Decarbonisation options for the Dutch vegetable oil and fat industry

This report describes the current situation for the vegetable oil and fat sector in the Netherlands together with the options and preconditions for its decarbonisation. The study is part of the MIDDEN project (Manufacturing Industry Decarbonisation Data Exchange Network). The MIDDEN project aims to support industry, policymakers, analysts, and the energy sector in their common efforts to achieve deep decarbonisation.

Vegetable oil and fat sector in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the vegetable oil and fat producers include:

ADM
Cargill
Bunge Loders Croklaan
Sime Darby Unimills.

These four companies represent the larger production facilities at seven production sites. There are more production facilities, but these are smaller and do not fall under the emission trade system of the European Union (EU ETS). The decarbonisation options may also be relevant for these facilities, but these were outside the scope of this study.

Production processes include cleaning, cracking, dehulling, threshing, conditioning, flaking, cooking, sterilisation, mechanical pressing, solvent extraction, degumming, neutralisation, bleaching, hydrogenation, desolventising and deodorisation. The relevant products include palm oil, rapeseed and sunflower oil, soybean oil and other types of oil.