High energy costs and competition: Chemelot looks to the future with care

Curtains, kitchen cupboards, kettles, and also washing-up brushes. They all contain materials from the kilometre-wide Chemelot industrial complex in Geleen. At Chemelot it is noticeable that the chemical industry has been in difficulties for some time.

There have been regular blows in recent years. Last Friday, the European Commission announced that the industry will have more time to become more sustainable, but whether this will save the chemical industry remains to be seen. "People who drive past Chemelot see pipes and tubes, but do not realize that the bicycle, helmet and cycling clothing would not be there without this industrial park, says the director of the chemical industrial park, Koos van Haasteren.

Domino effect His message is simple: we are indispensable. But at the same time, the complex of pipes and cooling towers in Limburg is in dire straits. The Saudi Sabic and the Egyptian OCI had to sell factories and chemical company Fibrant closed three of the seven factories on the site because it could no longer compete with production from Asia.

“Companies are connected to each other like links, says the dean of the chemistry faculty at TU Eindhoven, Mark Boneschanscher. "If one falls over, you get a kind of domino effect that is difficult to counter. One of the problems facing the chemical industry is the high price of gas.

The industry uses gas as fuel and for the production of, for example, fertilizer. For decades, gas was a cheap form of energy. But that has now changed, for many reasons.

The result: the price of gas has increased more than tenfold since 2020, and peaked during the energy crisis of 2022. That is why the sector wants to switch to more sustainable energy sources, but the high energy price in the Netherlands remains a thorn in the side. "We want to use more electricity and less gas in the future, but that will not be possible with an overloaded power grid, says Van Haasteren. He makes it clear that they are already well on their way to becoming more sustainable, but that must be possible.

Van Haasteren does not yet know whether relaxing European emissions rules via the ETS system will help much in that area. Scientist Boneschanscher does think there will be an effect. "The system also ensures that companies continue to become more sustainable.

China At the same time, competition from Asian countries remains fierce. A lot of chemical industry has been added there in recent years, resulting in a "disproportionate" increase in emissions, according to Van Haasteren. That raises the question of what has priority, he says.

“Do we want these products to be made in Europe in a sustainable way, or do we leave it to another continent where we don't know how they are made? Director of Nature and Environment Marjolein Demmers knows that. "Of course we want that.

But it is crazy to scale down the ambitions. We are in a climate crisis. They are also not standing still in the field of sustainability in China.

But that is precisely why it is so important to invest here. Defense It is also mainly a political choice whether we should keep the chemical industry in the Netherlands afloat, says Boneschanscher.