(UPM, Helsinki, March 11, 2014 at 12.00 EET) Fortum, UPM and Valmet have joined forces to develop a new, winning technology to produce advanced high value lignocellulosic fuels, such as transportation fuels or higher value bio liquids. The idea is to develop catalytic pyrolysis technology for upgrading bio-oil and commercialise the solution. According to several studies pyrolysis technology is seen as the most competitive route to produce advanced lignocellulosic biofuels, and is one of the most efficient routes for meeting EU2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The five-year project is called LignoCat (lignocellulosic fuels by catalytic pyrolysis). The project is a natural continuation of the consortium’s earlier bio-oil project together with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, commercialising integrated pyrolysis technology for production of sustainable bio-oil for replacement of heating oil in industrial use. In this project, the consortium aims higher and the target is to develop novel integrated technology to produce high value biofuels to replace fossil transportation fuels, and thereby create new business for the consortium companies. “We will develop pyrolysis technology enabling improvement of bio-oil quality compatible for further refining to transportation fuels or intermediate products. This is a business opportunity for us, which will lead to new sustainable processes and products. We see a great potential in this project and look forward to continued cooperation,” says Jussi Mäntyniemi, Director, Technology and R&D, Valmet. Successful project execution will help utilities and the forest industry sector in making investment decisions for entering advanced biofuel production. "Fortum is eager to continue this work towards higher value bio liquids based on the former successful co-operation with our R&D partners. This project is a straight continuation to our first CHP (Combined Heat and Power) -integrated bio oil investment in Joensuu and supports perfectly our strategy to increase total efficiency and value of our fleet of CHPs. The project's scope opens us the possibility to explore interesting new business opportunities and to define our role in the production chain of advanced biofuels", says Jukka Heiskanen, Head of R&D at Fortum's Heat business. For further information, please contact: Jukka Heiskanen, Head of R&D, Fortum Heat business tel. +358 10 452 4250
UPM Valmet Corporation is a leading global developer and supplier of services and technologies for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Our 11,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers’ performance forward – every day. Valmet’s net sales in 2013 were approximately EUR 2.6 billion. Valmet’s head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. www.valmet.com
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