INDUSTRY NEWS
INDUSTRY NEWS SMALLTALK 2
District heating plants to be
modernised The automation and remote control of Kuopion Energia’s district heating plants in Kuopio, Finland, are to be modernised by Valmet. The outdated systems will be replaced by modern technology in six district heating plants, three district heating containers and 11 pumping stations. At the same time, all the automation systems will be connected to the system that is currently used at the company’s Haapaniemi power plant. The modernised automation will start up by December, 2016. Typically, the order value of automation system deliveries ranges from below EUR1 million to EUR3 million, but the value of this order will not be disclosed.
Biochemicals from
wood project Also in Finland, UPM’s ValChem, which is the name of the company’s ‘Value added chemical building blocks and lignin from wood’ project, has received EUR13.1 million funding from the European Union. This is an ambitious project combining the competences of forest, chemical and bio-technology industries to realise a sustainable and innovative integrated process from wood to end products. It will be carried out in co- operation with Sekab, METabolic EXplorer and Technische Universität Darmstadt. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of an integrated biochemicals process covering the whole value chain from raw wood to a selected platform chemical and lignin-based performance chemical. The total budget for the project is around EUR 18.5 million.
Biomass prices
drop in Lithuania In Lithuania, biomass for heating prices are set to be up to 30% lower next Winter, which ought to reduce consumers’ heating bills by up to 15% due to feedstock accounting for roughly half of the overall heating bill. The estimate is based on long- term feedstock contracts that major heating companies have recently signed.
4 Summer 2015 4
on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzymes and other proteins for the bioenergy, bio-based chemicals, biopharmaceutical, food and feed industries, announced details regarding 2G BIOPIC, a new advanced biofuels project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program. In the 2G BIOPIC project, Dyadic’s subsidiary Dyadic Netherlands BV will work in collaboration with Compagnie Industrielle de Matière Végétale (CIMV) and five other industry partners to develop, construct and operate a large demonstration-scale facility that produces ethanol from biomass.
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Danai Brooks, Dyadic’s Chief Operating Officer, stated: “We are pleased to continue working closely with CIMV and believe that Dyadic’s C1 enzymes will play a critical role in the 2G BIOPIC project success. The aim of 2G BIOPIC is to demon-
Funding for Dyadic’s advanced biofuels
n 13 May, Dyadic International Inc, a global biotechnology company focused
strate the performance, reliability and sustainability of producing bioethanol from agricultural waste and wood. The demonstration plant built in the 2G BIOPIC program will process one ton of biomass per hour or about 50 times the size of the CIMV pilot plant upon which the project is based. Successful funding of the 2G BIOPIC program further highlights the strength of Dyadic’s C1 Expression System in the field of advanced biofuels”. Emmanuel Dutournier, CIMV’s Chief Financial Officer, Member of the Board of Directors and 2G BIOP- IC Program Co-ordinator, continued: “2G BIOPIC is the second EU-funded program where we are collaborat- ing with Dyadic Netherlands. The first program – Biomimetic, which deals with depolymerization of our BioligninTM, opens up many op- portunities and we look forward to furthering our work together with the Dyadic team. We believe that the Dyadic and CIMV technologies are highly complementary, as Dy- adic’s C1 enzymes work particularly well with the purer plant material
produced from CIMV’s biomass pre- treatment technology”.
Dr Wim van der Wilden, General Manager of Dyadic Netherlands, stated: “Enzymes play a critical role in converting biomass, includ- ing agricultural waste and wood, into bioethanol. They break down cellulose and hemicellulose, major components of all plants, into sim- ple, fermentable sugars. Dyadic’s CMAX® enzymes offer an industry- leading level of performance across very broad temperature and pH ranges. Using our patented and proprietary C1 technology platform, we have been able to dramati- cally reduce costs and improve the efficacy of our product line, which is now on its fifth generation CMAX®5. In the 2G BIOPIC project, we expect to tailor our commercial CMAX® enzyme to 2G BIOPIC’s pre-treated biomass feedstock to further increase enzyme effective- ness and reduce costs”.
Over the three-year term of the project, Dyadic Netherlands will re- ceive a total of approximately EUR1 million through the grant.
First wood pellet project in Idaho
It has been announced by Centennial Renewable Energy (CRE) of Idaho that is has signed agreements to purchase land for its first wood pellet project in the state and is now beginning the process of engineering design with its lead contractor Dome Technology.
CRE is constructing a 160,000 metric tonne per year wood pellet plant in the heart of the Idaho ‘wood basket’ to produce pellets to the ENPlus A2 standard. Having completed extensive due diligence, CRE’s funding advisor CHP Ventures has secured development funds to take the project to financial close. Roger Willmott of CHP said, “We have been working with CRE for many months on detailed project risk
mitigation to ensure that when presented for funding, this project, as with any other we advise on, is successful. We have found that there is no shortage of investment funding – only a shortage of well-developed and presented projects”.
The CRE facility has been developed on the fundamental principle of synergistic use of wood production residues. CRE’s projects are designed to promote economic sustainability in rural communities, decrease the carbon foot print through biomass energy production, improve forest health and decrease the risk of wildfire to communities.
CRE expects to be providing pellets to market in 2017. Dr Rick Fawcett, CRE’s Chief Operating
Officer and responsible for the projects many and varied parts from forest to port, said: “CRE is pleased to be working with first class businesses in the forestry, trucking, rail and port industries who are all committed, as are we, to making a sustainable project”. Dome Technology has been selected by CRE to design and build the pellet mill, David Adams, CEO of Dome
Technology, said: “Our company has had a great deal of experience in designing and constructing wood pellet storage facilities in the US, Canada and Europe – the largest being approximately 284,000 metric tons of storage for Drax Power in Yorkshire, England. We are very pleased to be involved with this project”.
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