5 May 2015
DETAILS
Today, Novozymes announced a deal to supply
enzyme technology
to a new biorefinery that will be built by
St1 Biofuels in Kajaani, Finland.
The facility will be co-located at a sawmill site,
and will be
the first facility in the world to use sawdust from softwood
as feedstock to produce cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale.
The process uses steam-explosion to open up
the cellulosic structures of the sawdust, followed by
enzymatic hydrolysis to extract the sugars for ethanol fermentation.
The plant will initially produce
10 million liters (2.7 million gallons) of cellulosic ethanol per year,
but can be scaled up to
0annual output of 50 to 100 million liters.
Total investment is expected to be €40 million of which
an investment grant will cover 30%.
Construction is scheduled to begin
in the second half of 2015, with production expected to
start in 2016
Investment supports the ambitious targets
for biofuels in Finland
The construction of the biorefinery supports
Finland’s climate and energy strategy. The country has implemented
a mandate to increase the share of renewable energy
in transport up to 20% by 2020.
The plant will be constructed and operated by St1 Biofuels
using the company’s proprietary pre-treatment and process technologies
called Cellunolix®. It is owned by
North European Bio Tech Oy (NEB), and
the production capacity of the plant will be leased to
North European Oil Trade Oy (NEOT).
The Finnish investor, NEB, is an associated company of
SOK Corporation and energy company St1
whose purpose is to invest in biofuel production units.
NEOT is sister company to NEB, and
it is the most significant independent fuel supply company
in the Baltic Sea region. It delivers fuels
to major Nordic service station chains – ABC, St1 and Shell –
with a total of 1,500 service stations in Finland, Sweden and Norway.
The agreement between St1 Biofuels and Novozymes
is not expected to impact Novozymes’ financial outlook for 2015.
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
