abarrelfull wrote on 08 Mar 2011 06:43
Tags: biofuel neste refinery singapore
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Neste Oil with Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Mr. Teo Chee Hean, Finnish Minister for Ownership Steering Mr. Jyri Häkämies, and some 200 guests celebrate the grand opening of its renewable diesel plant in Singapore on March 8th, 2011.
The start-up of the Singapore plant took place in November 2010, and the production at the world's largest renewable diesel plant has run smoothly ever since. Neste Oil's Singapore plant was completed on-schedule and on-budget and marks a major step forward in Neste Oil's cleaner traffic strategy. The plant produces premium-quality NExBTL renewable diesel, which is the most advanced and cleanest diesel fuel on the market today.
"Only two years ago we were here to lay the cornerstone of our renewable diesel plan. The rather empty piece of land has since been turned into the world's biggest renewable diesel plant. As a location, Singapore has fulfilled all our expectations. It is the world's third-largest center of oil refining, and occupies a central location in terms of product and feedstock flows as well as logistics. Talent pool in Singapore is absolutely first-class. The government of Singapore has played an important role in promoting Neste Oil's investment, and the Singapore Economic Development Board has assisted Neste Oil at every stage of the project", said Matti Lievonen, President & CEO of Neste Oil.
The plant has a capacity of 800,000 metric tons per annum, and cost around EUR 550 million to build. It uses a variety of renewable feedstocks to produce NExBTL, including palm oil and side stream products of palm oil production from Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as waste animal fat from Australia and New Zealand. The plant employs approximately 120 people, the majority of which are from Singapore and the nearby countries. The construction project has required close to 14 million man-hours of work from employees and contractors from 13 countries. At peak times, the number of workers at the construction site reached almost 5,000. Before any work aboveground started, over 300 kilometers of piles were put into the ground to prepare the site for heavy structures. Later on, more than 90 kilometers of pipe work was installed. Furthermore, as calculated from the start of the project, the total recordable injury frequency per million hours worked (TRIF) was less than one, clearly below the global safety averages of the industry.
Neste Oil has a similar-sized facility under construction in Rotterdam, which is due to be commissioned in mid-2011. The company already operates two renewable diesel plants that came on stream at Porvoo in Finland in 2007 and 2009 with a combined capacity of 380,000 metric tons per annum. After the start-up of Rotterdam plant, the production capacity of Neste Oil's renewable diesel plants totals approximately 2 million metric tons annually. The main markets for NExBTL diesel are Europe and North America.
Singapore refinery to receive ISCC certification
At the end of January 2011, Neste Oil's Singapore refinery was ISCC (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) certified. More specifically, the certificate confirms that NExBTL renewable diesel produced at the Singapore refinery from certified raw materials, such as from ISCC certified palm oil, meets the strict sustainability criteria based on the EU's renewable energy directive (RED) and is suitable for meeting bio-content mandates on the German market. The ISCC system, specific to the German market, is approved by the German Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BLE). Neste Oil's Porvoo refinery in Finland has already been ISCC certified in November 2010.
"Although the ISCC certification is specific to the German market, it reinforces Neste Oil's sustainability commitment and offers third party verification for the sustainability of our production chain and our NExBTL renewable diesel," added Lievonen.
