UPM considers Rotterdam as location for its next generation biorefinery plant

28-01-2021 | Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Kotka (Finland) are the two locations Finland-based UPM is reviewing for their next generation biorefinery plant with an envisaged capacity of 500 thousand tonnes per year of renewable fuels, including sustainable jet fuel.

From their press release of 28-Jan-21:

"UPM moves forward with biofuels growth plans and starts the basic engineering phase of a next generation biorefinery. The potential biorefinery would have an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes of high-quality renewable fuels including sustainable jet fuel. The products would significantly reduce carbon footprint in the road transport and aviation, as well as replace fossil raw materials with renewable alternatives in chemicals and bioplastics.

“The planned biorefinery would scale up UPM’s successful biofuels business to a new level. At the same time, it would further improve long term competitiveness and sustainability performance of UPM Biofuels by introducing several sustainable feedstocks and achieving uniquely high CO2 emission reduction compared to biofuels currently in the market,” says Jyrki Ovaska, Chief Technology Officer of UPM.

UPM’s solid wood biomass-based residues and side streams would play a substantial role in the feedstock pool. In addition, it would consist of sustainable liquid waste and residue raw materials. “UPM has an excellent position and expertise acquired over the decades in biomass sourcing both in Finland and Central Europe thanks to our large-scale operations in the pulp, paper, timber and plywood businesses. We are also developing and testing innovative carbon farming concepts.”

UPM will now proceed with a detailed commercial and basic engineering study to define the business case, select the most innovative technology option and estimate the investment need. The technology concept includes the use of green hydrogen in the production process. During the study UPM will also review the operating environment primarily in two locations: Kotka, Finland and Rotterdam, the Netherlands."

Read the full press release here.

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