Netherlands to get first clean kerosene factory: report

The Netherlands will soon have its first factory for bio-kerosene. KLM will use the fuel to fly more sustainably. The province of Groningen is being looked at as a possible location for this factory, which will cost millions to build, Maarten van Dijk of SkyNRG, the company that plans to build the factory, confirmed to newspaper AD.

"We are now in the final phase of selecting a location and suppliers. I think we can make the official announcement at the end of this year or the beginning of next year", he said to the newspaper.

Groningen as location is not yet set in stone. Van Dijk mentioned Rotterdam and Amsterdam as possible alternatives. "But we want to build in the Netherlands, that is true", he said.

KLM is one of the founders and a major shareholder of SkyNRG. The airline confirmed that there are plans to build a bio-kerosene factory, but would say nothing further to the newspaper. The Dutch airline has been using bio-kerosene for some time, getting it from a factory in Los Angeles. This fuel is mainly used for flights from the city to the American east coast.

If this factory is built in the Netherlands, it will be the first of its kind in Northwest Europe. Due to the presence of deep-sea ports and a good network of pipelines, the Netherlands is an ideal location for such a plant, consultancy firm CE Delft said in a report last year.

A Dutch bio-kerosene factory will create a lot of jobs, both in its construction and once it is in operations. A source told the newspaper that the initial investment into this factory is between 5 and 10 million euros.