Metso, Fortum, UPM, and VTT are jointly developing a clean energy alternative with domestic bio-oil
Metso, UPM, and VTT have developed a biomass-based bio-oil production concept to provide an alternative to fossil fuels. Since June of this year, the Metso R&D Center in Tampere, Finland, has been producing high-quality bio-oil from sawdust and forest residues. Fortum is now joining this development project.
The consortium has developed a bio-oil production process in which a reactor, linked to a conventional fluidized bed boiler, can first gasify solid biomass and then compress it into liquid form. Through their five months of pilot testing and utilization of the R&D Center's 2 MW plant, the partners have improved the bio-oil production methods and the efficiency of the process. Already, more than 20 tons of bio-oil have been produced. An alternative to heavy and light fuel oils, domestic bio-oil decreases the burden on the atmosphere.
The Finnish technology developers are committed to ongoing improvements in the production of bio-oil from renewable resources. It is the companies' vision that combining bio-oil production with bioenergy-based power plants will also provide them with new business potential, as well as remarkable cost and efficiency benefits. The companies' agreement for bio-oil test production extends through 2010.
Fortum now brings the important energy producer and end-product user angle to the research and development project. Metso is in charge of the technological development of the pyrolysis reactor integrated into the fluidized bed boiler. UPM adds to the project expertise in the use of biomass as raw material.
The bio-oil production process is based on VTT's earlier R&D and patents. In the test production phase, VTT focuses on the control and quality of the bio-oil. In the longer term, also bio-oil refining will be developed, for example, for feeding a conventional oil refinery. The projects are subsidized by the EU and Tekes - the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.
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