Chinese Kaidi plans to build a €1 billion wood biorefinery in Finland

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Some Finish media echoed on 10th February what might be the biggest Chinese investment in Finland to date. Renewable energy company Kaidi is planning to build a cutting-edge biodiesel plant in Kemi (Finland) and the cost would be €1 billion. Discussions with subcontractors and other stakeholders are ongoing. The final investment decision will be made by the end of 2016. The building process would start in 2017 and the plant could be operational by the end of 2019. In addition to hundreds of subcontracting jobs, the biorefinery would create 150 full-time positions once operational.

Kaidi Finland, which has been established in 2016, will be in charge of all the operational work and process optimization throughout the project. Moreover, it will manage all the cooperation with different stakeholders. The biorefinery will produce 200,000 metric tons of biofuel per year, of which 75% will be biodiesel and 25% biogasoline.

The feedstock used in the Kemi plant will be fully sustainable wood-based biomass. In addition to local energy wood, the biorefinery will be able to utilize harvesting remains and even leftover bark from the forest industry. Kaidi’s technology is based on:
  • Plasma gasification that converts organic matter into synthetic gas.
  • Syngas cleanup that scrubs and filters unwanted or damaging impurities apart from hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
  • The Fischer-Tropsch process is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons.
Kaidi has a pilot plant operating with this technology in Wuhan (China).

Kaidi Finland’s CEO is Pekka Koponen and its headquarters are located in Espoo (Finland). Pekka is also the founder of Spinverse Oy, Kaidi’s representative in Finland. Spinverse is leader in innovation consulting, specializing in propelling open innovation ecosystems, arranging funding and commercializing emerging technologies. Spinverse will help Kaidi to plan the biorefinery project.

Kaidi is looking for strategic partners, inter alia, the following work phases: process equipment and system manufacturing, major contract workers, biofuels research and development, procuring and supplying the feedstock. More information: www.kaidi.fi/ota-yhteytta/.

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