Industry News


VTT develop new sustainable option for forest waste


V


TT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a new technique that offers a sustainable way


to turn forest industry by-products, such as bark, sawdust and forestry waste, into transport fuels and chemicals. The new technique uses


gasification to turn biomass into intermediate products, such as liquid hydrocarbons, methanol or methane, in production units integrated with communal district heating plants or forest industry power plants. The intermediate products are then processed in oil refineries to make renewable fuels or chemicals. VTT has developed and piloted the


new gasification process. The process is based on VTT’s low-pressure, low-temperature steam gasification


insurmountable obstacle. The smaller scale of our solutions makes it easier to secure funding for building the first plant based on the new technology.” The new technology is set


to become considerably more competitive as the costs of the raw material of competing technologies increase, and the process is expected to be highly competitive at least from the year 2030 onwards. VTT state that the gasification


technology, simplified gas purification and small-scale industrial syntheses. Senior principal scientist, Esa


Kurkela explains, “Not one of the large gasification plants of more than


300MW that have been planned for Europe has been built yet. The almost €1 billion investment needed together with the risks associated with new technology has proven an


technology development is set to continue through two EU Horizon 2020 projects that they will coordinate. The projects will focus on gas purification and increasing the efficiency of synthesis technology and aim to demonstrate the performance of the entire biofuel chain at VTT’s Bioruukkii piloting centre in Espoo, Finland.


Wood-based UPM BioVerno diesel reduces tailpipe emissions


The latest results from the off-road vehicle test carried out at Vuosaari Harbour, Helsinki, confirm that renewable UPM BioVerno diesel reduces tailpipe emissions. The test in the Vuosaari Harbour


focused on measuring the tailpipe emissions of a Volvo wheel loader. Both the nitrogen oxide and particle emissions were around 10% less when compared to a fossil reference fuel.


“The average load of the wheel


loader during the test was low. Heavier load would have produced more particles, and there would probably have been greater reduction in particle emissions while using the renewable diesel,” estimates Nils-Olof Nylund, Senior Advisor at VTT, the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland. The results of emission tests also depend very much on the type and age of the engine. “In previous engine tests, we have reached reductions of up to 30-40%


6 Forest Bioenergy Review Spring 2019


Good results were gained in the Vuosaari Harbour when Hannu Vesala from VTT measured tailpipe emissions of renewable UPM BioVerno diesel used in a Volvo wheel loader.


in tailpipe emissions with UPM BioVerno compared to fossil fuels. During its lifecycle, our renewable diesel reduces CO2 emissions by 80%,” says Sari Mannonen, Vice President, UPM Biofuels. The wheel loader tests using UPM


BioVerno diesel were carried out in the harbour at the end of last year in collaboration with Oy M. Rauanheimo


Ab and VTT as part of the Bio100 project. Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) and Helsinki City Construction Services, Stara, have a common aim of achieving emission-free city traffic. Bio100 is part of the Smart & Clean project which aims to provide the world’s most attractive emission-free mobility in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.


High quality sustainable biofuels


are a cost-efficient alternative to help reduce traffic emissions and they can be adopted without any changes to vehicles. UPM Biofuels participates in Bio100, a four-year project co- ordinated by VTT with the goal of increasing the share of biofuels used in combustion engines in Helsinki area to at least 50% by 2017 and to 70-90% by the end of 2019. “We are planning to continue


off-road vehicle tests during spring at the Kaukas mill integrate in Lappeenranta, where the biorefinery producing UPM BioVerno is also located. In accordance with UPM’s new brand promise, ‘Beyond fossils’, we are replacing fossil raw materials with renewable, wood-based solutions,” Mannonen concludes. Further information: Sari Mannonen, Vice President, UPM Biofuels, tel. +358 45 265 1345 sari.mannonen@upm.com


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