Austria-headed international technology group Andritz AG (ANDRITZ) has announced that it has received an order from Veolia Services Suomi, a Veolia Group company, to supply a biomethanol purification plant to Finland.
The plant will be integrated into Metsä Fibre’s bioproduct mill in Äänekoski to refine the crude sulphate methanol generated in pulp production to obtain commercial-grade biomethanol.
According to a statement, the delivery to Veolia includes proprietary process design and full Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) supply, excluding civil works.
The start-up for the project, the value of which has not been disclosed, is scheduled for 2024.
The biomethanol purification plant will be designed to produce 12 000 tonnes of biomethanol per year, making it the world’s largest of its kind when it goes into operation.
Part of CircleToZero initiative
The biomethanol purification process is part of the ANDRITZ CircleToZero initiative aimed at achieving zero emissions and zero waste from pulp mills and is a patented extraction process yielding commercial-grade biomethanol.
The CircleToZero initiative also offers other next-generation solutions for the chemical recovery cycle of pulp mills, with the target of utilizing pulp mill side streams to the maximum extent possible.
The biomethanol purification plant is a key component in the process of extracting sustainable biomethanol from renewable raw material. The fossil-free biomethanol can be used for applications in the pulp mill itself, as a substitute for fossil-based methanol in the transportation sector directly as a fuel or in the production of biodiesel, as well as a platform chemical in the chemicals industry.
With the world’s largest fossil-free biomethanol plant of this kind, Veolia and ANDRITZ’s unique technology are strongly supporting the further development of Metsä Fibre’s unique bioproduct mill approach, which combines efficient raw material use with environmental and energy efficiency.
In accordance with the principles of the circular economy, production side streams – in this case, crude sulphate methanol – are utilized and upgraded to obtain products with the highest possible added value.
Veolia highly values how this industrial partnership has been developed based on a common vision to use natural resources more efficiently and process existing side streams to create new, sustainable bioproducts that can replace fossil-based fuels and materials, said Jacob Illeris, Business Development Director, Veolia Nordic.
