On 23 May, 2011 Plant One, a new testing and demonstration facility for sustainable process technology in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region, was officially opened by Minister Verhagen of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. The facility fills the gap between laboratory and full-scale production. Process improvements that look promising on a laboratory scale can here be tested on a pilot scale and further developed towards industrial application. Plant One fulfils a long-cherished wish of the Rotterdam region. The main objective of the initiators is to encourage and accelerate sustainable development.

“The Port of Rotterdam is keen to be up with the international front-runners when it comes to sustainability and therefore intends to halve its CO2 emissions by 2025 relative to 1990. Plant One is contributing to these aspirations”, says Karin Husmann, Plant One’s Managing Director. “This testing facility differs from other initiatives in its large-scale approach and its focus on multiple technologies. We have an umbrella environmental permit, moreover, which means the permit procedure for an individual pilot takes only a few weeks rather than months or even years”, she continues.

Eighteen months after being granted a subsidy, not only is Plant One operational; the first pilot projects have already been welcomed. ECN, the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, is developing a technology to make complex separation processes more efficient in terms of both energy consumption and costs. TNO, for its part, has a pilot known as ACCU, a plant that extracts CO2 from the atmosphere. CHP Technology, meanwhile, is developing a low-temperature gasification plant for local, decentralised power generation.

Plant One is an initiative of the Rotterdam Climate Initiative, the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Deltalinqs and TNO. Start-up was supported by subsidies from the City of Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Provincial Executive and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. Plant One was established by Carbon Stars, a company that initiates sustainable businesses and helps them develops into independent companies.

Download the press release put out Minister Verhagen and high-resolution photos (1 en 2), free of copyright.