Visit Ministers Adriaansens and Jetten

Roadmap to climate-neutral production presented to Ministers Adriaansens and Jetten
Making Zeeland's industry more sustainable

On Monday, April 11, Ministers Adriaansens (Economic Affairs) and Jetten (Climate and Energy) paid a working visit to Zeeland. The afternoon program was devoted to the topic of making Zeeland's industry more sustainable. An excellent opportunity to explain our roadmap towards CO2 neutrality in person.

Collaboration is critical
In order to make the Zeeland industry more sustainable, collaboration is critical. That is why Anton van Beek, president of Dow Western Europe and host of this visit, started with a short presentation on the efforts from Smart Delta Resources. In addition to the Ministers and policy makers, the King’s Commissioner Han Polman, Provincial Executive member for Zeeland Jo-Annes de Bat, Mayor of Terneuzen Eric van Merrienboer and the representatives of Yara Sluiskil (Michael Schlaug) and Nort Sea Port (Daan Schalck) were also present.

Roadmap to 0
To achieve climate-neutral production, we want to radically innovate our plants. Making them sustainable will take place in three phases, or 'generations'. In a personal conversation with both Ministers and policymakers, the different generations were explained by Anton van Beek and Cees Biesheuvel (Technology Innovation Manager). 

Generation 1; building a hydrogen plant
In the first phase, a hydrogen plant will be built where the residual gas methane, fuel for the crackers, will be stripped of carbon. Methane is converted into CO2 and hydrogen. The remaining hydrogen is reused as CO2-free fuel for the cracker. The CO2 is temporarily captured, disposed of, and stored (until phase 3). In generation 1 we aim for an annual reduction of 1.4 Mton, a 35% reduction. This is equivalent to 300,000 cars, or 7% of the CO2 reduction that Dutch industry has set itself for 2030. To realize the above, several things are crucial. Collaboration with the government is very important in order to make an investment decision. This includes infrastructure for CCS (capture and storage of CO2).

Video recap on the visit
In this short video from the Ministry of Economic Affairs the Ministers and involved organizations outline their vision and the importance of collaboration to make Zeeland's industry more sustainable.