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Beta Renewables – commercial plant in Crescentino, Italy

Introduction

Beta Renewables is a leader in the field of advanced

biofuels and biochemical compounds at competitive

costs. It was established at the end of 2011 as a joint

venture between Biochemtex, a company of the

Mossi Ghisolfi Group, and the U.S. fund TPG (Texas

Pacific Group) with a total investment of 250 million

Euro (350 million dollars). Beta Renewables owns the

ProesaTM

technology, applied to the field of biofuels

and chemical intermediates. Beta Renewables

manages the plant in Crescentino (VC), the first

commercial facility in the world for the production of

second-generation ethanol. The Crescentino

biorefinery was launched under the NER300

bioenergy project.

Technology description

Proesa™ belongs to the so-called “second-

generation” technologies which allow the use of the

sugars present in lignocellulosic biomass to obtain

fuel and other chemicals with lower greenhouse gas

emissions and at competitive costs compared to fossil

fuels (oil, natural gas).

It is the result of an investment of over 150 million

Euro, started by Biochemtex in 2006. The Proesa™

technology was designed to use non-food biomass,

like rice straw and sugarcane bagasse. Thanks to the

efficiency of the Proesa™ process, non food sugars

can be obtained at competitive costs and without

incentives, thus enabling a widely spread use of bio-

products from renewable sources.

The advantages of Proesa™:

The cost of the product is competitive compared

to oil (70 dollars / barrel)

The industrial plants can be adapted to local

conditions.

The separated lignin is used to obtain energy.

During the processing, biogas is generated as

another energy source.

No land is subtracted to food crops and this does

not affect their price to the consumer.

Dependence on fossil fuels is reduced as well as

the impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

The technology is protected by 14 patent families, 4

of which are public.

Technical Details

Project owner Beta Renewables (joint venture with the Mossi Ghisolfi Group)

Project name Crescentino

Location Crescentino (VC), Italy

Technology Biochemical conversion

Raw Material Lignocellulosic crops (rice straw, wheat straw and from Arundo Donax, the common giant reed)

Input Capacity 200,000 t/y

Product(s) Ethanol

Output Capacity

40,000 t/y

Facility type Commercial

Project Funding

The project was supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development

Status Operational

Start-up Year 2013 (october)

Web http://www.betarenewables.com

Figure 1: Beta Renewables plant in Crescentino

All trademarks, registered designs, copyrights and other proprietary rights of the organisations mentioned within this document are acknowledged. While the information in this fact sheet is believed to be accurate, neither EBTP members nor the European Commission, accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever for any errors or omissions herein nor any use to which this information is put. EBTP-SABS activities in support of Advanced Biofuels Stakeholders in Europe are funded by the EC under Concerted Support Action 609607. However, the information expressed on this fact sheet should not under any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. Design and content of this fact sheet are copyright © European Biofuels Technology Platform 2016.

Beta Renewables & Biochemtex –

More projects

Project name Bioflex 1

Owner/Operator GranBio

Location Brazil

Technology Biochemical

Raw Material Sugar Cane Straw

Product(s) Ethanol

Output Capacity 65,000 t/y


Status Operating

Start-up Year 2014

Project name Fuyang Bioproject

Location China


Raw Material Wheat straw and corn stover

Product(s) Ethanol

Output Capacity 185,000 t/y


Status Planned

Start-up Year 2018

Project name Alpha

Location North Carolina, USA


Raw Material Energy Grasses

Product(s) Ethanol


Status Planned

Start-up Year 2017

Figure 2: Beta Renewables – flow chart of PROESATM technology

Project history

The first-of-a-kind commercial scale industrial

production of second-generation bioethanol was

started up in Crescentino, province of Vercelli, at the

end of 2012. For the development of this technology,

agronomic studies and logistics modelling have been

conducted. Before being applied in Crescentino,

Proesa™ was tested at length in the Rivalta Scrivia

(Alessandria) pilot plant, which boasts a capacity of

1t/day of biomass treated.

2010

• Authorization request: 2010

• Company starts buying critical materials: September 2010

2011

• Permits obtained: April 2011

• Ground breaking: April 2011

• Beginning of works: end of June 2011

2012

• Completion of mechan. work, energy section: Aug. 2012

• Start up of boiler: October 2012

• Completion of mechan. work, ethanol section: Dec. 2012

2013

• Start up – ethanol section: October 2013

• Operational

Borregaard – commercial plant in Sarpsborg, Norway

Introduction

Borregaard is a Norwegian company, established in

1889 in Sarpsborg in the Østfold County.

Traditionally, Borregaard has been engaged in pulp

and paper processing. Borregaard’s core business is

based on the concept of a biorefinery that processes

chemical products based on different types of

lignocellulosic feedstock.

The bioethanol that is produced in Borregaard's

biorefinery is based on extracting sugar from wood

(spruce), which is then fermented to make ethanol.

The production started already in 1938. This means

that Borregaard has never been engaged in

producing first generation biofuels but only second

generation bio-ethanol or more precise ‘advanced

bioethanol’. The bio-ethanol process in the

commercial operation is technically almost the same

as it was from the start in 1938. Among others,

Borregaard supplies bio-ethanol to Statoil, a leading

retail chain for petrol and diesel, but most of volumes

are sold for use in chemical products or as solvents.


Figure 2 illustrates the processing of biomass in

Borregaard. Ethanol is one of several products

coming out of the total process. The pulp for specialty

cellulose is produced by cooking spruce chips with

acidic calcium bisulfite cooking liquor. Hemicellulose

is hydrolyzed to various sugars during the cooking

process. After concentration of the sulfite spent liquor,

the sugars are fermented and ethanol is distilled off in

several steps. A part of the 96% ethanol is

dehydrated to get absolute ethanol.

The ethanol process have low energy consumption,

as most of it is recovered and used in other

processes on site. Fossil fuels for energy production

for the whole refinery have been replaced by

renewable energy sources over the last 15 years.

Technical Details

Project owner Borregaard AS

Project name ChemCell Ethanol

Location Sarpsborg, Norway

Technology Chemical/biochemical

Raw Material Lignocellulosic spruce (Norwegian spruce)

Project Input Sulfite spent liquor (SSL, 33% dry content) from spruce wood pulping

Input Capacity 400,000 t DS (spruce)/a

Product(s) Ethanol

Output Capacity 15,800 t/y; 20 Ml/y


Status Operational

Start-up Year 1938

Web http://www.borregaard.com

Figure 1: Borregaard plant in Sarpsborg


Borregaard- BALI Biorefinery Demonstration

Plant

Project name BALI Biorefinery Demo

Location Sarpsborg,, Norway

Technology Chemical/biochemical

Raw Material Lignocellulosics (sugarcane

bagasse, straw, wood, energy

crops)

Product(s) Ethanol, lignin performance

chemicals, single cell protein, sugar

based chemicals

Output Capacity 110 t/y

Facility type Demo

Status Operational

Start-up Year 2012

Project background

Borregaard has been operating as a biorefinery for

over 50 years, but the advanced ethanol production

started already in 1938. Borregaard has been

interested in optimizing these processes over the last

decades. Borregaard has an additional 6 production

plants around the world, and they do not produce bio-

ethanol but only lignin performance chemicals. For

bio-ethanol production Borregaard has only two

plants and both located in Norway, the commercial

plant producing between 20 million liters advanced

bio-ethanol per year and the BALI demo plant. The

experience gained over years in the commercial plant

has been a valuable knowledge input into the demo

project. The main difference to the commercial plant

is that Borregaard will use all of the cellulosic fiber for

cellulosic sugars or ethanol production, not just the

hemi-cellulose as in the commercial plant

Figure 2: Borregaard – chart of products

Figure 3: Borregaard – The timeline of Borregaard transformation from a

conventional paper plant to a biorefinery

1889

• Traditionally, Borregaard has been engaged in pulp and paper processing

1938

• At the end of the 1930s the company started producing chemicals based on timber (spruce) as a raw material exploiting the hemi-cellulose in the feedstock

• Start to produce bioethanol

1950

• Since the 1950s Borregaard used also the lignin components of the feedstock for producing chemicals

UPM Biofuels – commercial plant in Lappeenranta, Finland

Introduction

UPM plans to become a major player in Europe in the

production of renewable, high quality advanced

biofuels. UPM produces its advanced biofuel, UPM

BioVerno, at the biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland,

based on its own innovations.

The UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery, producing wood-

based renewable diesel from forestry residues, has

started commercial production in January 2015. A

significant portion of the raw material used at the

UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery - crude tall oil - comes

from UPM's own pulp mills in Finland, such as the

UPM Kaukas mill site located next door.

UPM BioVerno is high quality renewable diesel that

can be used as a blending component or as 100%

fuel in all diesel engines. It reduces greenhouse gas

emissions by 80% compared to fossil diesel.


The production of UPM BioVerno renewable diesel

from wood-based tall oil is an advanced biofuel

production process. This innovative production

process has been developed in the UPM Biorefinery

Research and Development Centre in Lappeenranta,

Finland.

The technology is based on hydrotreatment. Phases

are pretreatment of crude tall oil, hydrotreatment,

separation of hydrocarbons, recycle gas purification,

and fractionation to produce renewable diesel and

small portion of renewable naphtha as end products.

Pretreatment:

Crude Tall Oil is purified; salts, impurities, solid

particles and water are removed.

Hydrotreatment:

Pretreated Crude Tall Oil is fed together with

make-up and recycled hydrogen to the reactor

where the chemical structure is modified.

Reaction water is separated and directed to

waste water treatment.

Fractionation:

Remaining hydrogen sulfide and uncondensable

gases are removed. The remaining liquid is

distilled to separate renewable diesel suitable for

all diesel engines.

Technical Details

Project owner UPM Biofuels

Project name UPM Lappeenranta biorefinery

Location Lappeenranta, Finland

Technology Oleo chemical conversion

Raw Material Wood-based residue of pulp production; tall oil

Product(s) Renewable diesel similar to HVO

Output Capacity 100,000 t/y or 120 million litres/y


Total Investment 175,000,000 EUR

Status Operational

Start-up Year January 2015

Web http://www.upmbiofuels.com


UPM – More projects

In advanced biofuels UPM has been

developing, together with Andritz Carbona,

the gasification technology needed to

produce biofuel from wood biomass. The

initial testing programme was completed

in the USA at the Gas Technology Institute

as planned.

UPM, Metso and Fortum together with the

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

have developed a new concept for the

production of wood biomass-based bio

oil to replace fossil fuels in heating and

power generation. Production of bio oil is

integrated into biomass-based power

plants. The long-term goal is to use bio oil

for the production of transportation fuel.

UPM, Fortum and Valmet are jointly

developing technology to produce

lignocellulosic advanced biofuels. The

project is called Lignocat (lignocellulosic

fuels by catalytic pyrolysis)

UPM is planning the production of

advanced biofuels from wood biomass in a

BtL (Biomass-to-Liquid) refinery to be

constructed in Strasbourg, France. The

European Union has awarded UPM a NER

grant of EUR 170 million for the project.

Project background

In 2008, with the popularity of printing paper

declining, UPM decided to transform itself in a bold

way and look for new businesses. Biofuels was a

prevalent trend and UPM had suitable wood-based

residue available from their own pulp production as

feedstock. Product development of wood-based

UPM BioVerno diesel started in-house. UPM utilized

its 120 years of experience in making products from

wood at its site in Lappeenranta.

Investment decision to build the world´s first

biorefinery producing wood-based renewable diesel

was made in February 2012. Construction of the

biorefinery started during summer 2012 in

Lappeenranta, Finland. UPM’s total investment cost

for the renewable diesel biorefinery is about

EUR 175 million and was completed without any

public investment grants. NIB is co-financing the

project with a 7-year maturity loan of EUR 50 million.

The technology to refine tall oil into renewable diesel

is based on the company’s own innovation and co-

operation with Danish catalysis company Haldor

Topsøe A/S, another loan customer of NIB. The

company’s biofuel plant integrates nicely with the pulp

and paper plant, saw mill, and research centre at the

site. The local resources in know-how, raw materials

and energy can be utilized in a way that makes

logistical sense.

UPM employs around 21,000 people, its annual sales

are approximately EUR 10 billion, and it has

production plants in 14 countries. UPM shares are

listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki

UPM – flow chart of UPM Lappeenranta biorefinery

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