Norway-headed advanced blomass pellet producer Arbaflame AS has signed a Halla Bio-industry Park site reservation agreement with the City of Haapajärvi, Finland as the proposed location for a planned 120,000 tonnes-per annum biocoal production plant – ArbaNext Finland. The agreement was signed live on stage at the recent Think BIG conference, Northern Finland’s largest annual energy sector event.
Organised in Nivala by the regional investment and business development agency NIHAK, a key objective of the annual Think BIG event is to bring together energy sector players, companies, and various stakeholders – reflected in the strong presence of international investors, whose representatives discussed planned projects and met with local businesses.
Arbaflame and the City of Haapajärvi signed a preliminary Halla Bio-industry Park site reservation agreement during the event, marking Arbaflame’s first planned facility outside Norway.
A natural fit
According to Arbaflame, the location is “a natural next step in scaling and growing our technology. The North Ostrobothnia region’s strong forest industry makes Halla Biopark in Haapajärvi a natural home.”
The decision to choose Haapajärvi was supported by the location’s advantages regarding both raw material sourcing and finished product delivery, the existence of a completed environmental impact assessment (EIA), and the infrastructure already in place to support the bio-industry.
We didn’t find the Halla Bio-industry Park; it found us. NIHAK contacted us, saying they had heard about our process and believed this would be the perfect location for us. And we agree, stated Mats Nygård, Business Development Manager, Arbaflame at the event.
Building on ArbaOne success
The company plans to build Europe’s largest production plant for steam-treated black pellets—biocoal—in the Halle Bio-industry Park.
The plant will build on the success of the 70,000 tpa ArbaOne plant near Kongsvinger, Norway, and convert forest by-products into ArbaCore – a drop-in coal substitute for hard-to-abate heavy industries like cement, lime, asphalt and industrial boilers.
Subject to a positive final investment decision (FID), the aim is to begin construction in early 2028 and launch production in 2029.
Thanks to Harri Finnilä and Jouni Laajala representing Haapajärvi, and to NIHAK for the strong collaboration throughout the process of getting to this point. We are now maturing the project both technically and commercially as we work toward a Final Investment Decision for the project, commented Eirik Haugen, CEO, Arbaflame.
