UPM began commercial production at its new biorefinery in January 2015. The biorefinery, located in the Kaukas factory area in Lappeenranta, produces renewable diesel from tall oil, a pulp residue.
The refinery produces wood-based BioVerno, which is suitable for all diesel cars.
“In terms of the chemistry used in the process, our facility is very much an oil refinery. The raw material for the refined product is just different,” says Production Manager, UPM Biorefining. Santeri Forsten says.
UPM has signed an agreement to sell UPM BioVerno diesel to NEOT (North European Oil Trade). The wholesaler of petroleum products and biofuels operating in Northern Europe supplies fuels to large Finnish service station chains, such as ABC and St1. The product will be available to Finnish consumers this spring.
All tall oil needed for the production of BioVerno comes from the pulp mill located in the Kaukas factory area – and in the future from other domestic pulp mills as well.
First in the world
The plant is the world's first biorefinery producing wood-based, renewable diesel. It operates using a hydrotreating process developed by UPM together with its partners. The high-temperature, high-pressure hydrotreating process is largely similar to the process used to produce mineral oil-based transport fuels.
The biorefinery produces approximately 120 million liters of renewable diesel per year. In practice, current production is sufficient for the annual consumption of approximately 100 cars, assuming each car is driven 000 kilometers and consumes an average of six liters of fuel per hundred kilometers. The production process has been developed at the refinery development center on the factory site, which is UPM's largest product development center in Northern Europe.
The journey of crude tall oil, a residue from chemical pulp production, into diesel suitable for use in a car's tank, begins with pre-treatment, which removes salts, impurities, solid particles and water from the tall oil.
Next, the purified crude tall oil goes to hydrotreatment, which is the most important stage of the production process. The pretreated tall oil is fed into the reactor together with fresh hydrogen and recycled hydrogen. The process modifies the chemical structure of the tall oil. It produces a hydrocarbon mixture that corresponds to fossil hydrocarbons in terms of chemical composition.
The water formed in the hydrocarbon separation after hydrotreatment is separated from the product and finally directed to wastewater treatment. The hydrogen sulfide formed in the process and the non-condensable gases still remaining in the liquid are removed from the hydrocarbons.
“For example, hydrogen sulfide is blown out of a hydrocarbon stream using steam and heat,” Forstén says.
The operation of the distillation column is based on the different boiling points of the different components, for example, renewable diesel has a higher boiling point than renewable naphtha, which is bio-based naphtha. Both are produced in the process. However, renewable naphtha as such is not suitable for gasoline-powered cars.
On the other hand, a hydrocarbon with a chemical composition similar to fossil diesel is suitable for all diesel engines.
Lappeenranta biorefinery
- Total investment 175 million euros.
- Commercial production of wood-based biodiesel began in January 2015.
- It employs a total of approximately 200 people directly and indirectly.
- Annual production of hydrotreated tall oil 100 tons, or approximately 000 liters of renewable diesel.
- Responsible for the fourth Finnish transport renewable energy target (for 2020).
- The raw material crude tall oil is a residue from pulp production.
- One ton of pulp yields a maximum of 50 kilograms of crude tall oil.
Text: Jaakko Liikanen
Photo: Mikko Nikkinen
