Johnson Matthey (JM) has signed an agreement with Bosch, a leading supplier to the automotive industry, to develop and produce catalyst coated membranes (CCM) for use in fuel cell stacks. JM’s high performance CCMs will be used in Bosch’s integrated, compact and scalable fuel cell power module for commercial vehicles, designed for longer distances.
Repsol has approved a historic €800 million investment in Ecoplanta, a pioneering project in Europe to transform urban waste into renewable fuels and circular products, adding a solution for reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector, while at the same time promoting the circular economy. Located in Tarragona, the facility will be the first in Europe to produce methanol from municipal waste via a gasification process developed by Enerkem - a technology company in which Repsol is a partner – using waste that would otherwise end up in landfills or be incinerated.
Maire Group subsidiary MET Development, together with Eni and utility company Iren Ambiente, have started the permitting process for a renewable methanol and hydrogen plant at Eni’s refinery in Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi near Pavia. The plant will be developed using NextChem’s NX Circular™ technology, which allows the plant to convert waste by generating syngas, which is subsequently used to produce high quality sustainable fuels and chemicals. Once completed, the plant will be able to convert approximately 200,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste supplied by Iren’s waste management unit Iren Ambiente into synthesis gas. This will in turn be converted to produce up to 110,000 t/a of renewable methanol, as a potential fuel for decarbonisation of the maritime sector. It will also produce up to 1,500 t/a of hydrogen, which could be used in refinery processes, reducing CO2 emissions compared to fossil-generated hydrogen, or, alternatively, for sustainable mobility in road and rail transport. The plant will also recover 33,000 t/a of inert granulate, which can be used for the cement industry. The plant will use infrastructure and services already available at the refinery to optimise costs.
LKAB has begun construction of its new demonstration plant for processing phosphorus and rare earth elements at Luleå. The facility is the first in a planned industrial park and, says LKAB, marks an important step in the company's ambition to diversify its business with new minerals. The supply of phosphorus for mineral fertilizers is essential for food security in Sweden and the EU, while rare earth elements are critical for the electrification and digitalisation of society, such as the production of permanent magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines. The $75 million demonstrator plant is planned to become operational in 2026. The aim is to further develop and verify the process for utilizing material flows from iron ore production in Gällivare, where apatite concentrate is produced for further refinement and production of critical minerals in Luleå. Through a stepwise expansion, the operations can then be scaled up with additional processing facilities over time, aiming for full operation during the 2030s. Once fully operational, the industrial park’s production will be approximately seven times Sweden’s needs and 6% of the EU’s demand for phosphorus in agriculture. Currently, there is no mining of rare earth elements in Europe.
Aurubis AG has reported operating earnings before taxes of euro130 million ($134.8 million) for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024/25, up around 17% on the figure for the equivalent period of last year (€111 million or $115.1 million). The company’s Custom Smelting & Products (CSP) segment posted €125 million ($129.7 million) in EBT compared with €107 million ($111 million) in the previous year. CSP comprises production facilities for processing copper concentrates as well as for manufacturing and marketing standard and specialty products, such as cathodes, wire rod, continuous cast shapes, strip products, sulphuric acid and iron silicate, via smelters in Hamburg and Pirdop, Bulgaria. The company attributes the higher EBT to higher metal prices, considerably increased sulphuric acid revenues, and robust earnings from copper product sales and lower costs, which more than compensated for a year-over-year decline in treatment and refining charges with lower concentrate throughput.
MOL Group has produced a diesel fuel containing hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the Slovnaft refinery in Bratislava. The HVO was produced using oil from cashew nut shells and the biocomponent produced this way was processed together with crude oil. MOL has already been using co-processing at its Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta for some years, mixing plant residues, as the bio and fossil fuel components are processed simultaneously during production. The SAF at Bratislava was also produced via co-processing, using partially refined cooking oil together with more traditional raw materials.
Grupa Azoty SA is set to begin producing its new multi-component fertilizer – POLIFOSKA Multi S –at its Police site in Poland. This launch marks the latest addition to the company’s fertilizer portfolio, joining the likes of megAN (a high-granule ammonium nitrate fertilizer), RSM OPTIMA (a nitrate-urea solution with a distinctive light blue colour for easy product origin identification), and eNpluS (an ammonium fertilizer enriched with sulphur and calcium). POLIFOSKA Multi-S is designed with readily soluble and plant-available nutrients: 7% nitrogen in ammoniacal form, 10% phosphorus, 20% potassium, 5% calcium, 1% magnesium, and 23% sulphur in sulphate form. It is also enriched with silicon. Thanks to its excellent water solubility, the nutrients are rapidly delivered to the roots, supporting plant development from the very start of the growing season.
TotalEnergies has signed agreements with Air Liquide to develop two projects in the Netherlands for the production and delivery of some 45,000 t/a of green hydrogen produced using renewable power, generated mostly by the OranjeWind offshore wind farm, developed by TotalEnergies (50%) and RWE (50%). These projects will cut CO2 emissions from TotalEnergies’ refineries in Belgium and the Netherlands by up to 450,000 t/a and contribute to the European renewable energy targets in transport.
Russian media reports suggest that a large scale Ukrainian drone strike on February 3rd attacked a number of oil and gas processing facilities, including Gazprom’s Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant. Video of the site showing fires burning were posted to social media. Astrakhan is one of the largest sulphur producing sites in Russia, with an output of around 3.5 million t/a in 2024. The Moscow Times reported that production had been shut down at the site, and would likely remain so for “several months”.
SKW Piesteritz cut production and closed one of its two ammonia plants indefinitely in mid-January.