Yara's new innovative pilot plants auguration in Porsgrunn
Oslo - Yara's new pilot plants were celebrated with a December 18th ceremony that attracted a Norwegian ministerial visit to honor the occasion.
The scene was set, in the midst of Yara’s most modern plant, located in the city of Porsgrunn, just two hours south of Oslo. Pipes, tubes, tanks and containers shaped the background for the state of the art technology bringing efficiency and environmental-friendliness together in Norwegian industry.
The importance of land-based industry
CEO Torgeir Kvidal, Chief Technology Officer Pierre Herben and Porsgrunn Plant Manager Per Knudsen gave speeches at the event that wove together the themes of Upstream investments, the research and development aspect of the new pilot plants, energy-saving projects and combining business with social impact.
Per Knudsen welcomed Minister of Trade and Industry Monica Mæland with the first official speech of the day, expressing Yara's belief in the importance of land-based global export industry to Norway, and linked this argument to Creating Impact. "Yara Porsgrunn delivers on the company's overall strategy," he said, "profitable growth - through delivering solutions for food security, resource efficiency and the environment." In times when the oil-dependent economy is affected by falling prices on crude oil, focus on competitiveness and growth oriented land-based industry becomes increasingly important.
The CEO discussed investments to increase capacity in Norway and Finland, and also the aspect of environmental concerns. "Compared to existing plants, at Porsgrunn we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100,000 tons of CO2 equivalents a year," Torgeir Kvidal said. "Also, the pilot plants we inaugurate today are an investment in health and environment. Here, we will test catalyst technology to reduce harmful emissions to air, building our environmental solutions business."
Everything starts with people
The CEO also stressed the support from Norwegian groups Enova and Innovation Norway, for providing targeted grants that allowed for the most environmentally-friendly investments possible.
Yara's CTO clarified the R&D function of the three new pilot plants, and reminded the gathering that the company was founded on a basis of science, innovation and entrepreneurship.
"Today we inaugurate three pilot facilities - the largest on the process of making advanced NPK fertilizers, the others to develop new solutions to abate greenhouse and NOx gases from various industries around the world," Pierre Herben said. "The pilot plants are key steps to validating the R&D laboratory-scale concepts in real life conditions, before applying them on a large industrial scale."
"Everything starts with people - in research, and then in society!" he said. "Our renewed strategy led us to triple our research investment in Porsgrunn over recent years. This contributes greatly to the attractiveness of the site, with around 19 nationalities now working in our Porsgrunn R&D community."
"The close collaboration between project engineers at the main plant and R&D Porsgrunn teams in our research facility has been vital to incorporate innovative solutions in our plant expansion."
Latest news
PureCycle’s First Plastic Recycling Plant in Europe located in Antwerp-Brugges NextGen District, Belgium
The new plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 59,000 metric tons, with opportunities to expand operations with an anticipated total capacity of approximately 240,000 metric tons per year.
CABB site in Kokkola, Finland: vital growth with a focus on sustainability
CABB Group will invest more than EUR 50 million by 2025 in expanding its facilities at its site in Kokkola, Finland. A new office building is also being constructed. Special attention is being pai...
TotalEnergies commissions BioBéarn, the country’s largest anaerobic digestion unit in Mourenx, France
The project will convert 220,000 metric tons of organic waste into 200,000 metric tons per year of digestate, a natural fertilizer, and 160 GWh of biomethane. This new unit allowing to avoid the em...
Borealis, committed to lead the transformation to a circular economy, acquires a majority stake in Renasci’s Ostend facility, Belgium
Borealis increases its financial investment in Renasci to acquire a majority shareholding position of 50.01%. Investment will provide Borealis increasing access to chemically recycled feedstock, st...