NEXBTL™ technology turns renewable oils and fats into high-quality products
Neste is the largest producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel in the world. This is possible thanks to our proprietary NEXBTL™ technology – a unique platform that allows us to turn a wide variety of renewable fats and oils into premium-quality renewable products, such as fuels and feedstock for polymers and chemicals production.
The core and the aim of our processing technologies is to ensure flexible intake of different raw materials and have optionality to produce various different end products while having best-in-class operational performance. We constantly develop technologies that increase the energy efficiency and diminish the carbon footprint of traditional oil refining.
Our know-how in refining difficult raw materials has a long history. Over the years, our engineers have had to find ways of refining challenging low-quality crude oil into transportation fuels. This knowledge laid the foundation for developing our unique refinery platform that can process a great variety of fats and oils from renewable sources.
Did you know?
It has been over 25 years since receiving the patent for our proprietary NEXBTL technology, and 15 years since inaugurating the first NEXBTL unit at Neste’s refinery in Porvoo, Finland.
Renewable products based on NEXBTL™ Technology
From pretreatment of the raw materials to refining them into final products
Turning diverse renewable raw materials into pure hydrocarbons requires several process steps. In the process steps the renewable raw material is converted to hydrocarbon product with similar energy density and properties as regular fossil diesel.
1. Raw materials
Global sourcing of renewable raw materials is the foundation of all Neste's renewable products. A reliable network of raw material sources and an optimized logistics chain to the most suitable renewable products refinery are the keys to making commercially viable products.
2. Pretreatment
Renewable raw materials contain various impurities, some quite challenging, that have to be removed before catalytic processing.
3. NEXBTL
Compared with fossil raw material, biogenic fats and oils contain oxygen that is also an undesired element in fuels. The first stage of the NEXBTL™ process is called hydrodeoxygenation, where oxygen atoms are removed by using hydrogen. This creates a pure hydrocarbon with high energy density.
4. The second stage of NEXBTL
In the second stage of NEXBTL™ process the hydrocarbons are isomerized to tune the properties of the end products for different product applications. In the isomerization process the hydrocarbon structure is branched to create the desired properties.
Process technologies
In addition to our proprietary NEXBTL technology, we have outstanding process technologies for licensing. Read more about NEX Process Technologies™.
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