SEVILLE, 8 (EUROPA PRESS)
Cepsa has announced that it will increase the circularity of its waste by 50% in 2030, which will mean minimizing, recycling and recovering some 8,000 tons in its large industrial centers in Andalusia. To this end, the company has committed to “maximizing” the use of renewable and circular materials to become “a key player” in the construction of new sustainable production models.
The measure is part of its ‘Positive Motion’ strategy to become “a leader in sustainable mobility in Spain and Portugal and a benchmark in the energy transition”, as Cepsa has pointed out in a note.
This Cepsa commitment is “one of the most ambitious in the energy sector” and with this, the company will promote, through the use of new technologies, the development of projects for the co-processing of waste and the identification of synergies with other companies to promote the industrial symbiosis.
In addition, it will take advantage of its approach to zero waste and its knowledge of the industry to maximize the use of waste as raw material, through sustainable solutions, and it will “progressively” replace fossil sources in the products it sells, introducing materials renewable and recycled.
Mar Perrote, Cepsa’s HSEQ director, has stated that the circular economy commitments they have presented will allow them to “advance towards a zero-waste business model, through the development of more sustainable solutions”, such as “reducing the generation of waste in our operations and promoting industrial symbiosis to give a second life to raw materials that were previously discarded”.
The company’s new transformation strategy, launched in 2022, aims to support Cepsa customers in their decarbonisation process. To this end, the company has set itself the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of its commercialized products by between 15% and 20% in this decade, as part of its roadmap towards net zero emissions.
Thus, Cepsa will maximize the use of its own waste and that of third parties as raw material, giving it a second life. An example of this is the company’s recent agreement with Aguas y Servicios del Campo de Gibraltar (Arcgisa) to promote actions related to the circular economy that affect urban waste. Specifically, Cepsa explained, this collaboration is aimed at the recovery and recovery of organic waste, used oils of domestic origin, biological sludge, and other waste from the facilities managed by Arcgisa.
Through this agreement, Cepsa will also produce green hydrogen from wastewater, avoiding its discharge into the sea. It is a project that will be developed in its San Roque Energy Park (Cádiz), and that will have a “very positive” impact on the availability of drinking water, “which demonstrates the company’s commitment to the objective it set last year, to reduce by 20% the withdrawal of fresh water in areas of water stress by 2025”, the company has indicated.
In addition, the company has indicated that it will progressively replace fossil raw materials with renewable and recycled sources, committing to increase the proportion of renewable and circular raw materials in its Energy Parks “up to 15% by 2030”. This will mean the use of 2.8 million tons of raw materials by 2030, of which 75% will be second generation and other waste that would otherwise be discarded.
Cepsa has indicated that by 2030 “it will lead the production of biofuels”, such as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), produced from second-generation raw materials, such as organic waste, used cooking oils or agricultural waste, among others. An example of this type of solution, he pointed out, is the production of SAF from agricultural waste produced by Cepsa and with which “more than 220 flights” departed from Seville airport last December, “avoiding the emission of more than 200 tons of CO2”.
To promote change, Cepsa has created a circular economy working group in which all its divisions and business units participate, with the aim of promoting circularity, both in its activity and in its products. This includes the evaluation of new technologies and the implementation of waste co-processing projects and synergies with other companies to promote industrial symbiosis.
Cepsa has been recognized for this leadership, receiving the ‘Key Innovator’ seal from the European Commission’s ‘Innovation Radar’ programme, in collaboration with AIJU (Instituto Tecnológico de Producto Infantil y Ocio) and other companies and institutions at the beginning of 2023.
