Much has been written and said about new sustainable bio-based processes being developed and novel bioproducts about to enter the market, but why are we actually seeing so few of them in practice?<\/p>\n
Almost all major forest industry groups have announced some kind of investment in this field, while focusing their message on how sustainable the new products are, as well as on marketing them and the processes behind them under innovative names.<\/p>\n
Finland, as perhaps the most active country in the field of forest based products, is an example worth taking a closer look at. The following is intended as an honest and impartial review of Finland\u2019s various pending projects, as listed in the table below.<\/p>\n
Planned new bio-refinery projects in Finland or owned by Finnish companies<\/p>\n
Who \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Where \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0How \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0From \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0To
\nUPM-Kymmene Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Kotka \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hydrogenation \/ catalysis \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Biomass, oils, fats etc. bio-based materials \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Nafta, diesel, kerosene and other hydrocarbons
\nUPM-Kymmene Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Germany, Frankfurt-H\u00f6chstein \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Unknown chemical process \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Forest biomass \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Monoethylene glycol, monopropylene glycol and lignin
\nSunshine Kaidi (Finland) Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Kemi \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Gasification \/ catalysis \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Forest biomass \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Diesel, gasoline
\nStora Enso Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Uimaharju \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Kraft pulping \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hard- \/ softwood \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Dissolving pulp
\nMets\u00e4 Fibre Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Kemi \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Kraft pulping \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Soft- \/ hardwood \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Paper pulp
\nKaicell Fibers Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Paltamo \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Kraft pulping \/ Arbron\u2122 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Softwood \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Paper pulp and Arbron\u2122 product
\nFinnpulp Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Kuopio \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Kraft pulping \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Softwood \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Paper pulp
\nChempolis Ltd, Fortum Ltd and NRL ltd \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0India, Assam \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Chempolis process\u2122 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Bamboo \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Ethanol, furfural, acetic acid and electricity
\nBoreal Bioref Ltd. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Finland, Kemij\u00e4rvi \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Kraft pulping \/ AaltoCell\u2122 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Softwood \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Paper pulp, dissolving pulp and MCC \/ biogas<\/p>\n
As evident from the table, the main product, volume wise, is traditional softwood paper pulp with a steadily growing global demand, the main applications being tissue and paperboard products. The next one is dissolving pulp (DP) made from hardwood, but also softwood in areas where coniferous wood species are predominant. The main usage for DP is in the manufacturing of textile yarn.<\/p>\n
In the traditional field based on the kraft pulping process, two positive exceptions stand out: microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and Arbron\u2122. MCC is a very versatile product, traditionally used in pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs, but entering new applications as an additive for the feed industry and as a raw material in cellulose derivatives replacing dissolving pulp. Arbron\u2122 will be a totally new product with the potential to replace dissolving pulp as raw material for viscose type yarn production, thus eliminating the need to use hazardous chemicals like carbon disulphide in the process. The market potential for this breakthrough product is very significant due to the need for non-oil-based textiles.<\/p>\n
Amongst the new bioprocesses under development, the main end products tend to be drop-in chemicals or traffic fuels, rather than fibers or yarns. Another observation is that the raw materials used seem to be low grade and cheaper than those used in fiber products. In addition the production processes are located closer to their markets.\u00a0 An exception to this is the planned traffic fuel plant in Kotka, Finland. This project uses a very diverse raw material portfolio, which perhaps explains why it seems to deviate from the norm.<\/p>\n
What conclusions are we entitled to draw from this short overview? Will we see soon new market-ready value-added bulk products, with clearly higher values than traditional ones? Unfortunately the answer is that it is likely to take quite some time still.<\/p>\n
The reason behind this modest advancement of bio-based industrial products is very simple. As long we accept the use of crude oil as raw material for a vast number of key chemicals, it is challenging to find economically viable bio-based alternatives for them. Although we can develop certain value-added wood or lignin based niche products, basic forest products are at an economical disadvantage against established crude oil based equivalents.<\/p>\n
We therefore see only a handful of reasonably innovative new bio-products emerging as commercially viable, and this runs counter intuitive to the mass of hyped expectations we are told to believe in. Serious questions need to be asked. Can bio-products compete on a like for like basis in low value added market segments (where the main volumes are today) without everlasting subsidies or regulatory benefits bestowed by lawmakers? Or will a higher level be found, where bio-products \u2013 through their unique features \u2013 offer such benefits that competitiveness is assured and business volumes reach significant levels? If the latter holds, what kind of national and EU level support does the bioeconomy and its most innovative players need in order to accomplish the required breakthroughs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Modest advancement of bio-based industrial products<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838],"supplier":[11799,13724,551],"class_list":["post-54316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","supplier-kaicell-fibers-oy","supplier-metsae-fibre","supplier-stora-enso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54316"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=54316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}