OMV invests €200M in biofuel production

New production at Schwechat Refinery will convert up to 160,000 metric tons of liquid biomass into carbon-neutral fuels.

Austrian oil company OMV will invest around €200 million in the Schwechat Refinery to substitute large quantities of fossil diesel with biodiesel in an innovative co-processing approach.

With this process, the hydrogenated vegetable oil should lead to an annual reduction in OMV’s carbon footprint of up to 360,000 metric tons of fossil CO2. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of around 200,000 cars driving an average of 12,000 km per year.

The move fits into OMV’s pledged to reach net-zero emissions in operations by 2050 or sooner.

“The conversion in the OMV Schwechat Refinery makes a key contribution to more sustainable mobility and is another step in achieving our climate targets. At the same time, we are providing economic stimulus in Austria with this investment of almost EUR 200 mn,” said Thomas Gangl, OMV Chief Downstream Operations Officer.

OMV expects demand for its hydrogenated biofuels to increase ten-fold by 2030. With this, OMV is one of the first companies in Europe to engage in co-processing on an industrial scale.