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TotalEnergies' La Mede HVO unit begins restart

  • Märkte: Biofuels
  • 09.04.24

TotalEnergies' 500,000 t/yr La Mede hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) plant in southern France is restarting after around two months of work aimed at boosting output from waste feedstock.

Units at La Mede have been restarting this week, with some flaring occurring. The plant's hydrotreating unit has been restarted, according to workers, and should be fully operational at an unspecified time later this month.

La Mede began halting operations at the end of January for work designed to overhaul output and allow for production closer to nameplate capacity. TotalEnergies has said it wants the unit to run entirely on waste feedstock, mainly used cooking oil (UCO) and animal fats (tallow). La Mede started up in 2019 configured to run on vegetable oil, largely imported palm oil. But Paris banned the use of palm in France's biofuels mix in 2019, and any palm-based HVO produced at La Mede had to be exported in 2020-22, almost all to Germany and the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region.

TotalEnergies subsequently ended its use of palm oil and La Mede received no palm feedstock in 2023. Performance at the plant has been patchy with a number of unplanned stoppages.

The last cargo of HVO to be shipped from La Mede left in mid-January ahead of the works, to go to Le Havre. Since then TotalEnergies has imported around 2,500t of HVO from ARA. There have been no deliveries of feedstock since the end of January. A first feedstock cargo is slated to arrive at the port of Lavera — which serves La Mede — around 15 April. It should be carrying tallow and rapeseed oil, according to shipping data.


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