Innovation and New Technologies

OMV actively explores alternative feedstocks, technologies, and fuels with the aim of developing a well-diversified, competitive future portfolio. Efforts and resources focus on chemical recycling for post-consumer plastic waste. Additional attention is given to the production of conventional and advanced biofuels, synthetic fuels, and green hydrogen as future fuels for the hard-to-electrify part of the transportation segment, and as precursors for sustainable chemicals.

OMV is in the execution phase of the co-processing project at the Schwechat refinery. This technology enables OMV to process biogenic feedstocks (e.g., rapeseed oil) together with fossil-based materials in an existing refinery hydrotreating plant during the fuel refining process. This will reduce OMV’s carbon footprint by up to 360,000 t of CO₂ per year by substituting fossil diesel. Commercial operation is planned for 2024. In 2023, OMV continued with the pilot production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from another co-processing route in Schwechat, and the conversion of biogenic feedstock into high-value chemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and benzene, in the refinery in Burghausen.

In 2023, OMV also received its first deliveries of advanced bioethanol from South America as part of a multi-year supply agreement.

OMV is assessing the potential production of advanced fuels made out of residue or waste streams and producing advanced ethylene out of ethanol (1G or 2G) as a feedstock. The principal sources of advanced fuels include the biomass fraction of mixed municipal or industrial waste, straw, animal manure, or residues from forestry and wood processing, as well as waste streams. OMV’s glycerine-to-propanol pilot plant will be commissioned in 2024. OMV also collaborates with technology providers, industry partners, and academic institutions to assess the production of advanced biofuels and chemicals.

While the above-mentioned biogenic products will predominantly be sold as fuels initially due to a mandated market, they can also be used as chemical feedstock.

OMV and its partners are working on the UpHy project with the intention of producing green hydrogen for use in the refining process. OMV is building an electrolysis plant at the Schwechat refinery for this purpose, to be powered with renewable electricity in order to produce green & low carbon hydrogen. The green hydrogen will initially be used for fuel hydrogenation, including biofuels and SAF.

OMV is leading a publicly funded project to develop a new and efficient route from synthetic methanol to sustainable aviation fuels (M2SAF). In this M2SAF project, the basic proof of concept, catalyst, and process development takes place in a consortium of industry, SMEs, and academic partners. The target is to deliver a synthetic M2SAF fulfilling the current American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) certification requirements in a prescreening test in liter scale in the next one and a half years.