Residual heat from Shell keeps 16,000 households warm
Today saw the official launch of the Pernis Restwarmte Initiatief (Pernis Residual Heat Initiative) in the Rotterdam neighbourhood of Katendrecht. In this initiative, Shell, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam have joined forces to speed up the energy transition in the Netherlands. Some 16,000 Rotterdam households will be supplied with residual heat from Shell’s refinery in Pernis. This switch from natural gas to residual heat will cut CO2 emissions by 35,000 tonnes per year.
The main challenge faced by both the private sector and society at large is to satisfy the growing demand for energy around the world while simultaneously releasing less CO2 into the atmosphere. It’s important in this context to make efficient use of existing sources of energy. And that is also the key focus of the Pernis Restwarmte Initiatief.
Shell, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam organised a festive kick-off for the initiative together with Rotterdam Deputy Mayor Bas Kurvers, whose portfolio includes Construction, Housing and the Energy Transition in the Built Environment. During the event, the attendees completed a life-size sliding puzzle with local residents of Katendrecht, one of the neighbourhoods that will be supplied with this new residual heat. The sliding puzzle symbolises how Shell Pernis maintains a direct connection with its environs, as well as underlining that residual heat can only be offered to households in the region by working in partnership.
Shell Pernis is the first refinery in Rotterdam’s port area that will be supplying residual heat. Shell has built systems that carry the residual heat off the refinery site. The Port of Rotterdam Authority subsequently ensures that the heat is fed via Shell Pernis’s heat pipeline into the existing heat network, while Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam will be handling the actual connection to the existing heat network, management, operation and maintenance and the heat’s supply to local heat distributors.
“The continuous improvement of our energy efficiency is an important goal for both our refinery in Pernis and Shell in the Netherlands. Supplying residual heat to households in the region allows us to take a new step in the on-going reduction of CO2 emissions. We want to produce increasingly clean energy products for users at home, en route and in the workplace. And we aren’t doing this by ourselves. In developments of this kind, collaboration between the private sector and the government is the key to success,” says Marjan van Loon, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.
Port Authority CEO Allard Castelein continues: “While we need to make our society more sustainable, there will continue to be a strong demand for oil and petrochemical products in the decades ahead. This industry produces fuels for our cars as well as raw materials for all sorts of products that we use every day – from paint to refrigerators and clothing. Their production generates a lot of heat, which can be put to good use. Shell Pernis is currently supplying heat to 16,000 households, and the port of Rotterdam as whole can offer enough residual heat for 500,000 households and a share of the nearby greenhouse areas.” Co Hamers, Director of Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam, adds: “Thanks to the recently constructed pipeline connecting the refinery to Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam’s heat transport network we can take strong advantage of the residual heat generated by the refinery in Pernis. The Rotterdam buildings that source heat from the local distribution network are one example.”
Deputy Mayor Bas Kurvers (Construction, Housing and the Energy Transition in the Built-up Environment) explains: “Over the next four years, we will be improving the sustainability of a sizeable number of homes in our city. We will be helping as many households as possible off to do away with gas – or prepare for that transition. By continuing to expand the heat network – the way we are doing today – we can keep replacing gas-fired heating at the neighbourhood or district level. Thanks to this large-scale approach, the energy transition will be relatively inexpensive for the citizens of Rotterdam.”