Chemrec To Break Ground At Biofuel Demonstration Plant Site

In September, Chemrec will begin construction on their BioDME biorefinery test plant project in Pitea in Sweden. The pulp mill will be integrated with BioDME (dimethyl ether) and is hoped to yield biofuel by the middle of 2010.

The project is aimed at researching the effectiveness of producing biofuel from forest biomass. The biomass taken from forested areas will be used at the plant to produce advanced diesel fuel as an alternative to fossil fuels. The diesel fuel will mostly likely be demonstrated in commercial vehicles carry heavy loads once the plant is completed.

Chemrec has been focusing on producing green fuels from paper products and pulp mills. The company has already undertaken other such demonstration plants in the past to show how pulp products can be used to produce high grade diesel. 

AB Volvo, a truck manufacture also based in Sweden, used the biodiesel produced by Chemrec’s plants in a biofuels study to show that the DME from forested wood processed by black liquor gasification did in fact produce the most effective, efficient biodiesel. Chemrec’s diesel yielded the highest miles per acre ratio per year over all other tested biofuels.

“The potential of our technology to transform pulp mills into biorefineries is good news for the paper industry, which is struggling today against foreign competitors and the overall reduction in demand for paper products. Biorefinery mills not only will continue to produce pulp but will have a second revenue stream — high value, renewable green fuels and green chemicals for which the demand is steadily growing,” said Richard LeBlanc, CEO of Chemrec.

Thanks to renewableenergyworld.com for the above quote, for more information on this story please visit their website.