Finland-headed energy company Gasum Oy and compatriot food and confectionary major Oy Karl Fazer Ab (Fazer) have entered into an agreement on the use of biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG) in the transport of Fazer’s bakery products in Finland.
Fazer Bakery Finland aims to cut its carbon footprint by at least 42 percent by 2030. Concrete ways to achieve this include using more renewable energy in production, making transport fossil-free, and replacing natural gas with biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG).
The inedible food waste generated at Fazer Bakery Finland’s facilities is used to produce biogas in Gasum’s biogas plants. This means that some of Fazer’s products travel across Finland using energy produced from Fazer’s own waste.
Fazer Bakery Finland currently uses two RNG-powered trucks and biomethane is used in 8 percent of transports.
The aim is to steadily increase the number of RNG- and e-vehicles so that by the end of the decade all of Fazer’s transports are emission free, either by using electricity or renewable natural gas.
Cooperation with Gasum is very important to Fazer Bakery and working together allows us to achieve significant benefits for the environment. We have calculated that by using our own food waste, we can run all the bakeries’ full trailer combination routes for a year on biofuel, said Jarno Hämäläinen, VP, Supply Chain at Fazer Bakery Finland.
Looking at e-methane
Fazer Bakery Finland has already cut its carbon footprint by 33 percent over the past four years. The aim is to reach a reduction of as much as 80 percent during the next few years.
Going forward, Fazer also plans to start using synthetic methane aka electro-methane (e-methane), a renewable gas produced with renewable electricity and which Gasum will bring to market from 2027.
Fazer Bakery Finland is keen to pilot the use of e-methane in zero-emission transport.
Both biomethane and e-methane are fully renewable fuels with, according to Gasum, lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on average 90 percent lower than fossil fuel.
This collaboration with Fazer Bakery is a great example of Gasum’s role as a partner to our customers in reducing emissions. It’s great that we can help in many ways, both in putting waste to good use and in low-emission transport. Only by working together can we effectively reduce emissions from industry and logistics in the years ahead, commented Ville Pesonen, VP, Industry and Traffic at Gasum.
Gasum’s strategic goal is to bring seven terawatt hours (7 TWh) of renewable gas annually to market by 2027. Achieving this goal would mean a total annual carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction of 1.8 million tonnes for Gasum’s customers.
