The La Mède Complex: A Facility for the Energies of Tomorrow

Built in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues near Marseille, France in 1935, the La Mède complex has been undergoing a transformation since 2015. The site is geared towards the energies of the future, which are set to drive growth for TotalEnergies and the local region. La Mède's conversion reflects our commitment to play an active role in developing renewable energies, while keeping CO₂ emissions under control.

TotalEnergies has invested €337 million to convert La Mède into a facility focused on the new energies. The key ambition behind the project involves converting the refinery into a biorefinery.

The La Mède complex also features an AdBlue® production unit, a logistics and storage hub, and a solar power plant.

The site is also home to TotalEnergies' second OLEUM training center, and the Masshylia project in partnership with ENGIE to design one of the largest low-carbon hydrogen production facilities in France.

Commissioned in 2019, the La Mède biorefinery has a production capacity of 500,000 metric tons of renewable diesel per year and can process a wide variety of certified sustainable feedstocks, such as vegetable oils, used cooking oils and animal fats from the circular economy. Since January 1, 2023, palm oil has been excluded from the raw materials processed at La Mède.

A new investment of €70 million was announced in June 2023 with the aim of ramping up the biorefinery's transformation from 2024. This package will help upgrade the site's facilities to process up to 100% used cooking oil and animal fats.

View text version

×

Diverse biosourced feedstocks with an increasing share of waste and residues

Certified vegetable oil (certified rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, palm oil)
Maximum authorization (the environmental operating authorization dated May 16, 2018 authorizes TERF to process 450,000 tonnes of crude vegetable oils of all kinds per year): 450,000 tonnes

• Achieved in 2019 (starting year): 168,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2020: 205,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2021: 260,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2022: 86,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2023: 93,000 tonnes

Of which certified palm oil
Maximum commitment: 300,000 tonnes

• Achieved in 2019 (starting year): 115,000 tonnes (maximum commitment: 100 kt)
• Achieved in 2020: 171,000 tonnes (Maximum authorization, the environmental operating authorization of May 16, 2018, amended on May 2, 2022 capped, as of 2022, the biorefinery's supply of certified palm oil at 100,000 tonnes per year and prohibited any supply of this raw material and PFAD as of January 1, 2023)
• Achieved in 2021: 99,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2022: 50,000 tonnes
• Achieved in 2023: 0 tonnes

Certified waste & residues
Maximum authorization the environmental authorization to operate dated May 16, 2018 authorizes TERF to process annually a minimum of 25% of resources from waste or residues (fatty acid distillates, used edible oils or category 3 animal fats): 25%.

• Achieved in 2019 (starting year): 6%.
• Achieved in 2020: 25%.
• Achieved in 2021: higher than 25%.
• Achieved in 2022: greater than 25
• Achieved in 2023: greater than 25%.

Enlarge image

100% of the oils purchased by TotalEnergies for La Mède meet the sustainability criteria set by the European Union. Compliance with the sustainability criteria for oils purchased for the La Mède biorefinery is established by an International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) sustainability certificate based on the mass balance system required by the European Union⁽¹⁾.

AdBlue® production

AdBlue® is an additive used to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel engines (trucks and passenger vehicles). The AdBlue® production unit at La Mède produces 50,000 metric tons per year.

A flexible, multimodal storage and logistics hub

A new logistics and storage hub started operations in April 2017. Located in the heart of the Marseille Fos Port, the hub boasts a storage capacity of 1.3 million cubic meters and is capable of storing fuels (gasoline and diesel), heating oil and aviation fuels.

An industrial scale training center

La Mède hosts TotalEnergies' second OLEUM training center. Modeled after the center of the same name at our Flanders facility near Dunkirk, this training center for oil and petrochemical industries is one of the world's few such facilities based in a real industrial complex. The center is able to train over 2,000 people a year. The La Mède OLEUM international training center also provides a demonstration platform to trial digital projects under real operating conditions in TotalEnergies' industrial environment.

A high-performance solar power plant

The La Mède solar power plant came on stream in 2017. It is equipped with high-performance cells produced by the Company's affiliate SunPower and has a production capacity of 8 megawatts (MW), enough to meet the electricity needs of a city of 13,000 people.

Development of a clay and effluent recovery process

TotalEnergies and SEDE, a Veolia Group affiliate, are working together at La Mède to develop a process for recovering biorefinery effluent and clay through anaerobic digestion.

This process converts waste from the biorefinery⁽²⁾ into biogas and digestate (an agricultural fertilizer). The biorefinery is now capable of recovering almost 90% of the waste that it produces through this circular processing chain. This process will also be used for the future biorefinery at the Grandpuits platform.

Masshylia, an innovative project to produce low-carbon hydrogen

In January 2021, TotalEnergies and ENGIE signed a cooperation agreement to design, develop, build and operate the Masshylia project at La Mède, one of the largest low-carbon hydrogen production sites in France.

⁽¹⁾ see Article 18(1) of Directive 2009/28/EC of April 23, 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources.

⁽²⁾ The La Mède biorefinery produces nearly 10,000 metric tons of waste every year. This waste is mainly filtration clay and effluent containing a mixture of up to 20% vegetable oils and animal fats.