Category: Europe

Ukraine has mounted several strikes on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse, hitting oil infrastructure with airborne and seagoing drones and missiles. Tuapse is a tanker loading terminal, one of two main oil export facilities on Russia’s Black Sea coast, with the capacity to transship around 17 million t/a of oil products. A raid on November 2nd reportedly damaged two tankers, halted fuel exports and refinery operations for days, caused an oil spill and forced tankers to abandon the port. Russia’s national rail company has halted rail shipments to Tuapse port, citing insufficient train car handling capacity.

Ukraine’s resilient fertilizer market has undergone an import-led revival following a calamitous collapse in consumption in 2022.

NextChem subsidiary MyRechemical has been awarded an engineering study contract by Altalto Ltd. for a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Immingham, Lincolnshire, based on its proprietary NX CircularTM gasification and NX CPOTM technologies. Altalto is a company set up by Velocys to develop SAF projects in the UK. The plant is expected to be operational in 2030. Initial targets include the production of 23,000 t/a of SAF for the UK market. Feedstock will be sourced from residual municipal solid waste (MSW) and commercial and industrial waste. The project has been awarded a grant from the UK Department for Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund to progress basic engineering design. MyRechemical will operate as a technology provider and as coordinator for other technological partners. It will also supply engineering services.

ATOME says that it has signed a definitive offtake agreement with Yara for the purchase of the entire 260,000 t/a output of the low-carbon Villeta project. The plant will be based on 100% renewable baseload power, and will displace some 500,000 t/a of carbon dioxide equivalent. ATOME says that the agreement represents the last commercial milestone in its path to a final investment decision (FID), following the successful completion of other key commercial items, including the signing of the $465 million fixed-price, lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction contract with Casale.

The nitrogen plants at HIP’s Azotara site are to be dismantled and removed as part of plans to convert the site to a data storage facility. Plants to be removed include the urea plant and urea storage facility, the UAN liquid storage facility, the calcium ammonium nitrate and nitric acid plans, and thegrain storage societies. In addition, the entire Block 6 is planned to be removed, which includes ammonia plants and storage, nitric acid and urea production, all of which have been out of operation for a long time.

NextChem and Siemens Energy have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the development and commercialisation of a high temperature methanol fuel cell, based on a newly designed modularised solution. With an initial focus on the high-end yachting segment, the target market for the cooperation is the maritime industry and beyond. According to the MoU, NextChem will focus on the design and supply of the methanol fuel cell module, while Siemens Energy will leverage its expertise in onboard system integration, complete electrification and energy management with the aim of delivering a complete solution to shipyards and owners.

Ukrainian drones attacked the Azot chemical plant in Perm Krai on October 3rd, according to regional Governor Dmitry Makhonin. The strike reportedly disrupted production at the facility, one of Russia’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, located about 1,700 km from Ukrainian-controlled territory, which produces ammonia, urea, and ammonium nitrate.

Ammonia producer CF Industries says that it has shipped its first cargo of low-carbon ammonia from its Donaldsonville, Louisiana facility. The 23,500 tonne shipment was purchased by commodities specialist Trafigura to be used in Antwerp, Belgium by engineering materials firm Envalior in the production of low-carbon caprolactam.

Topsoe has signed an offtake agreement to provide its Solid Oxide Electrolyser Cell (SOEC) technology for Forestal’s Triskelion green methanol plant in Galicia. The SOEC’s will be delivered from Topsoe’s manufacturing facility in Herning, Denmark, which is nearing the final stage of readiness for industrial-scale production. The agreement, which includes a 10-year service warranty program, builds on Topsoe’s existing agreement with Forestal, announced in December 2024, to provide its e-methanol synthesis technology, catalysts and engineering for highly efficient e-methanol production.

Clariant has signed a supply agreement with SYPOX to manufacture and deliver catalysts for what is claimed to be the world’s largest electric steam methane reformer (e-SMR). The project combines SYPOX’s electrical reformer technology with Clariant’s expertise to enable syngas production with significantly reduced CO2 emissions. Scheduled to begin operations in 2026, the e-SMR will use 10 MW of renewable electricity to generate approximately 150 t/d of syngas.