Now UPM turns trees into diesel

Jan 13, 2015 at 09:20 am by Staff


UPM-Kymmene's alternative products strategy has taken a leap forward with the commissioning of a biorefinery to make diesel from trees.

The Lappeenranta biorefinery in Finland - the world's first making wood-based diesel biorefinery - is expected to produce about 120 million litres of BioVerno fuel a year using a hydrotreatment process developed by UPM.

Biorefining executive vice president Heikki Vappula says Lappeenranta is the first significant investment in in Finland during the ongoing transformation of the forest industry: "It is also a focal part in the implementation of our company's Biofore transformation strategy," he says.

The start-up phase of the biorefinery began in early (northern) autumn, and it has included "customary" new process and production related challenges. "We are now happy to move forward from start-up phase and be able to concentrate on regular production process", says Petri Kukkonen, who heads the UPM Biofuels business.

BioVerno diesel is from crude tall oil, a residue of pulp production, with a large portion of raw material coming from UPM's own pulp mills in Finland.

UPM says BioVerno reduces greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 per cent compared to traditional diesel, and works with all diesel engines "just as well as any regular diesel". UPM has a sales agreement with NEOT (North European Oil Trade), a wholesale organisation of oil and biofuel products.

Construction of the Lappeenranta biorefinery started in 2012. "It is great to see how the results of technology and product development work that took many years will materialise as a commercial operation," says Kukkonen.

Pictured: The control room at Lappeenranta

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