Estonia-based OÜ Graanul Biotech, a subsidiary of the world's third-largest wood pellet producer AS Graanul Invest has held a "foundation stone ceremony" at the site in Imavere for a wood processing flagship plant. The ceremony officially marks the start of new biomaterials business line for the company.
The purpose of the flagship demonstration plant, which is being built on a site owned by Graanul Invest adjacent to its Imavere wood pellet plant, is the development and production of biomaterials from low-quality wood residues.
A result of temperature, pressure and mechanical force, the innovative technology of the plant splits wood fibers into its basic elements – high-purity lignin and wood sugars, which enable use in several industries.
The ceremony also marks the start of a fourth business line of Graanul Invest Group in addition to existing wood pellet production, renewable energy, and forestry.
Higher value solutions
At the cornerstone ceremony, Graanul Invest CEO and board member Raul Kirjanena recounted how 15 years of experience in wood processing has provided to the group sufficient experience for taking another step in the development of solutions with even higher added value.
This ceremony of the flagship plant is not only the start of a factory but can be considered the start of our new business line, which will hopefully open a completely new future in wood processing, said Raul Kirjanen in his address.
Research and development manager of Graanul Invest Dr Peep Pitk provided an overview, how the idea and search of technologies reached construction and cornerstone ceremony in three and a half years.
For years, we have searched a technology, which would provide maximum efficiency coefficient in wood processing, while having a low environmental impact and ecological footprint as possible. Today we believe that the selected technology provides these expected solutions, but we will see the real results only when the flagship plant is completed and processes are operating, said Dr Pitk.
According to him, the estimated time of completion of the first stage of the flagship plant is the first half of 2020.
Business development is important for Järva municipality and Graanul Invest has managed to put itself on the world map with this project, within three years and half years from an idea to cornerstone ceremony. Järva municipality will always support entrepreneurs, said Järva rural municipality Mayor Rait Pihelgas.
SWEETWOODS project
The EU co-funded SWEETWOODS project, which Graanul Biotech is the lead partner, is supporting the construction of the flagship plant and it has received one of the largest research financings in Estonia – Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) is supporting the EUR 43.2 million project with EUR 20.96 million.
The technology license of the flagship plant comes from US-based Sweetwater Energy Inc., engineering is done by De Smet Engineers & Contractors from Belgium, special parts of preliminary project and main project were designed by Sweco Projekt AS, and constructive design of the production building was drafted by Maru Ehitus AS that are also the main construction contractor
