Chinese operator taps Topsoe for grassroots renewable fuels plant

Guangxi Free Trade Zone Chuangui Lingang New Energy Co. Ltd. (Chuangui New Energy)—a joint venture of Sichuan Port and Waterway Investment Group, Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group Co. Ltd., and Chengdu Zhongguang Keneng Technology Co. Ltd.—has let a contract to Topsoe AS to provide a suite of services for the operator’s proposed construction of a grassroots plant for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel at Qinzhou City in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

As part of the January contract, Topsoe will license its proprietary Hydroflex technology to enable processing of 300,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of used cooking oil into SAF and renewable diesel, the service provider said.

Alongside technology licensing for the new plant, Topsoe said its scope of delivery also will include supply of proprietary equipment and catalysts, as well as other unspecified engineering design services and technologies.

Approved for final investment in December 2024, the planned renewable fuels plant is scheduled for startup in December 2026, according to Topsoe.

Without disclosing details regarding anticipated production volumes from the project, Topsoe said the grassroots plant, once operating at full capacity, will avert the equivalent of about 800,000 tpy of CO₂, which is comparable to avoiding the same levels of emissions as removing 160,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles annually from roadways.

Renewable-based energy

Chuangui New Energy’s project comes as part of the operator’s effort to develop potential of prospects available for new energy in the biomass industry to help further implement China’s dual-carbon emissions control strategy, said He Xiong, the company’s chairman.

Passed in July 2023 by China’s Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform (CCCDR), the dual-carbon emissions control strategy called for gradually shifting the country’s focus on reducing energy consumption to reducing carbon emissions as a means of promoting domestic industrial operators’ ongoing transition to renewable-based energy in line with China’s 2060 target for achieving carbon neutrality, according to the CCCDR (OGJ Online, Jan. 15, 2025).

This latest contract in China follows Topsoe’s previous award from privately held Guangxi Hongkun Energy Group Co. Ltd. for the same suite of services for  Phase 1 of subsidiary Guangxi Free Trade Zone Hongkun Biomass Fuel Co. Ltd.’s (Guangxi Hongkun Biomass) proposed renewable fuels production complex at the Qinzhou petrochemical industry park (QPIP) of Qinzhou Port Economic and Technological Development Zone in the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone (BGEZ) of Guangxi Province, China (OGJ Online, May 6, 2024).