Bio-oil plant, based on fast pyrolysis technology, which will be integrated with the combined heat and power production plant (CHP) and will produce electricity and district heat.
It will also produce 50,000 tons of bio-oil per year and bio-oil raw materials which will include forest residues and other wood based biomass.
Fortum vice president heat division Jouni Haikarainen said the integration of different production processes to power plants is the starting point of a new era in the energy sector.
"Fortum’s CHP plant in Joensuu will gain a totally new role in the value chain as we will not only be capable of producing electricity and heat, but also of a third product – bio-oil," said Haikarainen.
Construction work of the bio-oil plant will commence this year and the plant is expected to be in production in 2013.
Fortum’s bio-oil project received EUR8.1m in a new technology investment from the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The total value of the investment is about EUR 30m.
The new technology has been developed in cooperation between Fortum, Metso, UPM and VTT as part of TEKES Biorefine research program.
