Climate-friendly R & D for lubes production.
Decreasing the use of crude oil and tackling climate change are at the core of new research by Finnish company Neste. The company is seeking solutions for the production of transportation fuels and chemicals and polymers including forestry or agricultural residues, municipal waste, algae, waste plastics and carbon dioxide.
“We are developing waste carbon sources to substitute crude oil with a 5, 10 or 20 year horizon for significant commercial scale. Lignocellulosics could potentially provide a large pool of sustainable feedstock from agricultural and forestry waste and residues. Municipal solid waste and waste plastic are also interesting raw material sources, and could be a relatively short-term solution,” says Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President, Innovation at Neste.
In another new development, BSE Engineering and the Institute for Renewable Energy Systems at Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (IRES) have been able to convert wind power into renewable methanol (bio methanol). A crucial base chemical, methanol can also be used as a fuel for direct combustion in engines.
Based on experimental work, the method captures feedstock H2O and CO2 from air with 10MW wind turbines accommodating the air capture installation in the base tower.