【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】The 100,000-ton/year bio-jet fuel hydrogenation unit at Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. was successfully commissioned for the first time from 2016 to 2024

On May 9, 2022, reporters learned from the News Office of Sinopec that the biojet fuel produced via Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical’s hydrogenation (HEFA) process has been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials. This certification confirms that the raw materials, production processes, and products associated with Zhenhai Refining & Chemical’s biojet fuel facility meet the basic principles and standards for the sustainable development of RSB biofuels, thereby gaining recognition for its use in global sustainable biomaterials applications. Zhenhai Refining & Chemical has become the first company in Asia to obtain the global RSB certification for sustainable bioaviation fuel, which will help China’s domestically developed and produced biojet fuel to reach international markets, opening up opportunities for its use abroad and facilitating the industrialization and commercial application of sustainable aviation fuel.

The RSB certification body is a multinational international organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. This certification provides peer-reviewed global standards for sustainable biomaterials, biofuels, and biomass production, and it is one of the widely recognized sustainability standards in the industry today. It is understood that, in accordance with the requirements of the European Union and the International Air Transport Association, biofuels intended for use in the European and international aviation sectors to help reduce emissions must undergo RSB certification to ensure they meet the green and low-carbon standards of the aviation industry. Zhenhai Refining & Chemical is the owner of China’s first bio-jet fuel production facility. Biojet fuel is aviation kerosene produced from renewable resources, with raw materials primarily including food waste oils, animal and plant fats, and agricultural and forestry waste. Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, carbon dioxide emissions over the entire life cycle can be reduced by more than 50%. With the completion of the RSB certification, Zhenhai Refining & Chemical will enter the trial production phase in the near future, in line with the market demand for sustainable aviation fuel. Over the years, Sinopec has been actively pursuing a green and low-carbon development strategy, continuously strengthening efforts in original and pioneering scientific and technological research, and shouldering the important role of a strategic scientific and technological force. In the field of biomass fuels, China is a leader in biojet fuel technology: it successfully developed its own proprietary biojet fuel production technology in 2011. This led to the first technical test flights of biojet fuel in 2013, its first use on domestic commercial flights in 2015, and its first use on transoceanic international flights in 2017. As a result, China became the fourth country, after the United States, France, and Finland, to possess independent research and development capabilities for biojet fuel production. On the other hand, efforts to advance biodiesel technology are ongoing. In 2001, the company began working on the development of new biodeiesel technologies. After years of progress, it is now vigorously advancing the construction of biodeiesel supply facilities to enable the regular use of biodeiesel in vehicles. Taking Sinopec Shanghai Petroleum as an example, since the pilot program for B5 diesel fuel was launched in 2017, over 20 million units of this fuel have been supplied in total, with an average of about 12,500 units supplied per day. It has also helped to process more than 56,000 tons of used cooking oil into biodiesel. It is reported that B5 diesel, a blended fuel made by mixing 5% biodiesel with 95% diesel grade 0, can reduce emissions of pollutants such as heavy metals and fine particles by over 10%, with a nitrogen oxide purification efficiency of 80%. At the same time, Sinopec Capital Co., Ltd. has utilized the leverage of capital to invest in various companies such as Zhejiang Hisun BioMaterials Co., Ltd. and Langze Technology, thereby actively building an ecosystem within the biomass chemical industry chain and promoting the application and market development of biotechnology. Among them, Langze Technology employs a globally leading microbial transformation method to efficiently capture carbon elements present in industrial exhaust gases, providing enterprises that generate such exhaust gases with global-scale industrial technology solutions for producing renewable clean energy and high-value-added chemicals.

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