Intellectual capital

ORLEN's innovations are the response to the challenges brought by the global energy transition.

• In 2022, the ORLEN Group focused on the delivery of its 2030 Strategy and the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) established thereunder, as well as on developing an R&D ecosystem, including innovation acquisition tools. As part of SRA, the ORLEN Group was working on over 230 R&D&I projects in 2022 (with more than 120 carried out at ORLEN). The majority of those projects were being implemented as part of the following technology domains: Effective Refining, Environmentally Friendly Technologies and Products, Advanced Petrochemical Production and New Generation Materials, Hydrogen Technologies and Efficient and Low-Carbon Power Generation.
• SRA placed a particular focus on acceleration programmes for technology start-ups offering solutions ready for testing and scaling in the ORLEN Group’s production, logistics and sales infrastructure. These programmes make it possible to quickly validate solutions that suit the ORLEN Group’s long-term development plans in areas such as decarbonisation, digitalisation, operational efficiency, sustainable development, circular economy and power generation. 
• In 2022, more than 100 technological challenges were defined as part of ORLEN Group’s acceleration programme calls. Cooperation, in areas such as retail, refining, logistics, water and wastewater management, marketing and power generation, was ultimately undertaken with 23 start-ups selected from among candidates that had responded to the calls.
• As part of the ORLEN Group’s initiatives designed to stimulate innovation, in 2022 also Anwil and Energa Group companies were covered by the ORLEN Skylight Accelerator programme. 
• Moreover, in April 2022 we entered into an agreement with Microsoft, commencing cooperation between the ORLEN Skylight Accelerator and Founders Hub 101 programmes. 
• Collaborative links with start-ups in 2022 were also developed on the Czech market as part of the ChemTechNext initiative organised by Unipetrol, with applications submitted by more than 50 start-ups and seven of them finally selected for potential joint projects.
• The wide extent of research projects ongoing in 2022 required a large number of partnerships. The group of partners we worked with last year included: the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw University of Technology, the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, the Kazimierz Wielki University, the AGH University of Science and Technology of Kraków, the GIG Research Institute, the Institute of Energy and Fuel Processing Technology, the Institute of Heavy Organic Synthesis of Kędzierzyn-Koźle, the Industrial Chemistry Research Institute of Warsaw, the Kazimierz Wielki University of Bydgoszcz, the Oil and Gas Institute – National Research Institute of Kraków, the Air Force Institute of Technology, and the Poznań University of Technology.
• Examples of effective cooperation between business and science in 2022 included the following projects: 
  
  • Innovative 4-CBA hydrogenation catalyst, in which new formulations of innovative catalysts were produced with potentially better catalytic properties than their commercial counterparts.
  • New plastics, focused on experiments to obtain new polymers and biopolymers based on the carbon capture and utilisation technology.
  • Plastics recycling – a research programme aimed at selecting appropriate technologies for ORLEN’s chemical recycling complex.
• The flagship programme for systematically building an extensive network of relationships and directly reaching science partners with ORLEN’s research challenges is the NEON (New ORLEN) Joint Venture with the National Centre for Research and Development.

Intellectual capital requires large financial outlays to develop but it has immense impact on human, social and production capitals. An example is our in-house Research and Development Centre established in Płock. The facility, which employs specialists with extensive R&D knowledge and skills, serves as a modern platform for collaboration with scientific circles.

As a result of an arrangement made under the joint development agreement between Saudi Aramco, SABIC and ORLEN, a feasibility study concerning a petrochemical project in Gdańsk was launched in December 2022 with a view to building a mega-scale petrochemical complex drawing on the existing capabilities of Rafineria Gdańska and the ORLEN Group, but also those of Saudi Aramco and SABIC. It is worth noting that this partnership will also create opportunities for new R&D investments in the petrochemical business.

In 2022, fast progress was made on Olefins III, the company’s largest ever investment programme. The project will enable ORLEN to join the group of top petrochemical producers in the European market and build potential to keep extending its value chain in the future. It will also make it possible to increase conversion of the refinery streams into petrochemicals, thus providing a hedge against strategic risks that may materialise in the fuel market going forward as alternative fuels are developed.

The efforts described above are expected to strengthen the Company's position on the European market and increase revenue for the Shareholders in the long term.