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2021 INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT REPORT

2.5.1 Innovating to improve At Cepsa, we are committed to transforming our businesses with a focus on renewable energy production, biofuel manufacture, green hydrogen, decarbonization and enhanced product circularity. In this sense, we promote projects to develop more sustainable alternatives for our products and services, individually or in association with third parties.

This transformation requires innovative solutions to adapt our manufacturing processes, fostering the use of renewable energy generation technologies.

MAIN PROJECTS Producing advanced biofuels for aviation, road and maritime transport.

Producing sustainable paraffins from refinery off-gases.

Bioparaffins production from sustainable plant-based oils.

Producing sustainable aviation fuels from biomass.

Direct synthesis of phenol from benzene.

Evaluating methane (CH4) as a source of hydrogen (H2) and carbonaceous materials as a catalyst support.

Valorisation of Phenol tar2 by extracting molecules of interest.

Studying catalyst regeneration without CO2 emissions using solvents.

CO2 reduction by means of process intensification and reactor redesign.

Through innovation, we will achieve our sustainability and energy transition goals using renewable resources.

OUR RESEARCH CENTRE

Since 1975, we develop powerful research projects for our production sites and business units while providing our customers with technical support, particularly in relation to lubricants and specialities.

We have laboratories, state-of-the-art equipment and pilot plants capable of reproducing the processes we carry out in our pro- duction facilities, primarily for refining and chemicals. This has allowed us to create more efficient and environmentally-friendly production processes, develop new fuels and promote high-value projects.

In 2021, we undertook several innovation projects to develop new products for petrochemicals, identifying bio-based alternatives to fossil-based products and seeking ways to shift current production to more sustainable schemes.

Intellectual Property management is a key point in our projects aiming to protect our developments and maximize their return. Cepsa owns more than 50 patents in 20 different countries around the world. In 2021, we applied for two new patent families, and seven new patents were granted.

2 Heavy by-product of the phenol manufacturing process.