North European Bio Tech (NEB), a joint venture from two of Finland’s most successful companies, the ST1 energy and oil refiner and the retail cooperative S Group, is investing in a large new bioethanol plant in western Finland.
Bioethanol is a form of ethanol that is produced from plant-based raw materials, for example, cellulose, starch or sugar. The new plant will use the patented Cellunolix process to create fuel from sawdust and recycled wood.
Analysis and letters of intent have already been signed with the power company Alholmens Kraft and forest industry firm UPM about providing project services and utilizing the plant’s by-products in their own processes.
The latest NEB plant project in Finland got it start when the success and profitability of a similar 10-million-litre plant in eastern Kajaani become clear. The company’s first sawdust-based plant is scheduled to reach its full production potential in early 2017.
Start date after 2020
Jukka Saarinen, chief engineer at Finland’s economy ministry’s energy department, says the Jakobstad plant will be the largest plant specialising in the production of bioethanol in Finland, but even at 50 million litres per year, it will only generate half of the energy currently produced at the UPM biorefinery in Lappeenranta. Even so, it would account for a great increase in domestic consumption, as most of the bioethanol being used in Finland is now imported.
The project is now subject to an environmental impact assessment procedure before it can proceed, and the authorities will have to approve an environmental permit. The investment decisions will only be confirmed two years from now, and the separate Cellunolix plant for converting the fuel for use by the transport industry won’t be operational until 2020.
ST1 Biofuels is responsible for the preparation, planning and implementation of the project.
100 steady jobs
The west coast city of Jakobstad is already a significant biocluster in Finland, as it is a hub for wood, celullose and paper industry firms. Some ten percent of Finland’s raw wood materials are already refined and processed there.
The design and build of the new bioethanol plant is expected to create 500 man years of work, 350 of which would be domestic in origin. When it is finished, the plant would employ 25 shift-work employees and 70 others indirectly in the areas of logistics and maintenance.
Mats Löfberg, service director of the Ostrobothnia ELY Centre responsible for regional implementation of central government policy, is happy to hear news of the potential investment in the region.
“This is great news and a big plus for our area and the job market. It will affect employment figures in many ways and increase purchasing power,” he said.
ST1 seeks top biofuel market position
ST1 is a Finnish energy company with service station chains in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Poland. It is hoping to be at the forefront of the development of waste-based ethanol in the Nordics, aiming at a 300 million-litre yearly capacity by 2020.
In addition to the NEB plant in Kajaani, the company already owns and operates four plants using waste from the food industry and one plant using biowaste from shops and households as their feedstock. NEB is considering eventual expansion of its Kajaani plant to match the capacity of the new Jakobstad plant.
