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renewablematter 11. 2016 Finnair Flies with Used Cooking Oil The Finnish commitment to the bioeconomy also takes to the skies. Finnair is one of the most active national carriers in trialling biofuels to run its aircrafts. From this point of view, one of the most emblematic flight was that of 23rd September 2014 – from Helsinki to the Big Apple on the occasion of the UN Climate Summit in New York – for which a mix biofuel derived from used cooking oil, mainly collected from restaurants, was utilized. “The UN Climate Summit is an important meeting to tackle climate change: we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the benefits of biofuels in the aviation industry,” stated Kati Ihamäki, Finnair’s Sustainable Development Deputy Chairman. After the 9-hour flight,
Finnair’s Airbus 330 demonstrated that flying using a mix of traditional fuel and used oil, provided by SkyNRG Nordic (a joint venture between SkyNRG and Statoil Aviation) is possible but it also cuts considerably the polluting impact of flying. The technology, already tested by other airlines, is safe and can offer tangible benefits for the environment. Its spreading though is hindered by high costs, double compared to normal kerosene. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Report provided some data on the contribution of the aviation industry to global warming: 2% of global man-made CO2 and 13% of fuels used by the entire transportation industry.
its targets: 1. A competitive operational environment to increase growth; 2. Support to new businesses through investments on risk capital, interdepartmental trials and cooperation; 3. A strong expertise base thanks to the development of education, training and research; 4. The availability of sustainable biomass, thanks to a raw material market in working order.” All this in an environment strongly relying on dialogue and debate. The bioeconomy strategy is the result of an interdepartmental cooperation led by the Ministry of Employment and Economy in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture, the Ministry of Culture and Education, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. In this dialogue, national stakeholders were also included: from research centres such as VTT to businesses that, as the very government points out, were consulted in five seminars, three regional forums and several sector enquiries. Pulp and Paper Colossuses Lead the Bioeconomy UPM, www.upm.com/ Pages/default.aspx Stora Enso, www.storaenso.com
Since forests are the undisputed protagonists of the national economy, pulp and paper colossuses, which own 10% of the Finnish forests – such as UPM, Stora Enso and Metsa Group – are leading the transition from the traditional economy to a more sustainable bio-based economy, thanks to the abundance of lignocellulosic biomass. So much so, that in Finland, the bio-based economy blends the wood-based economy. At European level, the flagship is the Metsa Fibre bio-product plant in Äänekoski (Central Finland). A €1.2 billion investment to reconvert a paper
mill of the Finnish company into a modern plant able to produce not only pulp (1.3 million tonnes per year) but also bio-products and bioenergy, increasing by 2% the country’s use of energy from renewable sources. The project has also benefitted from a €275 million loan from the European Investment Bank, 75 million of which were given by the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI). According to an analysis recently published by ETLA – The Finnish Institute for Economic Research – this investment, the biggest ever in Finland in the forestry sector, will generate about €2.4 billion in income for companies operating in the country just in its construction phase (2015-2018), with a total added value of €12 billion. When the plant will be up and running, that is form the third quarter of 2017, it is expected to create 2,500 new jobs in the entire value chain. Another Finnish giant in the paper sector (a yearly turnover exceeding €10 billion) fast becoming a leader in the world bioeconomy panorama is UPM. In the past few years, it has emerged as one of the main actors in the field of biofuels derived from wood. They represent a crucial element of UPM’s Biofore strategy aiming at making wood an alternative raw material to fossil sources in a logic of total circularity. The Finnish company’s flagship of this sustainable vision is the Biofore concept car, presented for the first time at the International Geneva Motor Show in 2014, where all the parts traditionally made of plastic have been replaced by high-quality biomaterials derived from wood and the engine runs on a new biodiesel also derived from wood (UPM BioVerno). In its biorefinery in Lappeenranta, UPM produces 100,000 tonnes, about 120 million litres,