en.Wedoany.com Reported - Portuguese chemical company Bondalti has completed a decarbonization project at the Estarreja chemical complex, with an investment of €76 million, partially funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). Once operational, the complex will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 36,000 tonnes annually and decrease its reliance on fossil fuels.
The project, named REPower Chemicals, was unveiled this Thursday at a ceremony attended by Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and Minister of Environment and Energy Maria da Graça Carvalho. The total investment amounts to €76 million, of which €32 million comes from the PRR's industrial decarbonization allocation.
REPower Chemicals integrates five sub-projects aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the Estarreja plant, including replacing existing electrolysis technology with nine new electrolyzers, building two self-consumption solar parks, deploying a battery energy storage system, strengthening electrical infrastructure, and electrifying steam production through electric boilers.
The two photovoltaic parks have a combined installed capacity of approximately 30 MWp, capable of meeting 17% of the chlor-alkali unit's annual electricity consumption, raising the complex's share of renewable energy to 44%. The energy storage system, installed by EDP, has a power rating of 12 MW and a capacity of 12 MWh, which Bondalti describes as a first-of-its-kind application at industrial scale in Portugal.
Under normal operating conditions, the new electric boilers can fully replace the natural gas previously used for steam production with approximately 35 GWh of renewable electricity per year, while also reducing the company's exposure to energy market price fluctuations.
Bondalti estimates that the REPower project will reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by approximately 28% compared to 2019 levels. Building on this investment, the company has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these two scopes by 63% by 2035, relative to the 2023 baseline.
Bondalti CEO João de Mello stated that REPower demonstrates that industrial transformation is possible, but the pace must be accelerated to create conditions for industry to continue investing, decarbonizing, and competing. He also advocated for environmental policies that balance emission reductions with industrial competitiveness.
The project's renewable energy production and storage solutions were implemented with the participation of EDP, Greenvolt, and Voltalia, and were deployed at the Estarreja industrial unit.
