Torrec has signed a contract with OOO Baltic Forest Company (BFC) to build a 30 000 tonne per annum capacity biocoal production plant in the Kaliningrad region.
Finnish torrefaction technology developer Torrec Oy has revealed it has signed a contract with Kaliningrad-based wood processing company OOO Baltic Forest Company (BFC) to build a biocoal production plant in the Kaliningrad region. Kaliningrad is a Russian territorial enclosure on the Baltic Sea coastline bordering Poland and Lithuania.
According to Heikki Sonninen, Director of Marketing and Sales for Torrec Oy, the design production capacity of the plant will be 30 000 tonnes-per-annum of torrefied wood (TW) pellets using mixed hardwood species as feedstock. Torrec is the main designer of the plant with some of the equipment to be procured locally by the client. The total investment value is around EUR 4 million and plant is estimated to begin production early summer of 2016.
The company has been developing its own torrefaction technology in Mikkeli, Central Finland, in co-operation with the local development company Miktech Oy, Etelä-Savon Energia Oy and the Finnish development fund Tekes.
– For Torrec this contract with BFC means a remarkable opening to the Russian market, where the advantageous raw material availability provides excellent opportunities for profitable production, said Heikki Sonninen.
The plan is to supply TW pellets for co-firing at coal-fired power plants around the Baltic Sea enabling an increase of renewable power output at minimum capital investment.
– Torrefied wood pellets can be mixed with fossil coal up to 50 percent without new investments at the power station, said Sonninen adding that the consumer market is of interest though market entrance is more complicated.
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