For the upgrade, which will encompass 150,000 t of liquefied waste plastic annually, Neste is receiving €35 million from the EU Innovation Fund as part of a broader project called PULSE (Pretreatment and Upgrading of Liquefied waste plastic to Scale up circular Economy).

Altogether, the former pure-play fossil fuel refiner, which has become a major producer of renewable feedstock, expects to have a total output capability of 400,000 t/y at Porvoo.

Required preparation activities at the refinery were successfully completed during the first half of this year, so that construction work of the new facilities is to begin without delay, the refiner said. The 150,000 t/y capacity is expected to be on stream in the first half of 2025.

Neste’s overall plans for Porvoo call not only for building new assets at the refinery, but also leveraging existing assets through retrofitting, to be able to scale up chemical recycling fast and efficiently. The upgraded liquefied waste plastic will later be processed in the company’s conventional refinery, replacing a portion of the fossil resources processed there.

Pretreatment and upgrading of liquefied waste plastic will serve to increase flexibility for processing lower-quality plastic waste and scale-up processing of the liquefied waste into high-quality petrochemical feedstock at Porvoo, Neste said.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist