With eight months to go before Repsol begins to produce biofuels in the new plant that it is building in its industrial complex, the multinational has already begun to carry out the first discharge tests in the port of Escombreras. The ship ‘Med Canary Valletta’ with the Maltese flag and loaded with 500 tons of used cooking oil from Huelva, docked last Sunday to check the operation of the purchase, transfer and reception system for this product. This is the raw material that Repsol will use in its bio-advanced gasoline and diesel factory, the first of its kind in Spain.
The industrial complex, in collaboration with Repsol’s renewable fuels work team, organized the first arrival and unloading of oil, as part of the planning process prior to commissioning the plant. The objective is to have all the necessary permits, procedures and steps to follow enabled, both by Repsol and by the companies and institutions that will be involved in the process (loading at the port of origin, transport, unloading and storage in Cartagena), in order to the moment in which the plant enters into operation, according to company sources.
Repsol technicians and operators have been working for months to obtain from the administration the specific authorization that is necessary to receive this raw material, different from what is usual in their operations, since used cooking oil is considered waste .
The forecast is to receive some 300,000 tons of raw material each year through the Port of Cartagena
Adaptation of facilities
Repsol plans to receive some 300,000 tons of oil each year through the Port of Cartagena. This increase in traffic, and within the framework of this new project in which the company is investing more than 200 million euros, is linked to the adaptation of the port facilities where Repsol operates to receive this raw material. Specifically, in two of the six berthing fronts where the multi-energy company already works, new arms will be installed to unload the ships. In addition, new lines, connections and four new tanks of 9,000 cubic meters each are being set up for the storage and transport of raw materials from the port to the industrial complex.
The particularity of the new lines, with a length of 4.5 kilometers, and the storage tanks, is that they have an electrical resistance to allow the product to be kept at a temperature of 60 degrees, thus preventing it from solidifying and the transportation inside the tracks is fluid.
An average of 530 vessels related to Repsol’s activity pass through the Escombreras dock every year, moving more than 23 million tons of liquid and solid bulk and other merchandise annually, and accounting for 70% of the activity of the Port of Cartagena.
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