Maija Dietrich is a senior business HR leader, working at Neste’s oil products business in Finland. She is currently overseeing a major transformation at its fossil-based oil refinery in Porvoo as it makes the gradual transition into a renewable energy and circular solutions refining hub.
The planned 2.5 billion Euro transformation is set to lead to a discontinuation of crude oil refining in Neste’s Porvoo refinery located in Finland by the mid-2030s.
TechInformed met Dietrich at a public sauna in Helsinki, thanks to a pre-arranged business trip organised by the Finnish Embassy in London, where she explained more about how this circularity works in practice.
At one of the organisation’s refineries in the Netherlands, for instance, it has a partnership with McDonalds and truck firm HAVI to take used cooking oil from 250 restaurants in the region and convert it into Neste’s treated renewable diesel.
As the temperature rose in the coal-fired sauna on a blustery autumn evening by the Baltic Sea, we were also keen to discuss Finland’s education system, regarded as one of the best in the world, as well as one of Dietrich’s passionate subjects: how to encourage more women and girls to take up STEM careers.
What does your role at Neste involve?
I’m vice president in HR for the oil products business. Neste has three business units: One is renewables, one is oil products, and the third one is marketing and services. I’m in the leadership team of this business in oil products and we are simultaneously leading the current Oil Products business and preparing for the transformation.
In terms of transforming Porvoo into a renewable and circular solutions refining hub, how far are you along this journey?
Renewable fuel production started in Porvoo in 2007. Today, we produce renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel as well as raw material for the production of plastics, all made from 100% renewable raw materials.
Neste has already started with modifying existing refinery units so they can be used for “co-processing” which is replacing fossils with renewable or recycled raw materials. We have capability now to handle liquified waste plastics but not yet a full scale.
Currently, an upgrading facility for refining liquefied waste plastic is also being built. In a later phase, the refinery’s existing assets will be retrofitted into pure renewable or recycled raw material refining units.
We’re still trying to get our heads around how McDonald’s waste can be turned into diesel. Can you take us through the process?
From McDonald’s among others, the oil that has been used for cooking, is collected to be used as a raw material. We source used cooking oil globally from collectors and aggregators in multiple countries in APAC, Europe and in the U.S., among others. In the US, Mahony Environmental, which is a leading collector of reused cooking oils in the States, is owned by us.
Similarly, we have made acquisitions in Europe that specialise sourcing of waste and residuals of oils and fats. It’s a huge sourcing and logistics business.
Then what we do is transfer the used cooking oil to our refinery where we pre-treat the oil – it contains various types of impurities such as metals, solids, phosphorus that need to be removed.
We have developed a patented technology and that’s the process where our refinery treats this oil. Compared with fossil raw material, biogenic fats and oils contain oxygen that is also an undesired element in fuels. So the first stage of the process is to remove oxygen atoms using hydrogen.
In the second stage of process hydrocarbons are isomerized to tune the properties of the end products for different product applications such as road transportation fuels, aviation fuels or raw materials for polymers and chemicals.
Who uses your products?
Our renewable diesel is used by retailers, fleets, municipalities, in data centers, in the mining and in the marine sector. Our Sustainable Aviation Fuel is used by airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, United Airlines and airports.
Customers for renewable polymers and chemicals are global consumer brands such as IKEA and polymer and chemical companies. In Oil Products our offering includes high-quality oil products and related services for road transportation, non-road uses, aviation and marine sectors.
What is the key to managing people during periods of transformation?
We have been educating all our leaders and managers, so they know how to lead people during the change – that’s something we’ve been investing in for a couple of years now.
It’s about making sure that everyone is involved. We are always clear about why we do something and outline what we plan to do in the short term and what we are doing long term. It’s about being very open and honest.
We’re planning to make the change so that no one is left behind. We do have a very solid competence development and training programme. When it comes to the transformation, we can utilise quite a few of the old assets that we have in place, so we are able to leverage a lot of experience from those working in the current operations.
However, there are new technologies and skills that will be required – in the pre-treatment process, for example. Again, when we plan these projects, it’s about involving our staff so that they can contribute and comment and are involved from these projects very early on so that they have time and opportunity to learn.
Are you using any digital technologies to support you in the transition?
One of the key pillars of our success is the digitisation and continuous improvement of our processes both in business processes and operations. As a high technology company there are multiple fronts where we are using digital technologies, we have started to use robotics in many finance processes, we are utilising 3D models for designing plants.
We use technologies in training – simulators to aid in learning how to run refinery complex production processes in a safe and reliable manner. With simulators we can also practise how to operate in disturbance / emergency mode, which you could never practise with running a refinery.
These simulator exercises are part of the mandatory competence build-up program, which need to be completed before our operators get licence to operate. We are on a journey to start to use AI in many ways. For example in our daily work – information searches we use our own internal AI and of course our own ChatGPT.
Finland’s education system is often held up to be one of the best in the world. What do you think your country does well and where, if anywhere, do you think it could improve?
I agree that the Finnish education system is doing well. It has a strong emphasis on equal opportunities for all students regardless of their background or socioeconomic status. And this focus on equality is the thing that ensures that every child has a fair chance to success. And education is overall at a high level. There are not huge differences across different schools–so it doesn’t matter where you live.
The focus of the teaching is to enable deep learning–in comparison to the standardised testing practised by other nations. Teachers have quite a bit of autonomy to think about how to deliver their teaching and how they support different children. So that’s helping quite a bit.
Education is also compulsory until 18 and is then free of cost at university level. We also have an increased number of university places that support us in the engineering and technology areas.
Those are the positives. However, we have slipped down the league tables over the last couple of years, with declining results, big skills gaps and competence shortages. Also, we have recently seen that the children’s backgrounds are impacting a bit more on how they are doing at school.
From a business point of view, our industry is experiencing a skills shortage, and we need to think about where we get a skilled workforce for in the future. It’s a concern.
What do you think we can do to encourage more women and girls to embrace STEM-based careers?
That’s a huge question! One of the things I’d love to see is more visible role models and leading experts. I also think we should utilise media that speaks to the young. Engage in social media campaigns with influencers. Young people are more purpose-driven these days, and aspire to work for ethical companies, so we can emphasise this.
We should also go into primary schools and high schools and show them what type of career possibilities there are. From middle school or elementary school, we should introduce hands-on STEM activities so it’s not something mystifying. Everyone knows what teachers or police do – but the industries that we’re working in aren’t as visible.
As a business Neste is doing work with vocational schools; we are visiting middle schools we are working together closely with the universities. But there is only so much one company can do. I think it’s the industrial sector that needs to be acting as well.
What do you do to switch off from work?
I enjoy family time–I have three kids, a husband, a cat and a rabbit. We like to travel and eat nice food and invite friends over. We have common hobbies – snowboarding, sailing, windsurfing. We’re a sports family!
My individual time involves endurance sports. Triathlons. Last week I was in Portugal for an Ironman competition. That takes my mind out of work and calms down my body. It’s quite a journey: you get tired. Your mind is telling you to stop but you need to keep going. And so, you think “Run! Run! Run!”.
How do you take your coffee?
I’m a coffee lover so I drink a cappuccino in the morning, and in the afternoon, I might take an espresso. Lately, I’ve been trying to restrict myself to one but I’m slipping back to my old habits.
Is it true that all-important business decisions in Finland are taken in the sauna?
Yes, all of them! Well, maybe some of them are taken elsewhere!
Interested in sustainable fuel? Read: Turning sewage into fuel
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