The project to establish a biorefinery connected to SCA’s Östrand’s pulp mill in Sweden is proceeding according to plan. Environmental permit application for SCA’s biorefinery submitted, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network
Production will process waste products from the plant and sawmill in the region into renewable hydrocarbons. These renewable hydrocarbons can be used to manufacture different kinds of vehicle fuels, chemicals, plastics, dyes, medical preparations and much more.
“Our mission in this phase of the project is to secure external permitsgranting SCA permission to establish a biorefinery in Östrand. The detailed development plan gaining legal force in December was an important milestone in the project. We believe this will make other permit processes easier, since the site’s suitability has been tested. The next step is to submit the environmental permit application to the Land and Environmental Court in Östersund this week. This relates to both a new environmental permit for the biorefinery as well as some amendments to the pulp mill’s environmental permit. In the permit for the biorefinery, we’re also applying for a water ruling that will allow a land extension into the water to make room for the facility. In total, we need around 23 hectares for the facility that we want to build,” says Roger Östlin, SCA’s Senior Project Manager for the project.
The production volume specified in the application of renewable hydrocarbon at Östrand’s refinery is more than the aviation fuel used for domestic flights within Sweden.
The project’s climate benefit is calculated to be a net greenhouse gas reduction of approximately 1.2 million CO2equivalentsper year.
“Our ambition has been to submit as strong an application as possible to avoid substantial revisions later on. The authorities have an extensive amount of material to go through – 2,500 pages. A realistic estimate is that we can be called to a court hearing within one to one and a half years. Other permit processes are ongoing in parallel with this, for example to move power lines. If everything goes as we hope, we’ll have permission secured within a few years. I want to make it clear that no decision has been made within SCA that the biorefinery will be built. First and foremost, we need to have all of our permits in place before we can begin plans to build a new plant,” continues Roger.
Work has been conducted in close cooperation between different business areas at SCA and with external consultants.
