Bioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020 1

INTERNATI NAL

BIOFUELSLiquid Wind partners with Övik Energi on e-fuel

TECHNOLOGYTwin-shaft scissors and Archimedian screw

MARKET & FINANCEPellets enhancing EU's green recovery

PELLETS Impacts on US forest carbon pools

HEAT & POWERECLUSE steam network opens for expansion

”Whenever and wherever bioenergy is discussed”No. 5 November 2020 (113)

feature:

D

ISTR

ICT ENERGY - HEAT, POW

ER & COOLING

Bioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020 32 B ioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020

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INTERNATI NAL

No part of this publication may be repro-duced or stored in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher. Whilst every reasonable effort is made to check accuracy, all articles and informa-tion are published in good faith. Readers are advised to verify statements and facts direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher cannot, under any circumstances, accept any responsi-bility. Opinions expressed should not be construed as being those of the publisher. SI units and ISO 4217 currency codes are used as a matter of preference.

Kristina Säfsten, CEO of municipal energy company Övik Energi AB has every reason to smile. Togther with Liquid Wind, the company could become the world's first biomass combined heat (CHP) plant that uses its biogenic carbon emissions to pro-duce methanol (photo Sander Taats).

WOOD PELLETING PLANTSThe latest pellet mill type 65 – 1500 with 630 kW drive power reaches up to 12 t / h high quality level. It is the largest industry proven wood pelleting press in the market today. More than 60 large Kahl pelleting presses are installed just by the well-known US market leader. Recently pellet producers in Brazil (400.000 tons hardwood per year), Russia (2 × 150.000 tons per year) and Asia Pacific (already more than 40 large scale presses) have decided to install Kahl technology.

AMANDUS KAHL GmbH & Co. KGDieselstrasse 5–9 · 21465 Reinbek · Hamburg+49 (0)40 727 71-0 · info@akahl.de · shop.akahl.de · akahl.de

A ccording to the calendar (mid-November), we should be well into the 2020/2021 heating season up here in the northern hemisphere. For a home owner like the undersigned, that

usually means that the chimney sweep has swept and vetted the chimney during August/Sep-tember and pellet consumption begins to rise as the boiler transitions from hot water only mode to hot water and heat. The latter has yet to happen in earnest as it is still unseasonably warm. Good news for home economics, less so perhaps for pellet producers and district heat-ing suppliers. Nonetheless, according to a report from Bioenergy Europe, fossil fuels and oth-er non-renewable sources still dominate the European heating and cooling sector – 80% in 2018. This highly signif icant since space and water heating represent 75% of energy con-sumption in European homes, and as a whole, the heating and cooling sector represents 51 percent of f inal energy consumption in Europe and approximately 27% of EU carbon emis-sions. Thus decarbonising this sector is crucial for European carbon neutrality goals. Renewable heat solutions, including bioenergy, are key in making that happen. Indeed, Bioenergy Europe’s report shows that bioheat accounted for 85% of all renewable heat con-sumption in Europe in 2018 or almost 17 percent of the total energy sources used for heating. District heating with renewable heat and residual heat sources are an eff icient way to decar-bonise the heat supply in many European cities. While well established and prevalent in some countries such as the Nordic and Baltic states as reported in this issue, the concept of devel-oping distributed energy and associated infrastructure systems other than electricity and gas is catching on – Vattenfall Heat UK just one such example. Process heat represents more than 60% of energy use in the European manufacturing industry. Amazingly, Bioenergy Europe’s report also f inds that 99% of renewable heat used by industry in 2018 comes from biomass, demonstrating that bioenergy is fundamental in aiding the transition of industry to carbon-neutral energy systems, like the ECLUSE superheated steam network in Belgium.

Moreover, the report found that 49% of bioheat consumed in 2018 was found in the residen-tial sector, much of it supplied in the form of pellets as in the undersigned’s household. And as Bioenergy Europe points out, it is the small and medium appliances that dominate, with their modernization, correct maintenance, and installation becoming key to reducing fossil carbon emissions and curbing local air emissions. The association together with the Europe-an Pellet Council (EPC) has recently launched a new dedicated campaign initiative called Switch4Air that aims to raise awareness of how the bioenergy sector can contribute to the im-provement of air quality in Europe. With the impending heating season, there is a risk of an increased concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) emissions, largely a result of greater demand for household heating combined with outdated, ineff icient and neglected heating appliance stock. This includes open f ireplaces, old stoves, and boilers, which ought to be replaced. Promoting the deployment of highly eff icient and modern bioenergy domestic appliances, as well as supporting the replacement of older models, for example with a scrap-page scheme, and ensuring correct maintenance and installation, are key to PM reduction.

On October 14, 2020, the European Commission (EC) presented its Renovation Wave strat-egy, a plan meant to retrof it and modernize more than 200 million existing buildings in Eu-rope with better insulation and change of heating equipment or sources while also generating economic growth and raising the well-being standards for its citizens. The EU wants to at least double the pace of renovation of buildings over the coming decade, increasing the aver-age rate of renovation, from the current 1% to 2% annually by 2030, a total of 35 million building units over the decade. Renewable heat bodies have welcomed the overall tone of the initiative and its focus on increasing the share of renewables in the heating and cooling sector but call for the deployment of coherent measures, including a price on carbon, to ensure a faster fossil fuel phase-out combined with further market uptake of renewable solutions.

For district heat plants, the best is yet to come. Opportunities exist for some to become com-bined heat and power (CHP) plants by retrof itting with an ORC turbine, like VänerEnergi’s Töreboda heat plant. 2019 saw f ive district heat plants in Sweden add a total of 2 MWe new local capacity – and word just in is that Againity signed an order for ORC turbine no. 20 with a Swedish heat plant operator. Taking the opportunities with having a biomass-f ired heat and power facility even further is Övik Energi. Partnering with Liquid Wind on a novel commercial-scale bioenergy carbon capture and utilisation (BECCU) project, it could very well become the world’s f irst biomass CHP with eMethanol production.

Alan Sherrard

BIOHEAT TO MULTI-UTILITY CLIMATE SOLUTION

Bioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020 5

Dorota Natucka-Persson Sales, marketing, co-editor dorota.natucka@ bioenergyinternational.com

Alan Sherrard Editor in chiefalan.sherrard@ bioenergyinternational.com

Jeanette FogelmarkSales, marketing, productionjeanette.fogelmark@ bioenergyinternational.com

Markku BjörkmanReporterbjorkman7media@gmail.com

4 B ioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020

Team

Anders HaakerEditor in chief Bioenergianders.haaker@ bioenergitidningen.se

Twitter:BioenergyIntl

www.bioenergyinternational.com

ADVERTISERSAgainity 18

Amandus Kahl 2

CBI Europe 31

Costruzioni Nazzareno 24

CPM Europe 30

Dall Energy 24

Ferotec 31

Fisker 27

Heizomat-Gerätebau+Energiesysteme 32

Host / Bright Biomethane 24

IMAL 22

KPA Unicon Group 36

Lindner-Recylingtech 33

Minimax Fire Solutions International 26

MoistTech Corp. 26

Münch-Edelstahl 22

Pal 22

Polytechnik Luft-und Feuerungstechnik 24

Recalor 26

Salmatec 8

Stela Laxhuber 20

Uniconfort 26

Urbas Maschinenfabrik 16

Valmet Corporation 14

Vecoplan 34

Weltec Biopower 27

Kjell AnderssonInformation Secretarykjell.andersson@svebio.se

ARTICLES FEATURE: DISTRICT ENERGY

- HEAT, POWER & COOLING

Töreboda – home to glulam and VänerEnergi 6

Deep heat and biomass – an Espoo Clean Heat story 10

An ECLUSE example of green industrial heat 12

Toshiba ESS commission Japan's first large-scale BECCS plant 15

Uniconfort provides an eco-CHP solution for UK recycler 16

Dall completes core equipment installation at Sorø CHP 17

Sumitomo SHI FW awarded CFB boiler upgrade project in Austria 17

Vattenfall and Viridor partner to harness low carbon heat for UK cities 18

Liquid Wind secures site and CO2 for Sweden's first e-fuel facility 19

ACCIONA selected for Maryvale EfW project 20

AET to supply waste wood boiler to NOVAWOOD 21

Hargassner acquires Gilles 23

Heizomat – a Bavarian one-stop shop 23

Latvia – a bioheat KOMFORTS zone 25

PELLETS

Prodesa to supply new pelleting line for Enviva Pellets Greenwood 26

Canfor and Peak Renewables sign deal on Fort Nelson forest tenure 27

MARKETS & FINANCE

Pix Nordic 28

ENplus celebrates a decade of quality certification 28

Pellet industry impact on local US forests 29

Wood pellets enhancing EU's green recovery 29

SOLID FUEL

Getting technical with Lindner's twin-shaft shredders 30

SIZE REDUCTION & DENSIFICATION DIRECTORY 2020 31Size reduction and densification - two of the most widely established and used forms of solid biomass pre-treatment.

Andritz opens new ART Center in Austria 32

Vecoplan launches VPC 1600 pre-shredder 33

An asSUREd biomass sustainability scheme begins operations 34

Bioenergy Internat ional No 113, 5-2020 5

6 VänerEnergi AB is one of a growing number of

Swedish district heat com-panies retrofitting boilers with an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbine to become combined heat

and power (CHP) plants producing electricity for

self-consumption and/or the local grid.

34In Europe, SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES Verification

Scheme GmbH (SURE) has officially started

operations of a new "indepen-dent and cred-

ible certification system" to ensure sustainable use of biomass within the

energy sector.

12In March 2019, the very first large-scale industrial steam distribu-

tion network at the Waas-land Port in Antwerp,

Belgium officially began operations.

Called ECLUSE, the network distributes

process steam gener-ated from two waste-to-energy plants to five

chemical companies at the port reducing carbon

emissions while increasing en-ergy efficiency.

15 Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions

Corporation (Toshiba ESS) has commenced operations of a large-scale carbon cap-

ture and storage (CCS) facil-ity at the 50 MWe biomass-

fired Mikawa Power Plant.

28 The world-leading certification scheme for wood pellets cel-ebrates ten years of operations.

First launched in 2010, the ENplus certifica-

tion scheme has contributed to the

development of the premium pellet market by introducing and maintain-

ing harmonized pellet quality

along the entire supply chain.

19 P o w e r - t o -liquids (P tL)

developer Liquid Wind is partner-ing with municipal energy utility Övik Energi AB that

will provide carbon dioxide (CO2) and the

location for Sweden's first commercial-scale car-

bon capture and utilisation (CCU) electro-fuel (e-fuel) facility.

10In Finland, the City of Espoo has set a target

to make Espoo completely carbon neutral by 2030.

This target includes decarbonizing the

city’s district heating network operated by

energy utility major For-tum by smart and flexible

solutions such as deep heat and biomass.

25With over 700 successfully

completed projects since its founding

in 1991, Latvian biomass combus-

tion specialists SC KOMFORTS

Group has grown to become a well-rec-ognized brand amongst

district heating operators and wood processing industries.

6 B ioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020

PUTTING PARAGUAY ON THE ADVANCED BIOFUELS MAP

since then, things have progressed rapidly in Paraguay for the Omega Green project and ECB Group, an investment holding company belong-ing to Brazilian entrepreneur Erasmo Carlos Battistella, who also presented the project during the Swedish Bioenergy Association’s (Svebio) virtual Advanced Biofuels Conference in September.

– It is our boldest step to start up the first advanced biofuel plant in the southern hemi-sphere. With Omega Green we are providing solutions to one of the greatest problems facing humanity – a sustainable answer for transport and mobility. With this project, the ECB Group will produce a new generation of green biofuels for a changing world, remarked Eras-mo Carlos Battistella.

Background in Brazilian biofuelsECB Group may be a new name for some but is well established in the biodiesel world. Head-quartered in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sur

(RS), Brazil, ECB Group was founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Erasmo Carlos Battistella as a holding company with investments and strategic holdings in agri-energy companies, operating throughout the value chain such as biodiesel production, biofuels trading and renewable elec-tricity generation.

Via its subsidiary RP Biocombustíveis (R.P Bio), it owns biodiesel producer BSBIOS cur-rently the largest producer in Brazil with two production facilities. In addition to R.P Bio and BSBIOS, ECB Group’s current investment port-folio includes participation in R.P. BIO Switzer-land SA, ECB Brasil Ltda, and ECB Group Par-aguay, the developer of Omega Green.

Site acquired, partners selected and financing in placeIn September 2019, ECB Group revealed that it had selected a site in the town of Villeta about 45 km from the Paraguayan capital, Asunción for the 20 000 barrels-per-day (approximately 3.18

solid financial architecture that is very attractive for investors. We are making progress in sales agreements with different clients, Erasmo Car-los Battistella said.

Renowned technology providersOmega Green is touted as an innovative project, not only for introducing advanced renewable fuels in the Southern Hemisphere but for the production process that makes it an “unparal-leled enterprise” in terms of sustainability.

– Our goal is to have the cleanest renewable biofuel production possible, unique in the world, certified by the most rigorous interna-tional quality and sustainability criteria, said Erasmo Carlos Battistella.

Powered exclusively by renewable energy, Omega Green will have solutions designed spe-cifically to strengthen sustainability, such as generating steam from biomass and the treat-ment of all wastes and by-products, making the biorefinery complex fully sustainable and certi-fiable to the strictest international protocols. An early project draft suggested an installed energy capacity of 300 MW. This has since been revised to a “low-power” mode of production – 40 MW, an 85 percent reduction.

Apart from ACCIONA as the EPC, an-nounced technology suppliers for the landmark project include Crown Iron Works, thyssenk-rupp and Honeywell UOP, all of which are well-renowned global providers. Crown Iron Works will provide the oilseed extraction, oil and ani-mal fats pre-treatment technologies using re-newable hexane as the extraction solvent. Tech-nology major thyssenKrupp will provide the water electrolysis system that will use renewable electricity for green hydrogen production while Honeywell UOP will provide the hydrotreating stages to produce the final renewable products “Honeywell Green Diesel”, “Honeywell Green Jet Fuel” and green naphtha – the latter which will enable the development of green petro-chemicals and plastics.

Drop-in fuelsThe “Honeywell fuels” are chemically identical the their petroleum-derived counterparts but offer a 60 to 85 percent life cycle reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and provide better performance.

– The renewable diesel can be used blended with fossil diesel or up to 100 percent neat in the diesel engine of a truck from the 1960s and 70s, as well as in the latest generation of diesel en-gines developed in Europe and the United States without the need for adaptation. The technology

"Our goal is to have the cleanest renewable biofuel production possible, unique in the world, certified by the most rigorous

international quality and sustainability criteria."ERASMO CARLOS BATTISTELLA, CEO & FOUNDER ECB GROUP

In February 2019, Brazil-headed ECB Group made the headlines when it an-nounced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Paraguay to invest some US$800 million in building Omega Green. With its 20 000 barrels-per-day capacity it will be the largest second-generation biorefinery in the Southern Hemisphere.

we are going to use for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is already being used in the northern hemisphere and the HEFA SPK path-way has been approved by ASTM for use in commercial aircraft. We are working to obtain the international certifications that guarantee the safety and sustainability of this product from Omega Green, said Erasmo Carlos Battistella.

Vegetable oils, animal fats, and UCOA key technical aspect of the biorefinery is feed-stock flexibility. In principal, any type of vegeta-ble oil or animal fat can be used in the process. According to ECB Group, feedstock inputs will consist of only organic and renewable products, such as soybean oil produced in areas “without environmental liabilities”.

– We currently expect that around 60 percent of the feedstock will be vegetable oils sourced from Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay, around 35 percent will be animal fats sourced from Argen-tina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay while the remaining 5 percent will be used cooking oil (UCO) from Argentina, Brazil and China, said Erasmo Carlos Battistella.

He highlighted that the company is continu-ally evaluating additional feedstocks including non-edible oilseeds such as Carinata (Brassica carinata) and Pongamia oil (Millettia pinnata). The former is already being grown by farmers in Uruguay as a winter cover crop and is Roundta-ble on Biomaterials (RSB) certified whereas the latter is being developed in Paraguay. Originat-ing from India, Pongamia is a tree that produces oilseeds with high lipid content. Not considered an invasive species, robust cultivars have been developed suitable for the Paraguayan Chacco region. A nitrogen-fixing (leguminous) species, it does not require fertilizer or pesticides and can be grown as hedgerow/border trees or shade trees on cattle pastures. Furthermore, the bran from the oilseed crushing process can be used in animal feed.

– Irrespective of the feedstock, sustainability and GHG reduction is paramount and why the Omega Green biorefinery and its renewable fuels will be certified according to international standards such as California Air Resources Board (CARB), the International Sustainability and Carbon Standard (ISCC), and the Roundta-ble of Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), Erasmo Carlos Battistella stressed.

Unique conditions in ParaguayA question that comes to mind is why land-locked Paraguay and not Brazil for the project?

– In Latin America, we are moving part of the way towards a decarbonized economy. Brazil is the world’s second-largest ethanol producer and historically, has had a good starting point with policies to promote the use of biofuels. These are good policies that should be explored and promoted, just as a new level of social aware-ness of the effects of climate change is growing. By comparison, neighbouring Paraguay has only recently embarked on its biofuels journey but with clear ambition to be a reference, Battistella explained.

He added that Paraguay has unique condi-tions conductive to economic viability and the sustainability of the project.

– Paraguay is revealing its potential as an in-vestment destination in Latin America, actively positioning itself as a regional option to receive international investors and industrial, agribusi-ness and infrastructure projects. It is a country with a young educated population, a balanced economy, a significant supply of renewable en-ergy, growth potential for soybeans, supply of other raw materials for biofuels and a very fa-vourable business and logistics environment. There are sectors that have already developed rapidly in this context, such as the auto parts in-dustry, which is anticipated to generate US$600 million in annual exports, he explained further.

The Omega Green project is expected to be a significant boost to the local economy generat-ing 3 000 jobs during construction and 2 400 direct- and indirect jobs once the plant is opera-tional. It will also provide additional income to around 20 000 small-holder grower families and farmers in Paraguay. On a national economic level, the project is estimated to generate US$1 billion per annum in projected export revenues.

– It is no coincidence that the first large ad-vanced biofuel plant in Latin America is being promoted by a Brazilian company and in Para-guay – it is the logical result of years of activity. Omega Green is our great bet on the road to a decarbonised economy. Paraguay has a model for future development and we simply want to be part of this plan to transform the country into one of the world leaders in advanced biofu-els. Therefore, I am very proud to lead the US$800 million investment in Omega Green which, to date, is the single largest foreign in-vestment in the country, ended Erasmo Carlos Battistella.

Text: Alan Sherrard

Images: ECB Group

BI112/6618/AS

million litres) nameplate capacity plant – enough to meet over one-third of Paraguay’s current diesel fuel consumption.

Sited on the banks of the Paraguay river the Omega Green project also includes a terminal and logistics port for shipping products by wa-terway. The project secured global bank majors Barclays and UBS as financial partners and signed an Engineering, Procurement, and Con-struction (EPC) agreement with the Spanish company ACCIONA during November 2019.

In February this year, ECB Group disclosed that it was able to acquire the proposed site in Villeta for the greenfield project and was also granted “Zona Franca” status by the Paraguayan government. Construction was originally sched-uled to begin in the latter half of 2020 but on account of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it has been pushed forward to start in January 2021 with commercial operations an-ticipated in the first half of 2023.

– We have made great progress despite the pandemic. We have already closed on all the construction tenders, secured the necessary en-vironmental certificates and we have managed to become the Third Free Zone in the country, which gives us great legal security in the very long term and benefits for investors. We have a

FEATURE: ADVANCED RENEWABLE TRANSPORTATION FUELS

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