Sasol Chemicals, a business unit of Sasol Ltd., says it plans to double its use of green steam from a “first of its kind” biomass cogeneration facility adjacent to its Brunsbüttel, Germany facility. Sasol Chemicals will lease land adjacent to its plant to Hamburger Energiewerke, Hamburg’s municipal utility, which plans to build the facility by the end of 2024. When fully operational in 2025, the plant will supply at least 70,000 megawatt hours of steam to Sasol each year, reportedly enabling the company to reduce its CO2 emissions from the plant by approximately 13,000 metric tons annually. In addition to green steam, the plant will produce more than 90,000 megawatt hours of sustainable electricity annually.
”This is another important step towards meeting our ambitious long-term sustainability objectives,” says Jens Straatmann, senior vice president, Eurasia chemicals, in a press release from the company. "Increasing the use of green steam is a key enabler of further reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and will get us closer to our goal of reducing our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 30 percent by 2030.”
The facility reportedly will be the first large–scale power generation plant to operate almost exclusively with well-pressed or dried fermentation residues. That feedstock will be sourced from plants that are certified under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act. The plant will benefit local agriculture because much of this material is surplus that is currently going to waste; now, it will become the heat source for the chemical building blocks of products used in personal care, cleaning and industrial applications, according to Sasol.
Since 2014 the Brunsbüttel facility has used green steam from another nearby biomass facility. The two facilities combined will be able to supply half of the plant’s steam consumption.
For more information, visit: www.sasol.com
