Orlen Poludnie building EUR-240m bioethanol plant in Poland

Orlen Poludnie, part of Polish oil and gas major PKN Orlen (WSE:PKN), said Wednesday it will invest PLN 1.12 billion (USD 251m/EUR 238m) in a bioethanol plant which it is building at the Jedlicze Petroleum Refinery in southeastern Poland.

The Jedlicze plant will be completed in 2025 and will produce 25,000 tonnes of bioethanol per year, enough to refuel almost 13 million passenger cars with a blend of this bioadditive.

The use of the bio-product as an additive to petrol will contribute to meeting the National Indicative Target and it is an important step in achieving emission neutrality by the Orlen group by 2050, the company pointed out. The investment has been supported by PLN 68 million from the national eco-fund.

The project will strengthen Orlen Poludnie's cooperation with farmers because the biofuel will be made from crop residues, chiefly cereal straw, the company added. The annual demand for feeding stock is estimated at some 150,000 tonnes, equivalent to a harvest of 30,000 hectares of fields.

Currently, the main installation for the production of bioethanol is being built by Polish contractor Zarmen. Finnish company Valmet Technologies Oy is responsible for the construction of a biomass heat and power plant with a 48-MW boiler. The entire energy will be used for the needs of the plant in Jedlicze.

Orlen Poludnie stressed that it is consistently being transformed into a modern biorefinery. In November 2021, it launched at its Trzebinia site the largest installation in Europe for the production of ecological glycol. A network of biomethane plants is being rolled out under its biogas programme. Since June 2022, Trzebinia has also delivered hydrogen fuel for buses.

(PLN 10 = USD 2.24/EUR 2.12)

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