Biorefining trends- Valmet Technologies for Green Energy, Fuels, and Chemicals

The diminishing supply of resources is becoming a serious constraint on global development and welfare. Society and industry are being driven to find more eco-efficient raw materials and sources of energy, as well as to enhance the efficiency of existing processes. At the same time, bio-based markets are expected to expand, paving the way for cutting-edge technologies, products, and production systems. As biomaterials are introduced into the market, there is a great potential for e.g. lignin-based products.

Therefore, kraft lignin is one of the non-traditional products being already produced today in some pulp mills. In addition, some lessons have been learned from the two first commercial LignoBoost that were installed in USA and Finland. This is a trend in the bio-product mill concept, meaning that traditional conversion of biomass into heat and pulp are being complemented by the development of technologies to improve the mill profitability. These range from replacing fossil with renewable fuels to the implementation of biorefineries, providing, therefore, an opportunity to mitigate climate change and meet the growing demands for “green” energy, fuel and chemicals.

Other interesting processes being introduced into the market include thermo-chemical conversion technologies such as steam explosion for producing black pellets, pyrolysis for producing bio-oil, gasification and hydrothermal carbonization for the production of technical carbons.