Norske Skog to invest $35.9 million to produce biofuels from wood
Norwegian paper manufacturer Norske Skog announces it will, in cooperation with forest owners cooperatives, establish a joint venture to develop and produce next-generation wood-based biofuels. A prototype facility for biodiesel will be built at its Follum mill in Hønefoss. The single plant will produce between 4 and 6 per cent of Norway's total diesel fuel consumption.
The new the company will be jointly owned by Norske Skog (60 per cent) and the forest owner cooperatives (40 per cent), and will be established with equity of NOK 30 million (€3.7 / US$5.4 million).
Norske Skog aims to establish full-scale biodiesel production, even though it is not clear yet which bioconversion pathway will be utilized. Wood-based biodiesel can be produced from either a biomass-to-liquids (BtL) process in which biomass (including black liquor) is gasified and then liquefied via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to yield synthetic biofuels that can be refined into diesel; alternatively, a fast-pyrolysis process yielding bio-oil could be utilized, with the bio-oil refined into diesel.
Last year Norske Skog and Hydro, the Norwegian energy company, agreed to carry out a joint feasibility study relating to the production of synthetic diesel from wood via gasification and Fischer-Tropsch processing, which is why it can be assumed this pathway will be chosen. Synthetic biodiesel is an ultra-clean fuel superior to first-generation biodiesel with respect to CO2, SOx and NOx emissions.
Norske Skog's announced plant will require 1-1.5 million cubic meter of wood per year and will produce 65 000 - 100 000 tonnes of biodiesel, corresponding to 4-6 per cent of Norway's overall consumption of diesel in the transport sector. The long-term objective is to develop a global enterprise in biodiesel production and sale.
The investment in a prototype for biodiesel production at Follum is estimated at NOK 100 - 200 million (€12.5-24.9 / US$17.9-35.9). Further capitalisation will be decided at a later date.
Forest owners already have 15 percent stake in Norske Skog. However, the company has felt a need to diversify its activities and to specialize, with some suggesting the firm should be split up according to geographic or business areas:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biodiesel :: fast-pyrolysis :: wood :: forestry :: gasification :: Fischer-Tropsch ::
The chairman of the Forest Owners Union, Helge Evju, recently told reporters that they were united in opposing these plans.
A triumvirate of Norwegian business tycoons, Petter A. Stordalen, Øystein Stray Spetalen and Ove Gusevik have recently acquired a 5.78 share of Norske Skog through their company Unionen, and have floated a number of ideas to rejuvenate the Norwegian paper giant. The entry into the biofuels sector is one of those plans:
Norske Skog is a world leading producer of newsprint and magazine paper, with 18 paper mills around the world. The world market for newsprint and magazine paper is about 60 million tonnes, and the group has about 10 per cent and 5 per cent of these segments respectively. The group's operating revenue in 2006 was approximately NOK 29 billion (€3.6/US$5.2 bn).
References:
Norsky Skog: Norske Skog makes forward-looking investment in timber-based biofuel - December 21, 2007.
Hydro: Hydro and Norske Skog: joint biodiesel study - May 26, 2007.
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The new the company will be jointly owned by Norske Skog (60 per cent) and the forest owner cooperatives (40 per cent), and will be established with equity of NOK 30 million (€3.7 / US$5.4 million).
Norske Skog aims to establish full-scale biodiesel production, even though it is not clear yet which bioconversion pathway will be utilized. Wood-based biodiesel can be produced from either a biomass-to-liquids (BtL) process in which biomass (including black liquor) is gasified and then liquefied via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to yield synthetic biofuels that can be refined into diesel; alternatively, a fast-pyrolysis process yielding bio-oil could be utilized, with the bio-oil refined into diesel.
Last year Norske Skog and Hydro, the Norwegian energy company, agreed to carry out a joint feasibility study relating to the production of synthetic diesel from wood via gasification and Fischer-Tropsch processing, which is why it can be assumed this pathway will be chosen. Synthetic biodiesel is an ultra-clean fuel superior to first-generation biodiesel with respect to CO2, SOx and NOx emissions.
Norske Skog's announced plant will require 1-1.5 million cubic meter of wood per year and will produce 65 000 - 100 000 tonnes of biodiesel, corresponding to 4-6 per cent of Norway's overall consumption of diesel in the transport sector. The long-term objective is to develop a global enterprise in biodiesel production and sale.
The investment in a prototype for biodiesel production at Follum is estimated at NOK 100 - 200 million (€12.5-24.9 / US$17.9-35.9). Further capitalisation will be decided at a later date.
Forest owners already have 15 percent stake in Norske Skog. However, the company has felt a need to diversify its activities and to specialize, with some suggesting the firm should be split up according to geographic or business areas:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biodiesel :: fast-pyrolysis :: wood :: forestry :: gasification :: Fischer-Tropsch ::
The chairman of the Forest Owners Union, Helge Evju, recently told reporters that they were united in opposing these plans.
A triumvirate of Norwegian business tycoons, Petter A. Stordalen, Øystein Stray Spetalen and Ove Gusevik have recently acquired a 5.78 share of Norske Skog through their company Unionen, and have floated a number of ideas to rejuvenate the Norwegian paper giant. The entry into the biofuels sector is one of those plans:
I consider this a very exciting and future-oriented project which will open up new opportunities for Norske Skog. We have processing industry competence and a good infrastructure at Norske Skog Follum. In addition, the mill has a central location with good access to wood. - Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, chief executiveThe agreement is subject to approval by the board of directors of the companies involved.
Norske Skog is a world leading producer of newsprint and magazine paper, with 18 paper mills around the world. The world market for newsprint and magazine paper is about 60 million tonnes, and the group has about 10 per cent and 5 per cent of these segments respectively. The group's operating revenue in 2006 was approximately NOK 29 billion (€3.6/US$5.2 bn).
References:
Norsky Skog: Norske Skog makes forward-looking investment in timber-based biofuel - December 21, 2007.
Hydro: Hydro and Norske Skog: joint biodiesel study - May 26, 2007.
Article continues
Monday, December 24, 2007
Researchers prove how plants transport sugars - could lead to plants with increased photosynthetic rates, yields, CO2 intake
The theory of transporting sugar, the 'polymer trap model', was first proposed in 1991 by Robert Turgeon, Cornell professor of plant biology. He is also the senior author of the latest research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ashlee McCaskill, Ph.D. '07, who worked in Turgeon's lab, is the paper's lead author.
Turgeon's theory suggested that as sucrose, a form of sugar, accumulates in leaves as a product of photosynthesis, it diffuses into the plant's tubelike transport tissue, called phloem, along with other nutrients to move to other areas of the plant. Once in the phloem, small molecules of sucrose polymerize, or combine, to form larger, more complex sugars, which become too large to flow back into the leaf. The polymerized sugars are then forced to move away from the leaf to parts of the plant where they may be used or stored.
To prove the theory, Turgeon and McCaskill genetically engineered a plant closely related to a member of the figwort family, purple mullein (Verbascum phoeneceum L.), so that two genes involved with polymerizing sucrose into larger molecules were silenced. When they did so, sugars backed up in the leaves.
In normal plants, when sugars (made from water and carbon dioxide during photosynthesis) accumulate in the leaves, photosynthesis slows down, and the plant does not take in as much carbon dioxide from the air. Likewise, when the sugars move out of the leaves, the rate of photosynthesis and carbon intake increases, McCaskill said:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: negative emissions :: photosynthesis :: sugar :: plant biology ::
"If we could increase the plant's phloem-loading rate, the potential would be to increase photosynthetic rate and yield, but that is theoretical right now," said McCaskill.
A 2006 article in the journal Science, McCaskill said, showed that when atmospheric carbon dioxide increases, plants do not take in the excess due to a series of feedback loops that constrain the plant.
"Phloem loading is one of these feedbacks that have an effect on the ability of plants to intake carbon dioxide at the highest level," said McCaskill. Carbon dioxide, which is increasing in the Earth's atmosphere, is the major greenhouse gas that traps heat and warms the planet, McCaskill noted.
The new insights add to knowledge that could lead to the development of next-generation dedicated energy crops suited for both the production of fuels and energy, as well as for the production of negative emissions.
When crops are designed to take up more CO2 in their tissue, they become interesting for use in 'carbon negative' energy systems. Such systems utilize biomass to produce energy, while the carbon contained in it is captured before, during or after the combustion of the fuel, after which the greenhouse gas is sequestered geologically.
Such 'bio-energy with carbon storage' (BECS) systems go much further than wind, solar, nuclear or ordinary bioenergy - which are merely 'carbon neutral' energy sources. In fact, BECS systems take CO2 out of the atmosphere. Now the higher the CO2 uptake of energy crops used in BECS systems, the more carbon dioxide can be taken out of the atmosphere and thus the more value is created (as CO2 fetches a price on the market).
Picture: The plant on the left is the normal (wild type) Verbascum phoenecium L. The plant on the right is a transgenic Verbascum, modified so that sugars do not form into larger, more complex sugars. The yellowing is the result of the plant's inability to export sugars from the leaf. Credit: Ashlee McCaskill.
References:
Ashlee McCaskill and Robert Turgeon, "Phloem loading in Verbascum phoeniceum L. depends on the synthesis of raffinose-family oligosaccharides", PNAS, December 4, 2007, vol. 104, no. 49, pp. 19619-19624, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707368104
Cornell Chronicle: Research on how plants transport sugars could be of critical importance in era of global warming - December 20, 2007.
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