Swedish Mills to Use Algae to Make Biofuels from Waste Streams
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Culturing of algae could provide environmental benefits and new business opportunities for pulp and paper mills around the world, according to the Sweden-based cluster organization The Paper Province, which is using the idea to launch a new project in Sweden. Together with a number of stakeholders, The Paper Province recently conducted a feasibility study on how microalgae could be used to make biofuel from mill residues.
The idea is that algae use nutrients in the mills' warm wastewater and bind carbon dioxide from waste gas. Algae could be used to produce biofuel, biooil, and/or biogas. The new process will reduce eutrophication and carbon dioxide emissions and create new revenue streams for mills, The Paper Province notes.
"This is a very exciting project that ties together a range of stakeholders. The project will hopefully contribute to increased profitability for the mills," said Magnus Persson, head of The Paper Province's center for energy efficiency, Energy Square.
Now pilot studies, starting in the fall of this year, are to be done at Nordic Paper Bäckhammar, a mill producing around 200,000 metric tpy of unbleached pulp and 130,000 metric tpy of unbleached kraft paper.
The project is supported by Vinnova, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems.
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