Towards a decarbonized chemical industry
The plants are making progress in electrification and circularity with the goal of zero emissions by 2050
These past ten years in the Tarragona petrochemical industry have been marked by progress in decarbonizing plants, with the goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050, as required by the European Union. However, the path to climate neutrality is still unclear, and while a few years ago green hydrogen was considered the great panacea, chemical companies are now urging the government to expedite regulations to enable the use of low-carbon hydrogen and the storage of CO₂ to ensure their competitiveness against countries with less stringent regulations. The electrification of Tarragona's chemical plants will mean doubling or tripling the energy consumption of the Tarragona petrochemical industry in the coming years, and the major challenge is improving the region's infrastructure, with more hectares of photovoltaic energy or more wind turbines. High-voltage power lines are also needed to carry Aragon's green energy.
One of the pioneering projects underway in the Tarragona industrial park is Repsol's Ecoplant, which will produce renewable methanol starting in 2029. This is a pioneering project in Europe to transform 400,000 tons of municipal waste annually into 240,000 tons of renewable fuels and circular products.
Repsol, along with Enagás and Messer, is also promoting T-Hynet, a project to install a 150-megawatt (MW) alkaline electrolyzer at its industrial complex, with the capacity to produce up to 2.7 tons of renewable hydrogen per hour, as well as decarbonizing the local industrial environment.
The Iqoxe accident
But this decade has also been marked by the tragic fatal accident at the Iqoxe plant in January 2020, which claimed three lives: two workers and a resident of the Torreforta neighborhood. Companies in the sector have continued working to raise safety standards at their facilities. Air quality remains a topic of debate, and increasingly thorough analyses have not dispelled the mistrust felt by a significant portion of society regarding the effects of these industries on human health.
