Neste’s PULSE project to commercialize chemical recycling of waste plastic with €135 million EU grant

Photo: Representatives of the companies receiving funding, as well as Kurt Vandenberghe, Director-General for DG Clima, and Paloma Aba Garrote, Acting Director of CINEA. The signing ceremony took place in Brussels on 19 January in the course of the “Innovation Fund: Financing Innovative Clean Tech Conference” hosted by CINEA. Source: CINEA

(PRESS RELEASE) ESPOO, 20-Jan-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Neste (HEL: NESTE), the world’s leading provider of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel and the 4th most sustainable company in the world, has signed a grant agreement with the European Commission and the Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) for €135 million in funding for its chemical recycling project, PULSE. The project, which was given the green light by the EU Innovation Fund in July 2022, aims to implement Neste’s proprietary technologies to pretreat and upgrade liquefied waste plastic and integrate these technologies into the company’s refinery operations in Porvoo, Finland.

The PULSE project targets pretreatment and upgrading capacities of 400,000 tons of liquefied waste plastic per year, with the goal of processing over 1 million tons of waste plastic per year from 2030 onwards. It plays an important role in commercializing chemical recycling of waste plastic as it allows for the scaling up of chemical recycling and bridging the quality gap between unprocessed liquefied waste plastic and the petrochemical industry’s raw material requirements. The project will also contribute to the transformation of carbon-intensive industries in Europe as targeted by the European Green Deal.

“PULSE is a major step in the advancement of chemical recycling technologies,” said Mercedes Alonso, Executive Vice President Renewable Polymers and Chemicals at Neste. “The Innovation Fund support will serve as a catalyst for the large scale up of chemical recycling, which enables a broader range of waste plastics to be recycled. At the same time, it highlights the importance of our work towards achieving higher recycling rates.”

“Project PULSE is an important part of the planned transitioning of our Porvoo refinery into a globally leading renewable and circular solutions site and ending crude oil refining, as outlined in the strategic study Neste announced in September 2022 on Porvoo refinery transformation,” added Markku Korvenranta, Executive Vice President Oil Products at Neste. “We are grateful to the EU Innovation Fund for recognizing the important role refineries will play in the circular economy for plastics.”

*Project PULSE is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Further information: Please contact Neste’s media service, tel. +358 800 94025 / media@neste.com (weekdays from 8.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. EET). Please subscribe to Neste’s releases at https://www.neste.com/for-media/releases-and-news/subscribe.

Neste in brief

Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. We refine waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. We are the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel and developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. We aim at helping customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with our renewable and circular solutions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030. Our ambition is to make the Porvoo oil refinery in Finland the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030. We are introducing renewable and recycled raw materials such as liquefied waste plastic as refinery raw materials. We have committed to reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035, and we will reduce the carbon emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040. We also have set high standards for biodiversity, human rights and supply chain. We have consistently been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2021, Neste’s revenue stood at EUR 15.1 billion. Read more: neste.com

SOURCE: Neste Corporation