Repsol Greenlights €800 Million Ecoplant Investment
Spanish energy and petrochemicals group Repsol has approved an investment of more than €800 million to build its Ecoplant in the area of Tarragona, Spain. The first of its kind in Europe, the facility will use urban waste to produce renewable fuels and circular products through gasification, the company said.
The technology was developed by Enerkem, in which Repsol is a partner.
The new plant will have the capacity to process up to 400,000 t/y of municipal solid waste and turn them into 240,000 t of renewable fuels and circular products. According to Repsol, the renewable methanol will originate from organic waste, while the circular products will come from non-organic waste, such as non-recyclable plastics.
The start-up of the plant, scheduled for 2029, is expected to create 340 jobs. The Ecoplant will be integrated into Repsol's industrial complex in Tarragona to take advantage of existing infrastructures and accelerate the transformation of the center into a multi-energy hub.
Repsol said that the project will receive funding from the EU’s Innovation Fund program, due to its high potential for reducing emissions and its innovative nature and for being unique in Europe. According to the European Commission, the Ecoplant is expected to reduce the equivalent of 3.4 million tons of CO2 in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the first ten years of operation.
