Technip awarded €5M FEED contract for Ajos BtL biomass-to-liquids plant in Finland
14 June 2013
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| Forest BTL process. Click to enlarge. |
Forest BtL Oy, owned by Vapo, A Finnish bioenergy, peat and sawmill company, awarded Technip a contract, worth approximately €5 million, for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a new biomass-to-liquid (BTL) plant to be built on Ajos island, Finland.
This plant will produce approximately 140,000 tons of biodiesel and naphtha from wood and by-products from the wood-processing industry. This feedstock has many advantages as it is not used for human food, it does not jeopardize the existing local biomass usage and has a low CO2 footprint.
In December 2012, the Ajos BtL project, Finland, was selected to receive counterpart funding of €88.5 million (US$118 million) under the first call for proposals of the NER300 funding programme for innovative low-carbon technologies.
The technical solution is based on the following main components: biomass pre-treatment; gasification island (comprising two gasification lines of 160 MW each and an air separation unit); gas cleaning and compression; and gas-to-liquid conversion (Fischer-Tropsch) including refining, processing and storage of products. The project will produce and sell renewable diesel and bionaphta in the Baltic Sea area, with a focus on Finland and Sweden. Principal off-takers are expected to be diesel and gasoline retailers.
Forest BtL Oy earlier signed an agreement with Linde Engineering Dresden GmbH for licensing of Carbo-V biomass gasification technology. (Choren Industries filed for insolvency in July 2011. A new investor for Choren Components was announced in October 2011 and on 9 February 2012 Choren’s biomass gasification technology was sold to Linde Engineering Dresden. Earlier post.)
Technip will develop the process design package of the hydrogen production unit of the plant, based on its steam reformer proprietary technology, and will prepare the FEED for the hydrogen production, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and refining units.
Technip’s operating center in Lyon, France, together with the Group’s hydrogen technology center in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands will execute the contract, which is scheduled to be completed in the first semester of 2014.
It's a small CO2 footprint IF the wood is coming from sustainably managed forests. I hope they are.
Posted by: DavidJ | 14 June 2013 at 04:01 AM
Sustaiable or not, there is nothing but forest in Finland.
Posted by: Peter_XX | 14 June 2013 at 09:27 AM