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Processum’s project number 100

It
is run by the Swedish-Norwegian co-operation project "Biorefinery
Midscandinavia" and the project partners are Processum Biorefinery Initiative,
PFI, Metsa Board Sweden, Viken Skog (a Norwegian forest owner association) and
the Bergen University.

Lignin
is an aromatic polymer, which is released in the pulp mills' sulphate cooking
sequence and ends up in the black liquor, it is then burnt and transformed into
heat energy in the recovery boilers. When pulp mills are run increasingly
energy efficient there may be an energy surplus in the form of steam. This
energy surplus makes it possible to remove some of the lignin from the process,
thus relieving the recovery boiler.

"It
is a highly interesting project which might lead to less need of fossil fuels,"
says David Blomberg, project leader Processum. "We study the possibilities to
produce bio oil by depolymerizing the lignin to smaller components. The liquid
bio oil might be suitable as a substitute for heating oil internally at a pulp
mill as well as externally."

"Sometimes
during the year we have an energy surplus, enabling us to remove lignin. This
would relieve the recovery boilers and also give us the possibility to refine
the lignin," says Stina Drotz, Laboratory Manager, Metsa Board Husum Mills. "We
hope that this trial will result in a technical possibility to convert lignin
towards bio oil, thus generating a new "green" product."

The
project will be finalized during this autumn.