The project begun this month and planned to be completed in 2023 is also aimed at reducing flaring, with the goal of saving around 60 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy annually,

Toward reducing its CO₂ footprint, Borealis has identified several goals, including improving energy efficiency by 20% up to 2030, taking 2015 as the baseline. To start, the installation of a new RTO to treat exhaust air, along with the requisite piping for the polyolefins plants, will generate around 16 bar of steam, replacing around 50% of the heat energy currently required for the Finnish site, the group said.

With the RTO, the Porvoo plant will be able to generate its own steam instead of relying on steam from external sources. This is expected to reduce indirect CO₂ emissions – referred to as Scope 2 emissions in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – by nearly 18,000 tonnes, equal to the average annual emissions of 10,000 passenger cars.

Further emission reductions are to be achieved up to mid-2022, thanks to the group’s two long-term purchase power agreements (PPAs) to source power generated from Finnish wind farms. These alone are intended to increase the share of renewables in Porvoo’s overall electricity consumption to 13%, taking Borealis’ Hydrocarbon & Energy and Polyolefins operation another step closer to its goal of sourcing 50% of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2030.

Another of the group’s energy and climate goals is to achieve zero continuous flaring, thus saving operating costs. The new RTO will decrease flaring at Porvoo by around 6,000 t/y, Borealis said.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist