Inauguration of BioDME Plant at Smurfit Kappa Mill in Sweden Set for September 9

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Chemrec AB, Sweden, on September 9 is inaugurating the world's first plant for production of the renewable fuel BioDME in Piteå, Sweden. BioDME is a "climate neutral" biofuel produced from forestry feedstock, and is primarily intended for use in heavy vehicles. The fuel allows greenhouse gas emission reductions of up to 95% compared with conventional diesel fuel. The global potential for BioDME, Chemrec notes, is around 30 million tons of diesel equivalents per year, enough to fuel a million heavy trucks.

The BioDME pilot plant is built at the Smurfit Kappa pulp and containerboard mill in Piteå, and uses the pulping process by-product black liquor to produce the fuel. The biofuels process is based on gasification technology from Chemrec AB and fuel synthesis technology from Haldor Topsøe A/S. Volvo Trucks, Swedish fuels company Preem, French oil and gas giant Total, auto parts company Delphi, and local research institute ETC are also participating in the project. The BioDME produced is used in a truck test fleet from Volvo. Operators of the vehicles include DHL, Green Cargo, and Posten Logistics.