Finnish refinery operator Neste (Espoo; www.neste.com) on 7 October 2019 officially opened a new office in Düsseldorf / Germany, to serve as the global hub for its Renewable Polymers and Chemicals business unit. From this location, business development, sales and marketing are to be managed worldwide.

The unit with a projected staff of 80 provides the plastics and chemicals industries with solutions derived from biomass and chemically recycled plastics waste generated at the group’s own refineries in Porvoon / Finland, Rotterdam / The Netherlands and Singapore. Mercedes Alonso, who joined Neste on 1 September 2019 as executive vice president and Neste executive committee member, heads both the unit and Neste’s operations in Germany.

The move to concentrate the unit’s commercial operations in one location is linked to Neste’s goal of becoming the preferred partner of companies eager to replace fossil-based solutions with bio-based ones and to expand plastics recycling to a much larger scale. Its customers include LyondellBasell (LYB, Houston, Texas / USA; www.lyondellbasell.com). Both had announced plans for the world’s first production of bio-based polypropylene and LDPE at a commercial scale at the LYB’s German site in Wesseling – see Plasteurope.com of 26.06.2019.

In Germany, Neste supplied its flagship product “Neste MY Renewable Diesel” to help airports in Hamburg and Stuttgart cut their ground fleets’ emissions. It had also jointly with Lufthansa tested “Neste MY Renewable Jet Fuel” in nearly 1,200 flights. Lufthansa plans to use Neste’s sustainable aviation fuel, to be blended with fossil jet fuel, on some Frankfurt-based flights.