Total converting Grandpuits refinery into zero-crude platform by 2024

Total SA is ending crude oil processing activities at its 101,000-b/d Grandpuits refinery at Seine-et-Marne near Melun and operations at nearby Gargenville depot at Yvelines in northern France to convert the site into a zero-crude industrial platform by 2024.

As part of an investment totaling more than €500 million, the Grandpuits platform will focus on four new industrial activities, including production of renewable diesel; production of bioplastics; plastics recycling; and operation of two photovoltaic solar power plants, the operator said.

While Total will discontinue crude oil refining and storage of petroleum products in first-quarter 2021 and late 2023, respectively, the company said local consumers and airports in the Greater Paris region will not be impacted, as they will remain supplied by Total’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).

Alongside forming part of Total’s overall net-zero strategy to meet carbon neutrality, the decision to cease oil refining at Grandpuits also comes in the wake of a several-month audit of the 260-km Ile-de-France pipeline (PLIF)—which carries crude feedstock from the Port of Le Havre to the refinery—following a February 2019 leak along the line that forced a nearly 6-month shutdown of the Grandpuits refinery.

As a result of the leak—which led to a 900-cu m spill of hydrocarbons that polluted just over 4 hectares of soil as well as waterways—PLIF’s maximum working pressure was reduced to ensure safe operations, allowing the refinery to operate at only 70% of its capacity and threatening its long-term financial viability, Total said.

The recent audit found that the refinery’s normal operations could be restored only by replacing the PLIF at a cost of nearly €600 million, prompting Total’s decision to end refining activities at Grandpuits and invest in an industrial transformation of the site to meet France’s plans for the energy transition up to 2040, the operator said.

“With the industrial repurposing of the Grandpuits refinery into a zero-crude platform focused on energies of the future connected with biomass and the circular economy, Total is demonstrating its commitment to the energy transition and reaffirming its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050,” said Bernard Pinatel, president of Total Refining & Chemicals.

Of the 400 permanent employees working at the site, 250 will be retained following the Grandpuits conversion and repurposing project, with the remainder of workers offered early retirement or internal transfers within Total’s business so that no layoffs will occur, according to the operator.

Most recently, Total postponed restarting the Grandpuits refinery following a planned month-long maintenance shutdown in early March 2020 amid the country’s ongoing reduced demand for fuels caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (OGJ Online, Mar. 26, 2020).

While Total confirmed the Grandpuits site would maintain unidentified “partial activity” during the prolonged shutdown period, the operator did not indicate a specific timeframe for when it might resume operations at the refinery, which supplies much of the greater Paris region with refined fuel products.

Conversion project details

As part of the zero-crude industrial repurposing project at Grandpuits, Total said it will build a new renewable diesel unit aimed at contributing to France’s roadmap for incorporating 2% of sustainable aviation fuel by 2025 and 5% by 2030.

Scheduled for startup in 2024, the new biorefinery will process 400,000 tonnes/year of primarily 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 the following:

• 170,000 tpy of sustainable aviation fuel.
• 120,000 tpy of renewable diesel.
• 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—are one component of Total’s strategy to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality, the company said.

A second project involves construction of Europe’s first polylactic acid, or polylactide (PLA), manufacturing site. To be built by Total Corbion PLA BV—a 50-50 joint venture of Total and Corbion NV—the proposed €200-million plant—to be funded equally by Total and Corbion—will produce 100,000 tpy of PLA bioplastic from a feedstock of sugar by 2024, the companies said in a Sept. 14 release.

The Granpuits site-conversion project also includes construction of France’s first chemical recycling plant. To be developed by Total (60%) and partner Plastic Energy Ltd. (40%), the plant will use a pyrolysis melting process to convert plastic wastes into a liquid called TACOIL, which will be used as feedstock for production of polymers with identical properties to virgin polymers suitable for use in food-grade applications. The new recycling plant is intended to help meet Total’s objective of producing 30% of its polymers from recycled materials by 2030, the company said.

Total’s wholly owned affiliate, Total Quadran SAS—which specializes in renewable energy development and production in France—also will build and operate two photovoltaic solar plants, one with capacity of 28 MWp (at the Grandpuits site) and the other with capacity of 24 MWp (at the Gargenville site). Total said the two solar plants will contribute to the company’s goal of providing green electricity to all its industrial sites in Europe.

Total previously completed a €275-million conversion of its former 153,000-b/d at  La  Mède refinery on the French Riviera into France’s first biorefinery (OGJ Online, Apr. 16, 2015). Commissioned in mid-2019, the 500,000-tpy biorefinery also includes a logistics and storage platform, a solar energy farm, and a training center, Total said in its latest annual report to investors.