British oil major Shell’s plans to convert a hydrocracker at its Wesseling, Germany, refinery into a production unit for API Group III base oil now include the installation of an electric low-emission tubular heater supplied by French furnace supplier Axens.
In recent years, Shell has been taken court by climate change activists. In 2023, ClientEarth filed a case against Shell’s board for “failing to move away from fossil fuels fast enough.” And in 2021, Milieudefensii sued the company in The Hague. Shell is involved 20 more similar court cases worldwide, which has placed carbon reduction on the boardroom agenda.
Shell said it would stop crude oil processing at Wesseling by 2025 and start the base oil stream by 2030. The plant will have capacity of about 300,000 metric tons per year, accounting for 9% of the European Union’s base oil demand and 40% of Germany’s.
Crude processing will continue instead at the Godorf site, the larger of the two plants at the Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland near Cologne. Godorf has crude oil through-put capacity of 190,000 barrels per day.
The company said in a press release that repurposing the hydrocracker and using an electric furnace would cut Shell’s Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by approximately about tons per year.
Worley Parson is the lead engineering firm.