7Our developments
In 2019, development activities focused primarily on increasing the value of shale oil products and reducing the footprint entailed in production. The selection criteria of projects included lengthening the production value chain and increasing the quality and value of the products, while reducing the Group’s environmental footprint.
The largest project was the development of the shale oil pre-refining plant launched in cooperation with Eesti Energia. The aim of the project is to valorise all the shale oil produced in Estonia into ship fuel with a low sulphur content and/or raw material suitable for refining plants. The planned processing capacity of the plant is 1.6 million tons of shale oil a year, of which 0.7 million tons would be VKG’s part. In 2019, hydrogen processing pilot tests were run on VKG’s shale oil at the UOP laboratory in Chicago, which confirmed that it is possible to produce higher-value products that meet the desired specifications from shale oil. In addition, KT – Kinetics Technology SpA (Italy) – was chosen to prepare the preliminary design for the pre-refining plant. The company started preparing the preliminary design for the plant and work on the first stage of the project should be completed in the 2 quarter of 2020.
In the area of increasing the value of products, the possibilities of producing higher-value coke and reducing the sulphur content of oil shale petrol were also investigated.
The most successful project launched in the area of production was the semi-coke gas cooling application which allows separating more gas petrol from semi-coke gas, thereby increasing the production of oil shale petrol in summer. The project also has a positive effect of reducing the CO2 footprint of the VKG Group.
Another project inspired by reducing CO2 emissions was the valorisation of semi-coke gas. In the course of the project, we explored the separation of a maximum amount of gas petrol from gas through compression and cooling as well as synthesising the most valuable chemicals from the remaining lean gas. An area of use different from the current energy application would allow binding the carbon in the gas into a useful product.
The third notable green project is the exploration of the possibilities of producing biopolyols in cooperation with partners. VKG can use the existing equipment for chemical production for that purpose. This project will soon move on to test production stage, after which the initiation of industrial production will be considered.
The 2020 development activities focus on the topics described below:
Increasing the value of shale oil products
In the area of shale oil products, the preparation of the preliminary design for the pre-refining plant will continue in the first half of the year. After that, the initiation of the subsequent stage of the project has to be decided, which would mean the preparation of the main design.
Reducing the environmental footprint of the existing production
This includes the valorisation and reuse of the by-products of shale oil production, as well as continued activities in the valorisation of semi-coke gas. We also analyse the possibilities of increasing the reuse of solid by-products.
Developing new business directions
Renewable energy is one possible business direction where VKG is initiating projects to participate in the planned renewable energy auctions. In the light of the European Green Deal, activities have been started to find business projects that support climate neutrality.
The complete list of development activities is considerably longer and includes technology sales elements, development of fine chemistry and various new IT solutions.