Finnish forestry and paper group Metsä and Veolia are starting the construction of a biomethanol plant in Finland. The plant, which will be able to produce around 12,000 tonnes of biomethanol a year, is scheduled to start production in 2024, according to Veolia. This is one year later than had been expected when the project was originally announced in 2020. The investment costs now amount to about €50m, up from an estimated €30m two years ago.
Veolia sees great potential in the process to be implemented at Metsä Fibre's Äänekoski pulp and bioproducts mill. The French environmental services company says the concept could be applied at about 80 per cent of all pulp mills worldwide. In this way, about 2 million tonnes of additional biomethanol for fuels could be produced locally each year, explained Veolia COO Estelle Brachlianoff....
