Ron Kotrba
May 25, 20211 min
A recently completed hydrotreater retrofit in Gothenburg, Sweden, is allowing the country’s largest fuel company, Preem, to achieve 85 percent coprocessing of renewable feedstock. The project was performed by Haldor Topsoe using its HydroFlex™ technology. The unit has the capacity to process more than 100 million gallons of coprocessed renewable diesel per year. In January, Preem announced renewable diesel production in Gothenburg had increased by 40 percent.
Preem uses tallow and raw tall oil diesel as the main renewable feedstocks in the retooled hydrotreater. This work was the unit’s second revamp, following a 2010 upgrade to coprocess 30 percent renewable feedstock.
“The revamp means that Preem has increased Sweden’s domestic production of biofuels and thereby is contributing to the ongoing shift from fossil fuels to renewables,” said Aad van Bedaf, Preem’s executive vice president of refining. “This takes us one more step towards our goal of producing 5 million cubic meters (more than 1.32 billion gallons) of renewable fuels by 2030.”
The process technology provider says it is also collaborating with Preem to revamp the Synsat unit at its Lysekil refinery, which is scheduled to be fully rebuilt by 2024. Once complete, it will be capable of processing 100 percent renewable feedstock, such as rapeseed oil.
“This second revamp with Preem demonstrates our leading capabilities to enable our customers to use renewable feedstocks to produce a cleaner diesel product,” said Amy Hebert, chief commercial officer for Haldor Topsoe. “We are pleased to support Preem in their ambitious 2030 goal to produce even more renewable fuels in order to reduce carbon emissions.”
Preem has two refineries and 570 fueling stations in Sweden.