The Shell Rotterdam-Pernis refinery is ready for the expected growth in demand for cleaner marine fuels when IMO's sulphur limit of 0.5% sulphur enters into force on 1 January 2020.
With a laser show projected onto Shell-Pernis's tank farm and attended by guests on a tour boat, the new Solvent Deasphalter factory (SDA for short) was commissioned on Thursday evening 13 December.
Watch a video of the lightshow accompanying the official opening below.
Cleaner and Higher Quality Fuels
At the SDA plant, the asphalt, the heaviest fraction, is separated from the crude oil supplied to Rotterdam. From the raw material pretreated in this way, much cleaner and higher quality fuels can then be produced from the oil in the Hycon (Hydrogen Conversion) cracker. In addition to petrol and the increasingly cleaner diesel and kerosene, this will involve VLSFO (Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil) with a maximum sulphur content of 0.5%.
Pilot Underway
In early October, Shell revealed its plans to have these fuels available at the world's major ports. At the moment, Shell is working on a pilot to equip ships at the important bunker ports of Rotterdam, Singapore and New Orleans with this VLSFO to test its quality. In the fourth quarter of 2019, all of Shell's major refineries will need to get VLSFO production up and running in order to meet demand by 1-1-2020.
IMO Regulations
According to regulations ratified by the IMO this spring, the shipping industry may no longer use fuel containing more than 0.5% sulphur per tonne by 1 January 2020. Only ships that use a so-called scrubber may still carry heavy fuel oil (max. 3.8% sulphur). The rest must switch to the low-sulphur VLSFO.
Many Will Depend on Low-sulphur Fuels
Over the past couple months, many ship owners have hastily decided to install scrubbers on their ships after all. Still, it is expected that by 1 January 2020, some 4000 ships will have them, which still is a small percentage out of a total of 50,000-70,000 ships worldwide. In addition, a couple of hundred ships now sail on LNG or LPG. This means the vast majority depends on the new low-sulphur fuels.
SDA Plant
For a long time, the question was whether the refineries would be able to meet demand for sufficient low-sulphur fuels by 1 January 2020. Distilling out the sulphur is much more expensive for refineries. In 2015, however, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden announced the company would invest hundreds of millions of euros (the exact amount was never revealed) in the Shell-Pernis refinery, the largest in Europe and Shell's largest.
Two years ago, a start was made on modernising the Hycon and building the SDA plant next to it. The 30 m wide and 30 m high modules required for this were built in China and transported to Pernis by Rotterdam based RollDock, a heavy cargo shipping company. Here, Mammoet transported the modules, which weigh up to 1700 tonnes, to their final destination. Over the past two years, up to a 1000 people have been working on the construction of the new SDA plant.
CO2 and Heat Recovery
The new SDA plant will also enable Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions, as some of them will be stored alongside the plant to be sold to greenhouse cultivation in the Westland region. The residual heat produced at the refinery will be used to heat homes in the Rotterdam region.
Extended Life
According to Shell Pernis's director Jos van Winsen, the commissioning of the SDA plant extends the life of both the Hycon and the Shell Pernis refinery. The original design of the Hycon dates back to 1989, but has been radically renovated several times over the years. By producing cleaner fuels, the refinery offers work for its 2100 employees for years to come.
With the SDA plant, Shell Pernis will now reduce its heavy fuel oil production. The asphalt extracted from crude oil at the plant will be used to produce hydrogen, another clean fuel that does not contain any CO2.
Shell has around 22 refineries worldwide, the most important of which, such as those in Rotterdam, Singapore and New Orleans, are being converted to produce cleaner marine fuels.
Related item: VIDEO: Shell SDA Components Arrive in Port of Rotterdam
Picture: Shell Pernis (by Shell).
