{"id":163063,"date":"2025-05-16T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=163063"},"modified":"2025-05-17T14:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T12:24:18","slug":"blue-circle-greening-the-chemical-industry-with-100-circular-olefins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/blue-circle-greening-the-chemical-industry-with-100-circular-olefins\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Circle: greening the chemical Industry with 100% circular olefins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

To drastically decarbonize the chemical industry, it\u2019s not always necessary to build entirely new value chains. Sometimes, it\u2019s enough to green the base of existing chains by switching to sustainable chemical building blocks. That\u2019s the approach taken by startup Blue Circle, which aims to build a plant in Rotterdam or Geleen to produce ethylene and propylenefrom circular methanol instead of fossil feedstocks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Pioneers Ralph Koekkoek and Reinier Grimbergen aim to have a 200,000-ton-per-year facility up and running by the end of 2029. In the following years, they plan to scale up to one million tons, the typical size of a steam cracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food-Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ethylene and propylene\u2014also known as olefins\u2014are the primary building blocks of the chemical industry. They form the basis for many materials, as well as products like paints and shampoos. Koekkoek picks up a small Lego car: \u201cLego bricks are made from ABS plastic. Propylene is a key ingredient. By using circular propylene, we can make Lego bricks significantly more sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using chemical building blocks also offers an advantage over mechanically recycled plastics. Koekkoek explains: \u201cOur route has the added benefit that the end products are suitable for food-contact applications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emission Reductions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Across Europe, there are numerous plans to build methanol plants, primarily aimed at greening fuels. \u201cWe only need a small share of that methanol to produce chemical building blocks,\u201d Grimbergen notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are various routes to produce circular methanol\u2014such as converting biogas into methanol, producing biomethanolvia bio-waste gasification, or making e-methanol from green hydrogen and captured CO\u2082. According to Grimbergen: \u201cIn all these cases, the lifecycle CO\u2082 emission reduction of the olefins we produce is at least 80 percent compared to current fossil-based olefins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competing on Price<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Blue Circle intends to use state-of-the-art, already proven technology\u2014currently used on a large scale in China to produce olefins from coal-based methanol. \u201cThat means we don\u2019t need to build pilot plants. We can get started right away using tried-and-tested processes\u2014just with the best available technology at the time,\u201d says Koekkoek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Blue Circle\u2019s olefins may be slightly more expensive than fossil-based ethylene and propylene. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so important that the methanol we use is truly circular. This allows our customers to make their products significantly more sustainable\u2014instantly. That adds green premium value,\u201d says Koekkoek. \u201cAnd in terms of total product cost, the price difference will be barely noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the long run, the founders believe their olefins can be fully price-competitive, especially if CO\u2082 prices continue to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half a Billion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To actually start construction, a few hurdles remain. Koekkoek and Grimbergen are still looking for investment capital\u2014about half a billion euros. They are also in talks with value chain partners and consumer goods manufacturers who place a high value on product sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plant will be built in Rotterdam or on the Chemelot site, close to potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grimbergen witnessed the rise of e-methanol firsthand in Sweden during the Electro Trail 2023 (Electe23). See video: https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=-BZ7K6bLaws%3Ffeature%3Doembed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To drastically decarbonize the chemical industry, it\u2019s not always necessary to build entirely new value chains. Sometimes, it\u2019s enough to green the base of existing chains by switching to sustainable chemical building blocks. That\u2019s the approach taken by startup Blue Circle, which aims to build a plant in Rotterdam or Geleen to produce ethylene and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":163066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Pioneers Ralph Koekkoek and Reinier Grimbergen aim to have a 200,000-ton-per-year facility up and running by the end of 2029. In the following years, they plan to scale up to one million tons, the typical size of a steam cracker","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[10416,22568,10408,13718,21616,10453],"supplier":[26999,21446,3643],"class_list":["post-163063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-circulareconomy","tag-emethanol","tag-greenchemistry","tag-methanol","tag-olefins","tag-recycling","supplier-bluecircle-olefins","supplier-chemelot-circular-hub","supplier-lego-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163063"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=163063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}