Regional State Administrative Agency of Southern Finland has granted an environmental permit for BioEnergo Oy’s planned bioconversion plant in the Kaanaankorpi industrial area in Pori. The permit covers the production of bioethanol, liquefied biogas and crude lignin from wood biomass.
The plant has a production capacity of about 63,000 cubic meters of bioethanol, about 22,000 tons of liquefied biogas and about 70,000 tons of crude lignin per year.
“The positive permit decision is great news for taking the project forward and for the Pori economic area,” says Timo Saini, Chairman of the Board of BioEnergo.
“We have managed to keep the project on schedule despite the exceptional times, which is also due to the very good cooperation with our local partners,” Saini says and describes the environmental permit as an important signal to all project stakeholders.
“The permit gives us solid headwind to execute our plan,” says Kim Isosomppi, CFO of BioEnergo. “In addition, it provides good guidance on planning and construction with its 166 pages of detailed advice. The Environmental Administration has done a careful and good job in dealing with the permit issue.”
“The permit decision is a culmination of a long and detailed permit process and gives a clear signal to advance the project,” says Bioeconomy Lead Eeva Punta from Sweco, who led the project.
The environmental impact assessment of the project was carried out by Sweco in 2019–2020, after which the application for an environmental permit was submitted to the Regional State Administrative Agency in January 2021.
Saini describes the plant as an “energy hybrid” because it reduces traffic emissions in three ways, with bioethanol, lignin and biogas.
“The operation of the plant will not have a significant impact on the inhabitants or recreational use of the region. Risk situations related to the plant’s operations have been identified and prepared for in the plant’s planning and implementation. The operations of the plant are monitored and controlled by process units and as a whole by means of automatic monitoring systems. Through monitoring, we ensure that the plant operates in accordance with the terms of the environmental permit”, says Saini.
Additional information:
www.bioenergo.fi
Timo Saini, Chairman of the Board, tel. +358 40 7153682
Jyrki Karvinen, Communications Agency Spring Oy, +358 45 258 8451, jyrki.karvinen@springoy.fi
BioEnergo reduces traffic carbon emissions. BioEnergo is in the process of building an advanced second-generation biofuel refinery in Pori, Kaanaa Industrial Park, Finland. BioEnergo’s products will help our customers meet their regulatory biofuel distribution mandates and help corporates reduce their carbon footprints. The biorefinery will use certified forest industry side stream sawdust and chips as feedstock to produce an estimated 60 000 m3 of advanced 2G bioethanol (for passenger cars), 130 000 MWh of 2G liquid biogas (for heavy duty vehicles), 73 000 tons of lignin (for low-CO2 asphalt, roofing felt and concrete) and 44 000 tons of CO2 (for industry/circular economy). At full production BioEnergo will employ directly and indirectly up to 250 people employees.
Sweco is an expert in the built environment and industry, planning the cities of the future and a more sustainable society. Together with our customers and our 17,500 experts, we tackle the challenges of urbanization and the opportunities of digitalisation and create solutions that contribute to the development of a more sustainable society. Sweco is Europe’s leading design and consulting company with a turnover of approximately EUR 2 billion. Sweco is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (Nasdaq).