Chemicals company Ineos has secured loans totalling €3.5bn ($3.7bn) to help fund the construction and operation of its ‘Project One’ low-carbon ethane cracker at the port of Antwerp in Belgium.

In total, 21 commercial banks, including ABN Amro, Barclays, ING and Deutsche Bank have lent to the project, which Ineos says will be Europe’s most sustainable cracker and the continent’s largest chemical sector investment for a generation. Ineos has put the total cost at €4bn.

Construction of the project started in December, and commissioning is scheduled for 2026.

“Project One is a game-changer for Europe,” says Jason Meers, CFO of the project. “It will bring new opportunities to the chemical cluster in Antwerp as well as strengthen the resilience of the whole of the European chemical sector”. 

100,000t/yr – Plant’s hydrogen production as ethane cracking byproduct

The key decarbonising element of the facility will be the use of hydrogen in place of fossil fuels in the plant’s crackers and steam boilers. The plant’s ethane cracking process will produce around 100,000t/yr of hydrogen as a byproduct, which will be used to fuel the facility. But Ineos eventually hopes to source additional supplies to convert the project to run on 100pc hydrogen and make it net zero within a decade of its commissioning.

“It is technologically possible to fully fuel Project One’s crackers and steam boilers with hydrogen. A prerequisite is the availability of sufficient low-carbon hydrogen and existing infrastructure for its purchase,” the company says.

Ineos has previously said it plans to invest more than €2bn in green hydrogen production at its sites in Norway, Germany and Belgium in the next ten years, with projects also planned in the UK and France. But Project One does not include the development of a standalone hydrogen production facility.

Carbon-capture option

Project One’s design also provides space for a carbon-capture plant, an option that could be pursued once the technology is technically and commercially feasible, Ineos says. In a separate development, the company is developing a pilot project to capture CO₂ from its Zwijndrecht chemicals plant in Belgium and transport it via the port of Antwerp to its Nini West oil platform 200km off the west coast of Denmark.

Electrification of furnaces is also a potential option for the plant. The company recently agreed to a ten-year renewable with Dutch utility Eneco. Power will be supplied from the Seamade offshore wind park in the Belgian North Sea.

---

Author: Stuart Penson