UPM wins sustainable Biofuels Award in Rotterdam

(UPM, Helsinki, 14 March, 2013 at 09:00 EET) – UPM has received the Sustainability Award 2013 for Breakthrough Innovation in Technology in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The award which recognises the innovation that is taking place in the development of truly sustainable and renewable fuels is presented by the World Biofuels Markets Congress & Exhibition.

UPM Biofuels received the Sustainable Biofuels Award due to its success in developing an innovative production process for an advanced renewable diesel, UPM BioVerno. So even before it goes live, UPM’s renewable diesel production process has won a major international prize.

The award was judged by an elite panel of independent industry experts. According to reasoning, UPM was the winner of the Breakthrough Innovation in Technology Award because of the UPM BioVerno product characteristics corresponding to traditional fuel with the greenhouse gas emissions being reduced by up to 80%.

Event Director Claire Poole commented : “The Sustainable Biofuels Awards recognise the tremendous innovation that is taking place in the development of truly sustainable and renewable fuels, and the key success factor of this novel drop-in fuel is sustainability. The feedstock is wood-based, non-food origin with no indirect land use change. A truly sustainable achievement.”
“During the last few years we have made progress with remarkable R&D work and important investments for developing wood-based biofuels. UPM aims to become a major player in advanced biofuels so this recognition confirms that we have managed to make significant progress in this field,” says Petri Kukkonen, Vice President of UPM Biofuels Business.

Driving lower emissions with UPM BioVerno

UPM BioVerno is a high quality transport fuel that works well in modern vehicles and is fully compatible with existing fuel distribution systems. UPM BioVerno has been tested for its properties, functionality, and emissions in various laboratories including VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) and FEV (Forschungsgesellschaft für Energietechnik und Verbrennungsmotoren GmbH) in Germany.

Furthermore, UPM BioVerno decreases greenhouse gas emissions significantly. The greenhouse gas reduction of approximately 80% is calculated for the whole lifecycle taking into account all energy used in the plant and utilities used in production.

UPM BioVerno is produced from crude tall oil (CTO), which is a residue from the chemical pulping process. The main phases of the process are pretreatment of crude tall oil, hydrotreatment, recycle gas purification, and fractionation. Converting CTO to biofuel is an innovative way to use that residue without changing the main process, which is pulp production. This method makes additional use of an existing UPM residue, and also avoids any raw materials that could be used for food production.

“Coming from the forest industry we benefit from our profound experience in forest biomass and extensive resources that can be used effectively for developing biofuels business and executing large scale biofuel projects,” says Heikki Vappula, President of the Energy and Pulp Business Group in UPM.

Currently, UPM is building a hydrogenation biorefinery on its Kaukas paper and pulp mill site in Lappeenranta, Finland. The biorefinery will produce 100,000 tonnes of renewable diesel for transport, equating to 120 million litres annually. The investment of EUR 150 million is the first industrial scale investment in this field globally. Site construction will be completed in 2014.

The World Biofuels Markets Congress & Exhibition 2013 is Europe's largest congress and exhibition focused on biofuels. The annual Sustainable Biofuels Awards were yesterday presented to winners at a special ceremony during the annual World Biofuels Markets in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

For further information, please contact:
Petri Kukkonen, Vice President, UPM Biofuels, tel. +358 40 592 7440

UPM, Corporate Communications
Media Desk, tel. +358 40 588 3284
media@upm.com
www.twitter.com/UPM_News

World Biofuels Marketsis Green Power Conferences’ flagship event. For the last decade it has provided a platform to drive the biofuels energy sector forward. World Biofuels Markets brings together more than 1,500 participants to deliver and listen to a wide roster of high-level talks, do business, network, discuss the latest in market developments and provides strategic business training to accelerate the uptake of sustainable business practices within the biofuels energy space. Conference headlines, speaker agendas, speeches and sponsorship information can be found at: www.worldbiofuelsmarkets.com

UPM leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation-driven future. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and pulp, Paper, and Engineered materials. The Group employs around 22,000 people and it has production plants in 17 countries. UPM's annual sales exceed EUR 10 billion. UPM's shares are listed on the Helsinki stock exchange. UPM – The Biofore Company – www.upm.com

UPM Biofuels
UPM plans to become a major player in high quality, advanced biofuels for transport. Biofuels are an essential part of the Biofore strategy. The innovative wood-based biofuels developed by the company and their production technologies are part of the sustainable future. UPM’s biofuels are frontrunners in quality, usability and sustainability. They will significantly decrease the greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossils fuels. www.upm.com/biofuels​