Project Bulletin: October 17, 2023

In October, GS Caltex CEO Hur Sae-hong (left) and Posco International Corp. Vice Chairman Jeong Tak announced a new JV for a bio refinery plant in Indonesia.

Photo courtesy of GS Caltex

In a signing ceremony held in Seoul, South Korea, last week oil refiner GS Caltex and trading company Posco International Corporation announced their new $193 million bio feedstock refinery joint venture. The JV project will be located in Kalimantan, Indonesia’s share of Borneo, occupying over 322,000 sq. ft. with the capacity to process 500,000 tons of bio feedstock and cooking oil per year. In processing palm oil and waste produced at the plant, both companies aim to increase their competitiveness and domestic supply chain of biofuel. This facility will service future biofuel production technology endeavors planned for GS Caltex. Construction on the facility will begin in 2024 with operations expected to begin by mid-2025.

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The Inflation Reduction Act has allowed for a plethora of project investments to land within the United States.

Photo Getty Images

After facing delays with its Norcross, Georgia, solar manufacturing facility, Suniva announced that the company will now be moving forward with the project. This move was made thanks in part to President Biden’s climate law incentives associated with the Inflation Reduction Act, making it economically viable for the company to resume build-out of its facility. By 2024, the company, which filed for bankruptcy six years ago and sought trade remedies, plans to begin the production of solar cells with an initial capacity of 1 gigawatt per year, equivalent to powering 173,000 homes. In the first phase of this build-out Suniva plans to create 240 new jobs. “Since 2007, Suniva has been a leader in solar cell technology development and manufacturing. The Inflation Reduction Act and its domestic content provisions, as issued, provide a strong foundation for continued solar cell technology development and manufacturing in the United States,” said Suniva CEO Cristiano Amoruso in a release. “We look forward to engaging with our customers to satisfy their demand for a reliable source of U.S. made cells.”

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EV battery producer IONWAY, a joint venture between PowerCo and Umicore, received $369 million in grants from the Polish Government for the project.

Photo courtesy of PowerCo

Mining company Umicore and Volkswagen subsidiary PowerCo are joining forces via their newly established EV battery materials producer company IONWAY to bring the JV’s first cathode active material (CAM) production plant to Poland’s southwestern city of Nysa. While a site has yet to be determined, this location was selected for its renewable energy resources and talent pool availability as the JV looks to create 900 new jobs. CAM produced at the site will be used to support PowerCo’s battery cell gigafactories in Europe, while the site will look to grow production capacity to 160 gigawatt-hours over the next 10 years. The $1.7 billion project adds to the European Union’s Green Deal goals in creating a sustainable battery supply chain. “IONWAY gives both PowerCo and Umicore a significant first-mover advantage in the fast-growing e-mobility market in Europe. PowerCo has now co-created what it was looking for: a battery materials supplier to secure and build-up manufacturing capacity for reliable and cost-competitive precursor and cathode material production based on responsibly sourced raw materials,” said PowerCo Chief Product Officer Jörg Teichmann.

Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore