Veolia and Metsä Fibre Produce Bio-Methanol from Pulp Mill Waste
by Daniela Castim (Bio Market Insights) Veolia and Metsä Fibre announced a long-term partnership agreement on the refining of crude methanol generated in pulp production at the Äänekoski bioproduct mill into commercial biomethanol. As part of this cooperation, Veolia will build a crude methanol refinery connected with Metsä Fibre’s Äänekoski bioproduct mill. The €50-million investment is supported by a grant from the Finnish ministry of economy and employment.
The Kraft pulping process converts wood chips into pulp, which is used to make a large range of paper products. Black liquor, a waste byproduct from the kraft pulping process, contains most of the original cooking inorganic elements and the degraded, dissolved wood substance, including methanol, and hundreds of other components.
The Veolia black liquor evaporation systems for the pulp and paper industry feature methanol rectification and handling systems, among other characteristics. This will be the largest biorefinery project producing bio-methanol from a pulp mill.
Developed in close cooperation with Metsä Fibre, the largest cooperative forestry association in Europe, the biomethanol refinery will be based on Veolia’s innovative industrial-scale concept of commercial bioproduct-derived bio-methanol production, which safely integrates the refining of crude methanol into the pulp production process. Raw methanol recovered from the pulp process needs to be purified from nitrogen and sulfur and then further refined for use as commercial biomethanol.
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Estelle Brachlianoff, COO of Veolia said: ” … The advantage of our industrial concept is that it is replicable at around 80% of the pulp mills worldwide. It has a potential to unlock an additional, locally generated feedstock of CO2-neutral biomethanol for biofuel that could be estimated at 2 million tons.” READ MORE
Veolia launches largest project to produce bio-methanol from pulp mill waste (Green Car Congress)
