TotalEnergies lets contract for biorefinery as part of Grandpuits zero-crude conversion

TotalEnergies SE has let a contract to Maire Tecnimont SPA subsidiary NextChem SPA to produce all necessary process and engineering documentation for a new biorefinery to be built as part of the operator’s Project Galaxie repurposing of its 101,000-b/d Grandpuits refinery at Seine-et-Marne near Melun in northern France, which intends to convert the site into a zero-crude industrial platform by 2024 (OGJ Online, Sept. 28, 2020).

As part of the contract, NextChem will execute front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Grandpuits biorefinery, which is scheduled to begin producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in 2024, Maire Technimont said.

While the service provider disclosed neither a value nor timeframe for delivery of its work under the agreement, Virginie Merini, TotalEnergies’ senior vice-president renewable fuels, said signing of the June 3 FEED contract forms an important milestone in the operator’s reinforcement of its commitment to accelerating its growth on the renewable fuels market.

By 2030, TotalEnergies plans to produce close to 5 million tonnes/year of renewable fuels, according to Merini.

The FEED contract for Project Galaxie’s biorefinery follows TotalEnergies’ late-2020 contract award to Honeywell UOP LLC for licensing of its proprietary UOP Ecofining process technology for the plant’s production of SAF, or biojet, to help meet France’s objective of incrementally replacing fossil-based jet fuel as part of the country’s broader commitment of addressing climate change through 2050 (OGJ Online, Nov. 13, 2020).

Once in operation, the Grandpuits biorefinery will process 400,000 tpy of mostly animal fats from Europe and used cooking oil—supplemented with other vegetable oils like rapeseed but excluding palm oil—primarily from local suppliers to produce 170,000 tpy of SAF; 120,000 tpy of renewable diesel; and 50,000 tpy of renewable naphtha for production of bioplastics.

Production of biofuels—which reduce carbon emissions by at least 50% compared to their fossil equivalents—plays an important role in TotalEnergies’ broader net-zero strategy to meet carbon neutrality, as well as in France’s roadmap for incorporating 2% of sustainable aviation fuel by 2025, 5% by 2030, and 50% by 2050, TotalEnergies said upon announcing the project in September 2020.

In addition to the new biorefinery, TotalEnergies’ more than €500-million conversion of Grandpuits into a zero-crude industrial platform—which also includes operations at nearby Gargenville depot at Yvelines—will include construction of Europe’s first polylactic acid, or polylactide (PLA), manufacturing plant, as well as construction of two photovoltaic solar plants.

TotalEnergies—which discontinued crude oil refining at Grandpuits in first-quarter 2021 and will cease storage of petroleum products at the site by late 2023—previously said local consumers and airports in the Greater Paris region will not be impacted, as they will remain supplied by the operator's existing 219,000-b/d Donges refinery near Saint Nazaire—which is currently undergoing a €450 million modernization—and 253,000-b/d Normandy-Gonfreville ‘l Orcher refinery (OGJ Online, Aug. 7, 2017).

The Grandpuits Project Galaxie conversion follows Total €275-million conversion of its former 153,000-b/d at La Mède refinery on the French Riviera into France’s first biorefinery, which the operator commissioned in mid-2019 (OGJ Online, Apr. 16, 2015).