Finnish oil refiner Neste has has secured a €88 million grant from the EU Innovation Fund to support the company’s new clean hydrogen project at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland.
The announcement came shortly after the grant agreement has been finalized with the European Commission and Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).
The project titled ‘SHARC’ uses carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology with electrolysis to quickly and efficiently curb the CO2 emissions of the refiners.
Currently, the SHARC project is still in its feasibility stage and is planned to become operable in the mid 2020s.
Expectations are that Neste’s project will help cut CO2 emissions by some 4 million metric tons in the first decade after its launch.
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Thus, in addition to being part of the refiner’s strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2035, the project is set to greatly contribute to reaching national climate objectives, as well as the climate targets of the EU as a whole.
Neste has voiced its delight in having the opportunity to accelerate the region’s energy transition and pioneer the transformation of industrial production with the help of clean hydrogen.
SVP Innovation at Neste, Lars Peter Lindfors, also pointed out the potential that carbon utilization may have for the production of electric fuels at the site in the future.
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The company’s ambitions also include turning the Porvoo refinery into Europe’s ‘most sustainable refinery’ no later than 2030, making the SHARC project one of the fundamental components of Neste’s success.
SHARC is one of the first seven projects of scale to be lined up before the EU Innovation Fund and CINEA expressed its optimism with regard to signing the grant agreement.
According to director Dirk Beckers, the project holds great promise where emission reduction is concerned.
