Neste to acquire Rotterdam plant, adding pretreatment capacity for renewable diesel, SAF

Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer Neste Corp. announced plans to acquire Bunge Loders Croklaan's refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for 258 million euros. The plant, located next to Neste's existing renewable diesel production site in Rotterdam, includes a pretreatment facility, tank farm and jetties. It also features a pipeline connection to Neste's site.

Photo: Neste Corp.

"The acquisition of the refinery plant supports our global growth strategy in renewables," said Peter Vanacker, Neste president and CEO. "It allows us to accelerate the scaling up of our renewable raw material pretreatment capacity, which is an important driver for expanding the use of waste and residue feedstocks and increasing our feedstock flexibility. We are committed to increasing the share of waste and residues in our renewables feedstock mix to 100 percent by 2025 and to grow our production platform to enable over 20 million tons of greenhouse gas reductions for our customers by 2030."

Neste is focusing on building a global feedstock and production platform to meet the growing demand for renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel and biochemicals. Earlier this year it closed on acquisition of a U.S. grease collection and recycling firm, Mahoney Environmental, and then the Dutch Count Companies BV's Count Terminal Rotterdam BV and supporting entities, part of the First Dutch Group of Peter Goedvolk. Neste is also expanding its annual production capacity of renewable diesel and SAF from 3.2 to 4.5 million tons, or more than 1.5 billion gallons, by Q1 2023 through a major expansion of its Singapore plant.

"The now-acquired refinery offers further pretreatment capacity and terminal infrastructure to handle the increasingly complex waste and residue feedstocks, and supports further growth in production capacity beyond 2023," Neste stated.

Neste has been active in the Netherlands since 2011 when the Rotterdam renewable diesel plant opened. "Neste's Sluiskil plant is responsible for the storage and pretreatment of renewable raw materials, and Neste Demeter B.V. delivers raw materials to the company's renewable products facility," the company stated.

In 2019, Neste opened a new office in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, part of greater Amsterdam, which serves as the global hub for its SAF business.

Closing of the Bunge transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. The transition will be implemented in phases with the refinery's full pretreatment capacity available for processing Neste's feedstock by end of 2024.