Policy and practice, is Europe ready for advanced biofuels?

Dr Gloria Gaupmann, Head of Public Affairs, Technology & Innovation, Clariant, Germany, Panu Routasalo, Vice President, UPM, Finland, and Henrik Henriksson, CEO, Scania, Sweden.

The latest European policy, energy system transition to renewable fuels, partnerships, along with world class R&D and new technologies – with all the leading companies will be presented at the 5th Advanced Biofuels Conference that will take place on 17–19 September, 2019, in Stockholm. The event aims to provide insights on the latest on renewable transportation fuels, novel technologies and what is going on in biofuels policy and new production capacity. Listen to insights from Clariant, UPM and Scania.:

Dr Gloria Gaupmann, Head of Public Affairs,
Technology & Innovation, Clariant, Germany: 

50 000 tonnes of advanced cellulosic ethanol with the new Sunliquid plant

Straubing outside Munich, Germany is where global speciality chemical major Switzerland-headed Clariant AG operates a cellulosic ethanol demonstration facility producing ethanol from various feedstock such cereal straw, corn stover and bagasse. Built in 2012, the Straubing facility uses Valmet’s hydrothermal pre-treatment technology (steam explosion) followed by Süd-Chemie’s proprietary “Sunliquid” process technology (hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation) – Süd-Chemie began in 2009 with developing the process and the company was acquired by Clariant. Although licensing the sunliquid technology is the preferred business model, Clariant broke ground in September 2018 on an own commercial scale sunliquid plant which is being built in Podari, Romania. At the same time, the company is engaged in several European biochemical and advanced biofuel projects – after all ethanol is a platform chemical and a cellulosic-derived second-generation ethanol with very low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is perhaps an attractive option.

• Dr Gloria Gaupmann speaks on Thursday 19 September in the session
  ”Future for road transport  – Where are we heading?”

Panu Routasalo, Vice President, UPM, Finland:
From Paris to Practice – How to scale up the advanced biofuels industry

Global forest industry UPM caused a stir back in 2015 when it opened its ISCC and RSB certified biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland, to convert Crude Tall Oil from its pulp operations into renewable diesel, naphtha, turpentine, and pitch. UPM has plans for a possible second biorefinery in Finland that would use RSB certified mustard seed oil. In the meantime, UPM is investing around US$3 billion in a new greenfield eucalyptus pulp mill in Uruguay. Further more, the company has taken a firm position in the biochemicals and bioplastics sectors having recently rolled out 100% wood-based liquid packaging solutions and has just launched the world’s first 100% wood-based label film.

• Panu Routasalo speaks on Wednesday 18 September in the session ”Political strategies and visions – How to reduce transport emissions and dependency on fossil fuels”.

Henrik Henriksson, CEO, Scania, Sweden:
Biofuels – The fastest way to cleaner transport

As far as global heavy vehicle manufacturers go, Scania – the Swedish (green) truck, bus and engine manufacturer – is something of a pioneer. While involved in various heavy vehicle electrification and hybrid projects, the company also develops biofueled powertrain solutions based on Internal Combustion Engines. These include (bio)gas,biodiesel/HVO and ethanol (ED95) – the latter pioneered by Scania and SEKAB. Furthermore, the company has committed to slash its own operational greenhouse has emissions by 50% by 2025 compared to 2015, thanks in part to a SEK 1.5 billion (≈ EUR 140 million) investment in a new foundry.

• Henrik Henriksson speaks on Wednesday 18 September in the session ”Political strategies and visions – How to reduce transport emissions and dependency on fossil fuels”.

To the programme and registration