalysts will be used to remove trace oxygen to meet oxygen specifications in the production of high purity, zero carbon hydrogen. Removal of oxygen is critical to make the process safer and more efficient. Deoxygenation is an essential step in the production of green hydrogen and requires a flexible and robust catalyst that can operate under a variety of pressures, relatively low temperatures, and intermittent feed flows.

Green hydrogen has a low carbon footprint compared to alternative fuels and can be used as clean energy and in the production of chemical building blocks such as ammonia and methanol. These building blocks are used to make many of our everyday products, from fuels to clothing, food packaging, fertilizers, building materials, pharmaceuticals and more.

PURAVOC GREEN catalysts have been carefully designed to be highly efficient within a broad operation envelope and maintain performance over many operation cycles making this a reliable, easy to operate and economic solution.

Jane Toogood, Catalyst Technologies Chief Executive at JM, said: “We are committed to catalysing the net zero transition for our customers and addressing the biggest environmental challenges that exist. Finding ways to decarbonise and move towards more sustainable processes is of utmost importance and we are pleased to support Shell’s decarbonisation ambition."

We remind, Mitsui Chemicals has asked Shell Catalysts & Technologies for its Shell S-896 catalyst, which is expected to provide important economic benefits from raw material (ethylene) savings and also help the organization meet the decarbonization goals for their ethylene oxide (EO) refinery in Osaka, Japan.
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OMV, the integrated, international oil, gas and petrochemicals company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, will invest around EUR200 million (USD244 million) in biofuel production at the Schwechat Refinery in Austria, said the company.

OMV is currently investing in the Schwechat Refinery so it will be able to substitute large quantities of fossil diesel with biodiesel in an innovative co-processing approach.

The Schwechat Refinery is one of the largest and most modern inland refineries in Europe and is where OMV distills and refines crude oil and semi-finished products, converting them into high-quality mineral oil products and petrochemical raw materials. 9.6 million tons of crude oil can be processed annually in the high-tech plants in Schwechat. The Schwechat Refinery is supplied by the Adria-Wien-Pipeline (AWP), a branch connection of the Transalpine Oil Pipeline (TAL), and one of the most important pipelines transporting crude oil from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe.

OMV is committed to the Paris Agreement and EU climate targets and has set itself ambitious climate goals. OMV has pledged to reach net-zero emissions in operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2050 or sooner. On its long-term path to net zero, OMV has set concrete interim targets: By 2025, at least 60% of the product portfolio should consist of natural gas and low/zero-carbon products. The investment in the Schwechat site for processing biofuels contributes to the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of the OMV product portfolio (Scope 3) by at least 6% versus 2010.

Using an innovative co-processing approach, the hydrogenated vegetable oil should lead to an annual reduction in OMV’s carbon footprint of up to 360,000 metric tons of fossil CO2. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of around 200,000 cars driving an average of 12,000 km per year. The product meets the highest quality standards and can be freely used in any type of vehicle. The technology applied is not limited to vegetable oil – waste products (such as used cooking oil) and advanced feedstocks are also possible and will be used based on availability.

“The conversion in the OMV Schwechat Refinery makes a key contribution to more sustainable mobility and is another step in achieving our climate targets. At the same time, we are providing economic stimulus in Austria with this investment of almost EUR200 million,” said Thomas Gangl, OMV chief downstream operations officer.

OMV expects demand for its hydrogenated biofuels to increase ten-fold by 2030. OMV’s decision to invest in its own production lines is part of the transformation process. With this, OMV is one of the first companies in Europe to engage in co-processing on an industrial scale.

OMV operates a total of three refineries: one in Schwechat, Austria, and one in Burghausen, South Germany, with both refineries also producing basic petrochemicals, along with the Refinery Petrobrazi in Romania. OMV has a total annual refinery capacity of 17.8 million tons.

As per MRC, OMV informs that a mechanical incident occurred today at the Schwechat refinery which has been undergoing its maintenance turnaround since 19 April 2022. Two persons were slightly injured. The incident has damaged the main distillation unit for crude oil. For this reason, the start-up of the refinery will be partially delayed. A review of the extent of the damage and the duration of the shutdown is still underway. We will work closely with our customers and suppliers to mitigate any impact on product availability.
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