Titan Plans to Build World’s Largest Bio-LNG Plant in Amsterdam

As the shipping industry continues to seek sources for future alternative fuels, Dutch fuel supplier Titan plans to build the world’s largest bio-LNG (biomethane liquefaction or LBM) plant. Titan will build and operate the plant at its location in the Port of Amsterdam allowing supply to ships and trucks. When completed, the plant will have the capacity to produce 200,000 tons of bio-LNG annually.

“Titan is committed to decarbonize shipping by supplying bio-LNG and any other renewable fuels such as hydrogen-derived methane, also known as E-LNG. Strategic value chain collaborations are paramount to ramping up alternative fuel production to the scale required for shipping,” said Ronald van Selm, CTO at Titan. 

Titan says the bulk of the bio-LNG volumes produced by the plant will be supplied to the LBM-powered vessels of Titan’s launching customer. For the remaining volumes, truck refueling stations and industrial customers are also within scope. The LBM will substitute fossil fuels, avoiding about a million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions per year, equal to the annual emissions of about 25 percent of all diesel cars in the Netherlands. 

Two key milestones have already been reached for the plant which Titan expects will begin production in 2025. Contracts were signed with biogas producer BioValue for the exclusive off-take of all on-site produced biogas, and with Linde Engineering to perform the basic engineering.

BioValue, one of the largest biogas suppliers in the Netherlands, will supply a significant part of the biogas required for the total LBM production. For this, BioValue, which is considered to be a pioneering biogas producer with six production sites in the Netherlands, will construct a new biogas plant adjacent to Titan’s plant. The remaining biogas will be sourced from other production installations throughout Europe that are connected to the existing gas grid. 

According to the company, the hybrid sourcing setup enables the scale required for the decarbonization of the marine industry. Titan has selected Linde Engineering to perform the engineering based on Linde’s proprietary liquefaction technology.  

Titan also says that producing LBM in the most sustainable way is a key project target and has been integrated throughout the plant’s design. Importantly, the project will only source biogas from sustainable feedstocks that are compliant with the latest EU Renewable Energy Directive and are International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) certified. Other sustainable integrations in the plant include the capturing and utilization of the biogenic CO2 side stream and the hydrogen-ready design. This enables future production of e-methane where the biogenic CO2 is combined with green hydrogen. For this, a connection to the hydrogen backbone planned in the Port of Amsterdam is envisaged.

The project aligns with EU regulations such as those proposed in the Fit-For-55 package and the recently published RePowerEU plans. The plant will be located adjacent to Titan’s berth in the Port of Amsterdam, from whom the land will be leased.

It is the latest step in an effort to reposition Titan which launched a decade ago as an LNG supplier. The company is expanding its approach to decarbonization with all carbon-neutral fuels and its supply infrastructure. Titan is expanding its role as an independent, physical supplier of low and zero-carbon fuels, such as LBM, and hydrogen-derived e-methane, to meet the future demands from shipping and other industries.