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A Bio4Energy-led research project to seek out the most cost-efficient JoakimLundgrenBio4Energy scientist Joakim Lundgren will be leading a study to identify sites for biofuels' production in Sweden. Photo by Anna Strom©.
sites in Sweden for second-generation biofuels’ production could kick off last month as the Swedish Knowledge Centre for Renewable Transportation Fuels, f3, decided to back it by almost SEK2 million.

As a first leg, the scientists behind it will develop a theoretical model to guide policy makers as they endeavour to match the availability of raw materials for biorefinery—woody biomass or organic waste—with parameters such as availability of land, cost of construction and production, plus ease of access for industry and environmental impacts. This first step will also entail constructing scenarios—snapshots of three likely futures for biofuels’ development in Sweden—based on variables ranging from energy prices, demand for biomass and transport fuels to assumed effects of policies governing the industry.

In Sweden, “full-scale biorefinery [plants in which] to produce biofuels are next to none”, according to project leader This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of the energy sciences’ division of Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in northern Sweden.

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A year in the making, Bio4Energy wants to thank all of its followers in 2011. Northern forestBio4Energy designs tools and methods for making biofuels and 'green' chemicals from forest-sourced materials. The snap is of a forest in the Swedish part of the boreal belt. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.

So far the B4E members have been busy building a research environment in bioenergy and biorefinery which links up three universities in northern Sweden, over 20 industrial partners and a handful of research institutes.

This year has seen plans for new research projects being drawn up by the seven B4E platforms dealing with forest-sourced feedstock, thermochemistry, biochemistry and process integration, as well those concerned with pretreatment and fractionation of raw materials, catalysis and separation, or environmental checks and balances.

Further, B4E has liaised with EU and Swedish authorities to spread the word about the potential embedded in the development of sustainable biorefinery based on non-food raw materials, mainly forest-sourced feedstock in the case of B4E, and seen several new cooperations take root.

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As signaled, we publish a round up and presentations of biorefinery development or 'pilot' units in northern Sweden, gleaned from a talks at a meeting 1 December of scientists and representatives of biorefinery industry at Örnsköldsvik, given by Bio4Energy and the Processum Biorefinery Initiative.

Pilot facility for production of biomass from algae at Umeå, Sweden

FranscescoGentili compFranscesco Gentili talks up Umeå pilot facilities for biorefinery of algae. Photo by Bio4Energy.Project leader This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences said the installation would be used to produce a about a kilogramme per day worth of algae-based biomass suitable for making fertilizers, biofuels, bio-based plastics or fish meal. Gentili said production would imply “closing the chain” in terms of removing unwanted emissions to the environment, including gases thought to spur climate change, such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

“It can remove CO2 and NOx, and heavy metals”, he mused. The petroleum company “Preem wants to test the product in its biorefinery” to make biodiesel, said Gentili with reference to a certain line of testing at the pilot installation.

“We have to lower costs so as to show that we can produce [products and be competitive] in northern Sweden”, he said.
Attachments:
Download this file (Algae_Pilot_at_Umeå.pdf)Algae pilot installation at Umeå, December 2011[ ]1005 kB
Download this file (MoRe_Research_Pilot_Facilities_Örnsköldsvik.pdf)MoRe Research pilot installations at Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]333 kB
Download this file (Pilotpresentation_IM_Dec_2011.pdf)Roasting to make green coal: Umeå pilot facilities, December 2011[Presentation by Anders Nordin of UmU and B4E, 1 December 2011]1284 kB
Download this file (Pilot_Plants_at_Piteå.pdf)ETC pilot facilities at Piteå, December 2011[ ]594 kB
Download this file (Processum_Pilots_at_Örnsköldsvik.pdf)Processum pilot park at Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]681 kB
Download this file (Spinning_Pilot_Inst_Domsjö.pdf)Spinning pilot installation at Domsjö, Örnsköldsvik, December 2011[ ]76 kB
Download this file (Torrefaction&drying_pilot_inst_at_Umeå.pdf)Torrefaction and drying pilot installations at Umeå, December 2011[ ]758 kB
Download this file (Woodchipper_Pilots_MIUN.pdf)Wood chipper pilot facilities, MIUN, December 2011[ ]164 kB

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Linking up northern Sweden's biorefinery development facilities could CE SM_BoKllstrand_Inagu_BioBoClas Engström, Stellan Marklund and Västernorrland County Governor Bo Källstrand inaugurate the bioreactor BioBo at MoRe Research in northern Sweden. Photo by Bio4Energy.
produce a "win-win situation" for industry and academia and spur
innovation, a workshop in Sweden for industry people and bioenergy scientists have heard.

If adequately coordinated and explained, the cluster of test sites in northern Sweden could serve as a resource for researchers in Sweden and beyond, according to Clas Engström, Processum Biorefinergy Initiative CEO, and Bio4Energy programme manager This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“What is unique about northern Sweden”, Marklund asked rethorically, sweeping his gaze over the participants of the joint meeting by B4E and Processum at Örnsköldsvik.

“It is those test sites (which) industry can use”, just as can biorefinery and bioenergy researchers, he said;

“If we join together we can create a win-win situation… (that can spur) innovation and put the technologies to good use for society.

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Bioenergy scientists in northern Sweden are about to take a next step in leif jp_at_pilotBio4Energy scientists Leif Jönsson and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola inspect pilot facilities at B4E member firm SEKAB at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Photo by courtesy of Umeå University.
developing one of the world’s leading research environments in biorefinery by linking up with pulp and paper makers, forestry operators and their processing industries, as well as a biorefinery umbrella organisation in biorefinery research and innovation.

December 1 at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, researchers in Bio4Energy from universities at Luleå and Umeå, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will be hosting a meeting for north Sweden’s paper and pulp, forestry and biorefinery industries, together with the Processum Biorefinery Initiative.

This organisation runs research and development activities for its 21 industrial member firms in biorefinery of forest-sourced materials. Notably Processum is setting up pilot facilities at Örnsköldsvik by which to test and refine raw materials—generally biomass or waste streams from forestry operations, or other organic waste—with a view to make biofuels or “green” chemicals. Processum also plays host to a state-sponsored ‘Biorefinery of the Future’ project to bring research on bioenergy and
biorefinery to industry. B4E industrial partner SEKAB has summarised the Processum mandate.
Attachments:
Download this file (Fr_L_ClasEngström_trumpet_player_StellanMarklund_BoKällstrand_Photo_by_AnnaStrom)Image_for_press_&_media_Inauguration_of_Processum_Pilot_Park_1December2011[ ]102 kB
Download this file (Pressmeddelande_Morgondagens_biodrivmedel_testas_i_ny_pilotpark.pdf)Biorefinery_Demonstration_Facilities_Launched_at_Örnsköldsvik_B4E_Press_Release[ ]74 kB

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A number of Bio4Energy scientists, and three of its industrial partners, PGardestrm SMarklundPer Gardeström (right) won a grant to study the lives of mitochondria in leaves. Photographed with Stellan Marklund. Photo by Bio4Energy.
have won grants to pay for future research and awards for excellence 
respectively. Two Swedish research funding bodies, Formas and the Swedish Research Council, provided the grants to four professors and several associated colleagues active across the B4E partner universities.

As regards the industrial partners, Biofuels maker Domsjö Fabriker, and Smurfit Kappa, the international pulp and paper group, won awards from RISI, a European industry body. These were presented in Brussels, Belgium, 15 November. Meanwhile, Chemrec, producing bioDME diesel fuel from a waste product of forestry operations, made an international listing of companies seen as forerunners in the development of technologies with a low environmental impact.

Among the B4E researchers granted funding, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., of the B4E Feedstock and Biochemical Platforms, both affiliated with Umeå University in northern Sweden, each received just over two million Swedish kronor (€220,000) from the Swedish Research Council.

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J-P Mikkola_B194Jyri-Pekka Mikkola of Bio4Energy said that excess carbon dioxide should be turned into chemicals and fuels. Photo by Anna Strom©.A senior scientist on Bio4Energy’s Catalysis and Separation Platform has said that large-scale underground storage of carbon dioxide may have unintended consequences and should be avoided, suggesting instead that methods should be invented to capture and turn C02 into fuels and chemicals.

“I think it is a very dangerous option, storing large amounts (of C02 underground)”, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola told a seminar celebrating research by the Umeå University (UmU) Chemical Biological Centre. A professor of technical chemistry at UmU, in northern Sweden, Mikkola was referring to the ongoing debate on whether carbon capture and storage should be implemented on a large scale as one leg of a future international strategy to counter global warming by cutting greenhouse gases.

“We should make chemicals and fuels out of (the C02)”, he said, adding that applications could be organic carbonates and biodegradable plastics.
Attachments:
Download this file (J-PMikkola_CATALYSIS_4_ENERGY_in_BIO4ENERGY_KBC_Days_91111.pdf)Catalysis for Energy in Bio4Energy, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola, November 2011[ ]5767 kB

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Bio4Energy and partners will be giving talks on next-generation TorrefiedBiomass 1678Torrefied, or roasted, biomass displayed at the Röbäcksdalen pilot facilities, at Umeå, Sweden, where fuel pellets and briquets are made from renewable raw materials. Photo by Anna Strom©.
biorefinery from forest-sourced biomass, and a give guided tour
to pilot facilities for making fuel pellets, during the 2011 Bioenergy Days at Umeå, Sweden, 8 and 9 November.

B4E scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) 8 November will host a guided tour to the SLU pilot plant designed to make fuel pellets from forest-sourced raw materials. A bus chartered by conference organisers Svebio will be departing from the Umeå central bus station, at Vasaplan, at 9.15 am, to visit the pilot facilities at Röbäcksdalen.

The following day B4E leadership will outline plans for creating leading-edge biorefinery, including maximally efficient processes for making biofuels and bio-based chemicals, with a view to phasing out petrochemical products and fossil fuels. Meet the Bio4Energy team at Folkets Hus, downtown Umeå, together with Clas Engström, heading the Processum umbrella organisation for firms and research institutes in biorefinery. Session 9 of the Bioenergy Days starts at 1.30 p.m.

Attachments:
Download this file (Träffa_Bio4energy_på_Bioenergidagarna_i_Umeå,_8-9_november.pdf)Bio4Energy at the 8-9 November Bioenergy Days, at Umeå: Press release in Swedish[ ]149 kB

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