Bioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020 1

INTERNATI NAL

BIOFUELSECB Group Omega Green, a US$800m bet on Paraguay

TECHNOLOGYHydrogen - opportunity of the century?

MARKET & FINANCEJapan explores wood bioenergy sustainability

PELLETS Enviva completes plant acquisitions

HEAT & POWERNordFuel secures grant and environmental permit

”Whenever and wherever bioenergy is discussed”No. 4 September 2020 (112)

feature:

A

DVANCED RENEWABLE TRA

NSPO

RTATION FUELS

Bioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020 32 B ioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020

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INTERNATI NAL

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Dr Monica Normark, Chief Technol-ogy Officer (CTO) of the Swedish biomass conversion technology developers and providers, SEKAB E-Technology (photo Kristina Nilsson).

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I f there is one positive side-effect of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to remark on, then it would be its reduction effect on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – simply a result of emitting

sources, primarily from manufacturing industry and transportation, shutting down or scaling back. With lockdowns, travel restrictions, staycations and work-from-home recommendations, demand for air travel in particular had all but evaporated during the first half of 2020. According to figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), global commercial aviation flights averaged over 70 000 per day in January and February 2020 consuming an average of 4.3 million barrels-per-day (bd) of jet fuel. By end of April, at the height of the initial pandemic containment efforts, the average was 25 000 flights per day using 1 million bd. Demand has since inched up to around 45 000 flights per day in July and 1.6 million bd fuel consumption. While other modes of transport have contracted too, it is aviation that has been the hardest hit – comparing aviation’s fuel demand in July this year with July 2019 shows a 69 per-cent drop. Charts on global crude oil demand and prices for the same period are even more dramatic. From US$70.87/b for OPEC basket on January 6 to -US$37.63/b (!) for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on April 20, the lowest negative crude oil price ever recorded. Weekly average prices have since stabilized for all three categories (OPEC, Brent & WTI) to around US$40/b.

The immediate ramifications for oil refiners coupled with the distillation curve challenge (i.e. refining one unit of crude oil results in a constant given fraction of distillate groups) and the long-term outlook for crude oil has prompted some very recent and pretty significant shifts. In the United States (US), Phillips 66 revealed plans to reconfigure its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California (CA), to produce renew-able fuels only. If fully implemented and combined with the existing renewable fuel project, the “Rodeo Renewed” would be able to produce over 800 million gallons (≈ 3.02 billion litres) annually of renewable diesel, renewable gasoline, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), making it the world’s largest facility of its kind. In France, Total plans to invest over EUR 500 million to repurpose its Grandpuits refinery in Seine-et-Marne into a zero-crude platform for the production of 340 000 tonnes-per-annum of renewable fuels and bioplastics by 2024. Crude oil refining at the refinery is to be discontinued in the first quarter of 2021 and the storage of petroleum products to end in late 2023. In Finland, Neste is exploring the shut-down of its oil refinery operations in Naantali while transforming the Porvoo refinery operations to co-processing renewable and circular raw materials. Sweden's largest oil refiner and transportation fuels pro-ducer Preem has said that in the light of "new economic circumstances", it will cancel its proposed Resi-due Oil Conversion Complex (ROCC) project at its Lysekil refinery and focus on ramping up renewable fuel production instead.

While the global COVID-19 induced GHG emissions lull is anticipated to be temporary until such that countries and economies get back on their feet, it presents an opportunity for a global green recovery by building back better as highligted by numerous agencies such as the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). In her state of the European Union ad-dress on September 16, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed that the Euro-pean Commission is proposing to amend the proposed EU Climate Law with an increase the EU’s GHG 2030 emissions reduction target to least 55 percent compared to 1990 levels as an interim goal to the 2050 climate neutrality goal. The proposed plan, since presented by the Commission, also set out the leg-islative proposals to be presented by June 2021 to implement the new target. This includes revising and expanding the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS); adapting the Effort Sharing Regulation and the framework for land use emissions; reinforcing energy efficiency and renewable energy policies; and strengthening carbon dioxide (CO2) standards for road vehicles. The proposal has by and large been wel-comed by different stakeholders and agencies as both economically feasible and beneficial for Europe.

However, the forest industry sector warns against using forests as a "golden egg" to compensate for de-carbonisation non-delivery in other sectors. As noted by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), the European Green Deal is based on the idea that it needs to preserve the CO2 sequestration and sink ability of forest as well as biodiversity but still with the possibility of harvesting wood for economic uses. Europe's forests can play a bigger role in enabling the Green Deal in many policy areas while at the same time increase the annual carbon stock. Modern bioenergy systems and sustainable biomass have a key role to play in the EU heat and cooling sector, a sector which according to Bioenergy Europe, ac-counts 51 percent of final energy consumption in Europe and approximately 27 percent of EU carbon emissions. Although the new 2030 plan makes a clear link between the 2030 proposed target and the Circular Economy Action Plan, it misses taking into account the substitution effect thanks to forest-based products. Against this background, it is very encouraging that the European Forest Strategy – The way forward report, just voted in the AGRI Committee, has received the backing of the entire European forest to industry value-chain including the two sustainability certification brands FSC and PEFC. Hopefully the European Parliament (EP), where the report is currently at, will do the same.

Alan Sherrard

ADVANCING RENEWABLE TRANSPORT FUELS

Bioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020 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 112, 4-2020

Team

Anders HaakerEditor in chief Bioenergianders.haaker@ bioenergitidningen.se

Twitter:BioenergyIntl

www.bioenergyinternational.com

ADVERTISERSAAT Biogas Technology 18

Alvan Blanch Development Company 31

Bright Biomethane 22

BTG Bioliquids 31,36

Costruzioni Nazzareno 22

ECB Group 8,32

Fisker 25

Minimax Fire Solutions International 24

MoistTech Corp. 24

Münch-Edelstahl 22

O.Ö. Energiesparverband Insert

Recalor 24

Salmatec 2

Stela Laxhuber 20

Uniconfort 24

Vecoplan 16

Weltec Biopower 25

Kjell AnderssonInformation Secretarykjell.andersson@svebio.se

ARTICLES FEATURE: Advanced Renewable

Transportation Fuels

Putting Paraguay on the advanced biofuels map 6

SEKAB & Praj a timely match 8

Norsk e-Fuel plan Europe’s first commercial aviation e-fuel plant 10

Repsol first to produce biojet fuel in Spain 11

MRPL plans cellulosic ethanol plant in Karnataka 11

Successful start-up of Euglena's algae-to-biofuels demo 12

Clariant signs sunliquid license with Eta Bio 13

Danish Energy Island to power ambitious e-fuel project 14

Air Products, ACWA Power and NEOM sign US$5 billion green ammonia deal 15

Moving forward with Ultra Clean 16

BIOGAS

Landia secures orders to Romania and China 18

I&U Group commission novel biogas project in Kirovograd 19

HEAT & POWER

NordFuel secures investment subsidy and environmental permit 20

Norwegian government launches ‘Longship’ CCS 21

PELLETS

Enviva completes Greenwood and Georgia Biomass acquisitions 23

MARKETS & FINANCE

PIX Nordic 26

Germany passes 1.5 million tonnes milestone H1/2020 26

Japan explores wood bioenergy sustainability 27

EU's transport sector continues

to rely on oil 28

Jobs in renewables continue global

growth to 11.5 million in 2019 29

BIOFUELS EQUIPMENT DIRECTORY 2020 30

This is the 6th edition of the biofuels equipment directory. It is a listing of technology suppliers that serve the producers of liquid and liquefied transportation biofuels and renewable fuels

Haldor Topsoe to become global leader in carbon reduction tech 30

Keeping track of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil 33

TECHNOLOGY

Hydrogen - opportunity of the century? 34

Bioenergy Internat ional No 112, 4-2020 5

6 In February 2019, Brazil-headed ECB Group made

the headlines when it an-nounced that it had signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with the Government of Paraguay

to invest some US$800 million in building Omega

Green.

21 In a Government White Paper to the Norwegian Parliament,

the Norwegian Government proposes to launch the

‘Longship’ ('Langskip') carbon capture and

storage (CCS) project in Norway.

23 In the United States (US), Enviva

Partners, LP, already the world's largest

industrial wood pellet producer

recently com-pleted two pellet plant acquisitions – Greenwood and

Georgia Biomass. Combined the deals add almost 1.4 million tonnes of

annual production capacity.

34 Large-scale production of hydrogen can be an es-

sential piece of the puzzle if the EU is to succeed in making a green

restart of the economy after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

33 An administrative challenge facing oil refiners, and po-

tentially other downstream processors of pyrolysis

oil, is how to track the biogenic car-

bon through the refinery when the renewable feedstock is co-processed with conven-

tional fossil-based feedstock.

30 D e n m a r k -headed Hal-

dor Topsoe A/S, a global leader in high-performance technologies for the chemical and

refining industries has revealed a new

purpose and vision to lead the drive to reduce car-

bon emissions.

10 Norsk e - Fuel AS, a new European industry

consortium headquartered in Oslo, Norway, has

revealed plans to indus-trialize Power-to-Liquid

technology (PtL) for the European market.

19 In Kirovograd, Ukraine, I&U Group, a vertically inte-

grated agricultural holding engaged in crop farming

and sugar production, has officially commissioned

a 5.5 MW biogas power plant. Supplied by Austrian

biogas technology special-ists AAT Abwasser- und Ab-

falltechnik GmbH (AAT) together with its partner MNC Group, the

facility is a first-of-its-kind in the country.

New for 2020 is the inaugural edition of the

Bioenergy International Advanced Renewable

Transportation Fuels (ARTF) wall poster,

included as a supplement to this issue. It serves

as a graphic illustration of the various pilot,

demo and commercial advanced renewable

trasportation fuel facilities arount the world.

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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