The foundation stone for the first industrial-scale bio-oil power plant was laid on Friday, November 2 in Joensuu, eastern Finland. A unique aspect of the bio-oil plant is that it will operate as part of the current CHP power plant. Once in operation Fortum’s power plant will not only generate electricity and district heat but also 50,000 tons of bio-oil annually.
Initially, bio-oil will replace the heavy fuel oil used, for example, at Fortum’s heating plants. The Joensuu bio-oil plant’s annual bio-oil production of 50,000 tons corresponds to the heating needs of more than 10,000 single-family homes.
The solution has been under development by Metso Power, in partnership with Fortum, UPM and VTT, since 2007. The development work reached a high point with the first commercial-scale deal - signed with Fortum in March 2012.
A time capsule containing the plant’s blueprints, coins from this year and the current edition of the newspaper Karjalainen was buried together with the foundation stone for future generations. The foundation stone was laid by Fortum’s CFO, Markus Rauramo, Finland’s Minister of Labor, Lauri Ihalainen, and the President of Metso’s Power business line, Jyrki Holmala.
"A plant such as this one, integrated with the existing electricity and heating plant, is unique in the world. Soon we will have the world’s first combi-plant, generating electricity, heat and bio-oil,” Timo Partanen, Fortum’s Regional Director for eastern Finland, told Finland’s YLE broadcasting company.
“The demonstration of pyrolysis technology is also an indication of our company’s strategy of offering energy solutions in which technologies related to fuel refining have been brought forth alongside traditional combustion. We are naturally commercializing our pyrolysis technology globally, and reference plants such as the one in Joensuu will be extremely valuable in our future success,” Jyrki Holmala said in his ceremonial speech.
