🎱 etasca’s 8 🎱 – Weekly Roundup
1️⃣ Northvolt, the Swedish battery maker, announced cost-cutting measures due to macroeconomic pressures and a slowdown in the EV market. Plans include placing its Skellefteå facility into care and maintenance, selling the Kvarnsveden site, and exploring divestment of its Polish division, Northvolt Systems. The company is also integrating its U.S. subsidiary, Cuberg, into its Swedish operations amid declining EV sales in Europe.
2️⃣ Great Carbon Valley (GCV), a Kenya-based systems integrator, has partnered with Yama, a France-based leader in hybrid electrochemical Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, to advance large-scale DAC projects in East Africa. The collaboration aims to establish a First-of-a-Kind plant, scaling to capture 5 million tons of CO2 annually by 2032.
3️⃣ DEME Group and OQ have partnered with bp for the HYPORT Duqm green hydrogen project in Oman, with bp acquiring a 49% stake and OQ and DEME each holding 25.5%. The project will generate green hydrogen and green ammonia powered by 1.3 GW of wind and solar energy in Phase 1, expanding to over 2.7 GW in Phase 2 - commercial operations are planned for 2030-2031.
4️⃣ Petroineos Trading Limited has announced the closure of Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth by summer 2025. The refinery, which supplies 65% of Scotland’s oil products, has struggled with global competition from more modern facilities in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, averaging reported daily losses of $500,000 and accumulating over $775m in losses since 2011, despite a $1.2bn investment. The site will transition to a fuels import terminal.
5️⃣ Brookfield Asset Management has announced an investment of up to $1.1bn in green hydrogen-based e-fuels producer Infinium, including over $200m for Infinium's second commercial-scale facility in Texas, known as Project Roadrunner. Roadrunner is expected to begin operations in 2026, supplying e-fuels to customers such as American Airlines. In addition to aviation fuel, Roadrunner will produce synthetic diesel and naphtha using green hydrogen and captured CO2.
6️⃣ Gevo, Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Red Trail Energy’s ethanol production plant and CCS assets for $210 million. This acquisition includes a 65 million-gallon-per-year ethanol facility and an operating CCS site with a capacity of 1 million metric tons per year, both located in North Dakota. Gevo plans to leverage these assets to support its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production.
7️⃣ ADNOC Group is reportedly set to make a formal acquisition offer for Covestro, a German chemicals and plastics manufacturer, valued at over €14billion.
8️⃣ Denmark's first CO2 storage facility in the North Sea, led by INEOS Energy, is now ready to receive large amounts of CO2. The facility is expected to store up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually by 2025/2026, and plans for 8 million tons by 2030.