Total to produce sugar-based PLA at Grandpuits, to quit crude refining in Q1

LONDON (ICIS0–Total will quit processing crude oil at its Grandpuits refinery and convert it into a ‘zero-crude platform’ for the production of sugar-based polylactic acid (PLA) and biofuels, the French energy and petrochemicals major said on Thursday.

The overhaul, with expected capital expenditure (capex) at €500m, will also include a chemicals recycling unit, said Total.

The facility will, in part, be powered by solar energy-generated electricity.

The PLA unit will be a 50/50 joint venture with Corbion; the two have already worked together at a PLA plant project in Thailand.

The plant, which is expected to start up in 2024, will have a production capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year of PLA, a thermoplastic used in film wrap as well as some industrial applications. Demand is growing 15% annually, according to Total.

Total will be the largest shareholder (60%) of a chemical recycling plant to be built at Grandpuits together with Plastic Energy, which will hold the remaining 40% stake.

The plant will allow Total to meet its target to produce 30% of its polymers from recycled materials by 2030, it said, although it did not provide a specific timeframe for the unit.

“Based on a new innovative recycling technology, this plant will convert plastic wastes into a liquid called Tacoil through a pyrolysis melting process,” said Total.

“This Tacoil will then be used as feedstock for the production of polymers with identical properties to virgin polymers. In particular, they will be suitable for use in food-grade applications, a major criterion for food packaging businesses.”

REFINERY STOPS REFINING
The Grandpuits refinery, located southwest of Paris, has a processing capacity of up to 100,000 bbl/day of crude.

With the electrification of transport, demand for fuels is set to decline sharply; the EU’s Green Deal is aiming for full decarbonisation of its 27-member countries by 2050.

The facility will produce renewable diesel, aimed at the aviation sector. The feedstock will come from animal fats and used cooking oil as well as other vegetable oils, which will not include palm oil, the company said.

France’s plan to decarbonise its aviation sector includes a target of 2% of aviation renewable fuel by 2025, and of 5% by 2030, said Total.

“Crude oil refining at the platform will be discontinued in the first quarter of 2021 and storage of petroleum products will end in late 2023,” said Total.

At the biorefinery, to be commissioned in 2024, Total aims to produce 400,000 tonnes/year of biofuels.

Of this, 170,000 tonnes/year will be targeted to the aviation industry; 120,000 tonnes/year will be renewable diesel for the automotive sector, and 50,000 tonnes/year of renewable naphtha will be used to produce bioplastics.

Total also said it will build two photovoltaic solar plants at Grandpuits and at its facilities in Gargenville, northeast of Paris.

The Grandpuits plant will have a capacity of 28 MWp (megawatt peak, a solar energy measure) and capacity at Gargenville is 24 MWp.

Total said the overhaul at Grandpuits will be carried out without layoffs as some employees are expected to take early retirement. The company will open talks with trade unions in due course.

Of 400 existing jobs at Grandpuits, 250 will be kept following the overhaul, and 15 new positions will be created at the bioplastics plant.

The three-year overhaul will create 1,000 jobs, said Total.

“[With the Grandpuits site] 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,” says Bernard Pinatel, president at Total’s Refining & Chemicals division.

Front page picture source: Total