Finland: UPM to Build World’s First Wood-Based Biodiesel Refinery
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Thursday, 02 February 2012 |
UPM is to invest roughly €150 million in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The industrial-scale investment is the first of its kind globally and will produce approximately 100,000 tonnes of advanced second-generation biodiesel for transport annually.
The demand for biofuels is expected to grow by approximately 7% a year in the EU, and Finland’s target is to increase the market share of biofuels in transport to 20% by the year 2020. “The biofuels business has excellent growth potential. The quality of our end product and its environmental characteristics has gained significant interest among a wide range of customers, and the investment is profitable,” said UPM President and CEO Jussi Pesonen.
UPM’s biofuels adhere to sustainability requirements set by both the EU and Finland. A significant amount of the raw material comes from their own pulp mills in Finland, and wood sourcing is based on the principles of sustainable forest management, chain of custody and forest certification. “We utilise our own development work and sustainable wood-based raw materials. As a result we will have a cost-competitive high quality transport fuel [UPM BioVerno] that truly decreases emissions and is suitable for modern cars,” explains UPM’s Vice President for Biofuels, Petri Kukkonen.
Construction on the Lappeenranta biorefinery will begin this summer at UPM’s Kaukas mill site, scheduled for completion in 2014. This decision does not affect UPM’s plans to build another biorefinery in either Rauma, Finland or Strasbourg, France.
PetrolWorld 02022012
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