Nouryon cuts CO2 emissions through increased use of sustainable steam

Nouryon and other firms based at Chemical Park Delfzijl in the Netherlands will save up to 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year through the increased use of sustainable steam. The company will use the additional supply to make its salt production at the Delfzijl site more sustainable.

“Over the past 10 years, we have significantly reduced the use of natural gas at our Delfzijl operations by using more steam from waste and biomass,” said Knut Schwalenberg, Managing Director Industrial Chemicals at Nouryon. “Including this latest steam supply, we emit 300,000 tons less CO2 per year than in 2013 – that is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of around 35,000 households.”

The sustainable steam will be produced by utility firm EEW Energy from Waste, which has been supplying steam from waste combustion to the chemical park since 2010. The latest increase follows the commissioning of a third waste combustion line and the construction of a new pipeline by Groningen Seaports. The chemical park also receives bio-steam from the nearby Eneco biomass plant.

Horst Bieber, Technical Director at EEW Delfzijl, said: “With the completion of our third combustion line, we will treat 576,000 tons of waste per year and are able to deliver more than 1 million megawatt hours of process steam, which allows us to further increase our supply of green steam to Nouryon.”

Cas König, CEO of Groningen Seaports, added: “Expanding our infrastructure makes the Delfzijl port and industrial area more attractive for both existing and new activities, and supports the sustainable development of regional industries.”

Nouryon has also increased the use of bio-steam at its Hengelo site in the Netherlands. It also initiated a unique green energy purchasing consortium, enabling the construction of two Dutch wind farm projects – Bouwdokken and Krammer. Currently, almost half of the company’s worldwide energy usage is from renewable sources.