Rustam Minnikhanov: Bio-oil and bio-gas do not compete with traditional oil and gas

On February 25, at a meeting chaired by Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov at Tatarstan Government House, a number of interesting proposals for the petrochemical complex of the republic were discussed.

A representative of GTC company (USA) made a report on technologies for oil refining and petrochemical industry in Tatarstan. It was proposed to establish facilities for production of new polymeric petroleum resins by means of processing by-products of pyrolysis together with the Nizhnekamskneftekhim. There are not similar production facilities in Russia.

Director General of the TAIF company Albert Shigabutdinov noted during the meeting that the establishment of a joint venture for resins is "very interesting." Furthermore, GTC has "revolutionary" technologies to convert natural gas into aromatic products which can be adapted for the production of olefins. At present, an international consortium, the task of which is the construction of an aromatic complex with capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, running on natural gas, is being formed. The GTC invited Tatarstan companies to participate in this consortium.

Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis (Novosibirsk) Valery Bukhtiyarov outlines prospects for the use of renewable plant raw materials in the fuel and petrochemical complex of the republic. It is, in particular, the deep processing of unclaimed biomass in forestry and agricultural industry to produce bio-coil, -oil, -kerosene, diesel fuel and gas.

Noting that Tatarstan has a huge amount of waste, unclaimed timber, Minnikhanov has given an errand to create a working group of relevant ministries. According to him, this material does not compete with traditional oil and gas, but the opportunity to diversify agricultural and forestry sectors.