INDUSTRY NEWS
Finnish forest pioneers to co-operate
innish companies Farmi Forest Oy and Pentin Paja Oy have signed a co- operation agreement on Pentin Paja manufactured cutting and felling technology solutions sales under the Farmi Forest brand. Pentin Paja produced cutting and felling heads and stroke harvesters will be sold through the Farmi Forest dealer network globally either as stand-alone products or as complete kits combining the forest crane to a harvester. Pentin Paja will also continue within Scandinavia and Europe with its own Naarva brand.
F
Left to right: Janne Häikiö, Development Director, Pentin Paja Oy; Mikko Häikiö, Managing Director, Pentin Paja Oy; and Sami Jerkku, Managing Director, Farmi Forest Oy.
With the co-operation agree- ment, Farmi Forest tractor-related forest management solutions now
cover all areas of cutting, felling, forest logistics, woodchip produc- ing and firewood processing technologies. Farmi Forest provides
The world’s first facility to produce cellulosic ethanol from sawdust will use Novozymes’ customized enzymes. The company’s enzyme technology will be supplied to a new biorefinery that will be built by St1 Biofuels in Kajaani, Finland. The plant represents an expected investment of around EUR40 million and will be co-located at a sawmill site, becoming the first in the world to use sawdust from softwood as feedstock to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale. The process uses steam-explosion to open up the cellulosic struc- tures of the sawdust, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to extract the
sugars for ethanol fermentation. “I am delighted that our enzymes have been chosen for this pioneering project in Finland,” said Sebastian Søderberg, Vice-President of Biomass Conversion at Novozymes. “It marks an important step for Finland and other countries around the world that have ample softwood supplies.” The plant will initially produce ten million litres of cellulosic ethanol per year, but can be scaled up to an annual output of 50-100 million litres. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2015, with production expected to start in 2016.
According to Søderberg, “North- Demonstration plant for IH2
US-based SynSel Energi has entered into an IH2 process dem- onstration licence agreement with CRI/Criterion Catalyst Company Ltd, a member of the CRI Catalyst group, a global group of cata- lyst technology companies. IH2 technology is a continuous catalytic thermo-chemical process, which converts a broad range of forestry/ agricultural residues and municipal
wastes directly into renewable hydrocarbon transportation fuels and/or blend stocks.
The Basic Engineering Pack- age for the five metric tons per day demonstration plant located in Grenland, Norway, is to be completed over a period of several months by Zeton Inc of Ontario, Canada. Zeton is the preferred en- gineering services provider for IH2
forest cranes, trailer combinations, skidding winches, wood chipping technology and now also cutting and felling.
Pentin Paja’s Naarva energy wood felling heads and stroke har- vesters are designed to be installed on to forest cranes. The Naarva product range also covers uproot- ers, fast connectors and firewood processing kits.
Farmi Forest will now be able to offer a complete package with harvester heads and cranes at- tached in factory settings, together with extra accessories such as working lights, etc. Pentin Paja will gain access to Farmi Forest’s dealer network, boosting its global sales in new market areas.
Customised enzymes for new biorefinery
ern Europe has a large industrial sector based on forestry and this opens up many possibilities. The biomass and specialist knowledge is available here and the long-term political framework is in place in Finland, which all work together to enable the commercial produc- tion of cellulosic ethanol based on softwood”.
Mika Aho, Managing Director of St1 Biofuels, concluded: “I am pleased to have Novozymes as enzyme technology supplier. The collaboration is the key to optimis- ing our production costs that is one of the key elements in commercial cellulosic ethanol production”.
facilities at demonstration scale. The plant will be integrated into an existing third-party petro-chemical manufacturing site, allowing for opti- mised capital and operating costs. Feedstock for the facility will be forest residues, including slash, sawdust, bark and wood chips with the ability to process select agricultural and municipal residues as well. IH2 hydrocarbons pro- duced from these feedstocks span the gasoline, jet and diesel range.
SMALLTALK 1
Biofuels boost by Finnish
government In Finland, the government wants to boost the share of renewable biofuels to 40% by 2030 compared to a current figure of 8%. In line with this aim, it is interesting to note that in December, 2014, the Finnish Petroleum Federation updated its name to better reflect the current activities of the organisation’s membership. It is now known as the Finnish Petroleum and Biofuels Association, confirming the fossil fuel industry’s recognition of biofuels’ role in the transport energy mix in Finland. The Association has also asserted that it supports the government’s plan as bold and commendable. In fact, BioVerno, the wood-based diesel fuel from UPM has been available at St1 and ABC service stations in Finland since May, this year. The product, sold as a part of St1’s Diesel Plus and ABC’s Smart Diesel range, is a result of UPM’s own innovation and is produced at the UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery in Finland.
Russia exports more
biomass pellets Despite the current trade sanctions, exports of biomass pellets from Russia to Europe have continued to grow. In 2014, exports rose by 27% to reach 825,210 metric tons.
Denmark\, Finland, Germany, Italy and Sweden were the main importing countries, with Italian imports up 202% and German imports up 178% on the year.
RED reform approved
Sitting in France, the European Parliament has approved reform of the Renewable Energy Directive, which was previously given approval by the Parliament’s Environmental Committee. Crop-based biofuels will be limited to 7% of overall fuel consumption compared to the 10% mandate all EU member states must achieve by 2020, while the Indirect Land Use Change will be monitored rather than have an additional ILUC factor included in ‘Greenhouse Gas’ accounting.
Summer 2015 3 3
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