UPM is now considering two sites for a refinery to make biofuel from timber co-products.
The company is looking at the viability of building the plant in either Rauma, Finland or Strasbourg, France. It has ruled out the Finnish town of Kuusankoski due to energy and construction costs.
If it gets the go ahead – and that will depend on securing sufficient EU subsidy – the refinery will produce second generation biodiesel from logging residues, bark and stumps using gasification and “Fischer-Tropsch” processing.
UPM has also been given the greenlight by the authorities to build a biorefinery in Kaukas and is now considering whether to make the investment.
If this plant is built, it will make transport biofuels using “hydrotreatment technology” from forest-industry by-products, plus non-food-suitable oils and fats.
Initial output will be 20,000 tonnes a year, with plans to increase this to 200,000 tonnes.
