Portugal-based energy company Galp SGPS S.A. and Japan-based Mitsui & Co. Ltd. in September announced plans to form a joint venture (JV) to develop renewable diesel and SAF capacity at Galp’s existing refinery in Sines, Portugal.
The new biorefinery unit will have the capacity to produce 270,000 tons per year of renewable diesel and SAF from waste residue feedstocks, such as used cooking oil and animal fats. According to Mitsui, the biorefinery constructed at the Sines site will be capable of switching between renewable diesel and SAF modes.
In conjunction with the JV announcement, Galp also announced plans to move forward with a proposed project to construct a 100 megawatt (MW) electrolysis plant at the Sines refinery to produce up to 15,000 metric tons per year of renewable hydrogen.
Technip Energies has been awarded EPsCm contracts for both the renewable fuel and green hydrogen projects. The company said it will work in consortium with Technoedif Engenharia, an engineering firm in Portugal, on the renewable fuels project. That project is expected to allow Galp to avoid 800,000 metric tons per year of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Plug Power will supply proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers for the green hydrogen unit, which is expected to replace 20 percent of the existing grey hydrogen consumption at the Sines refinery and enable 110,000 metric tons per year of GHG emissions reductions.
“The Final Investment Decision for these two important projects is a major step taken by Galp to transform the refining industry in Portugal,” said Marco Villa, chief operating officer of Technip Energies. “Technip Energies, who has been supporting Galp strategy since the early phases of those two projects, is now delighted to be selected as a partner for the execution phase of both. This investment is another example of how Technip Energies enables the decarbonization of the energy industry through collaboration, innovation and technology integration.”
