The Swedish Energy Agency believes in Chemrec AB&rsquo;s biorefinery technology used in &Ouml;rnsk&ouml;ldsvik, Sweden, and now the European Commission does too. After the Energy Agency awarded Chemrec a $75 million research and development grant in September 2009, the EU commission has come out in support of the grant, claiming that the objectives and goals of the R&amp;D grant to further the facility are compatible with the EU&rsquo;s priorities. &ldquo;The R&amp;D grant is to offset the increased cost and risk that a first-of-its-kind industrial size plant is always saddled with,&rdquo; said Patrik Lownertz, vice president of sales for Chemrec.
Lownertz also said the benefits of the facility help to &ldquo;maintain the competitive position of this industry.&rdquo; Both Sweden and Finland, he noted, have very substantial forest industries in relation to the overall economies of those countries. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve since long had both an integrated forest products value chain and production and heat integration with industrial complexes,&rdquo; he said, adding, &ldquo;Before the emergence of cheap petroleum, some of these complexes were also integrated towards chemical products based on forest industry byproducts like ethanol and tall oil, so it is no surprise that with more expensive petroleum the biorefinery concept reemerges.&rdquo;
The Domsjo Fabriker biorefinery is using a black liquor gasification technology that utilizes syngas in a range of thermochemical catalytic processes to produce biomethanol, biodimethyl ether (BioDME), synthetic diesel, synthetic gasoline and ethanol, Lownertz said. The CEO of the Domsjo biorefinery, Ola Hildingsson, said he values the &ldquo;trust the Energy Agency, the Ministry of Enterprise and the European Commission have placed&rdquo; in the biorefinery. &ldquo;Our hope,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;is that the demonstration plant will make it easier and considerably less risky for other companies in the sector to implement this technology, thereby contributing to a more sustainable energy supply within the EU.&rdquo;
The facility is currently focused on producing biomethanol and BioDME because Lownertz said the biofuels are based on well-proven and commercially available technology, give a higher yield than the alternatives (about 69 percent conversion efficiency on the energy basis), have a better investment cost than the alternatives and have good engine properties, especially in diesel engines.
The forest raw material used at the Domsjo biorefinery is now used in three steps, Lownertz said. The first, and most value-added fraction, is the saw logs that are used for lumber. The second is the chips from the saw mill residues, thinnings and undersized logs, all of which are turned into pulp and paper as well as specialty cellulose used as feedstock for production of regenerated fibers and other high-value products. &ldquo;The third fraction is the fuel fraction,&rdquo; he said, which consists of forest harvest residues like tops and branches and the bark and screening rejects that result from wood processing. &ldquo;We already use a lot of this for heat and power generation,&rdquo; he said, and &ldquo;by adding further value to this third fraction by upgrading automotive biofuels or chemical feedstock, additional value can be added.&rdquo;
The method used by Chemrec gives high land-use efficiency (in driving distance per growing area), very high fossil greenhouse gas reduction (roughly 94 percent), high conversion efficiency and a well-positioned product cost, according to Lownertz.
And for the possibility of future biorefineries utilizing the Chemrec gasification approach, Lownertz said that they forsee additional plants producing biofuels like biomethanol and BioDME. Volvo is currently testing the BioDME fuel in 14 diesel vehicles.&nbsp;
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The Swedish Energy Agency believes in Chemrec AB's biorefinery technology used in Sweden, and now the European Commission does too. After the Energy Agency awarded the company a $75 million grant, the EU commission stated it supports the decision.  

Chemrec AB's biorefinery targets a competitive advantage

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