Neste and Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) are partnering to drive innovation in renewable fuels. The companies have joined forces to develop a new technology enabling conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into high-quality, lower-emission renewable fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel.
The joint development has reached the first major milestone, and the piloting results indicate that the new technology could offer a significant performance improvement over existing technologies for lignocellulosic raw materials. Neste and CLG are currently validating the technology and targeting readiness to scale up the technology to commercial scale.
Vast amounts of lignocellulosic waste and residues from existing forest industry and agricultural production remain underutilized and could be leveraged as valuable renewable raw materials. These waste and residues are generated, for instance, in harvesting operations and forest industry processing, or they are end-of-life wood materials.
Lars Peter Lindfors, senior vice president of technology and innovation at Neste, says: ‘Lignocellulosic waste and residues can make an important contribution as a new and scalable raw material pool for renewable fuels. The technology development with CLG has progressed well, and we are very encouraged by the initial results. Unlocking the potential of these promising raw materials would allow us to meet the growing demand of renewable fuels in the long-term and contribute to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.’
The strategic partnership combines Neste’s pioneering expertise and global leadership in renewable fuels as well as CLG’s extensive experience and proven track record in developing and licensing market-leading refining technologies.
Rajesh Samarth, chief executive officer of CLG adds: ‘The successful proof of concept marks a major milestone in the collaboration, advancing the efforts towards commercial-scale production of renewable fuels from abundantly available but technically challenging lignocellulosic raw materials. We are confident this partnership will pave a new pathway for producing renewable fuels, leveraging our versatile and scalable hydroprocessing technology platform.’
