SunPine to build a new crude tall diesel plant in Sweden

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

SunPine is a Swedish company focused on the production of renewable fuels and is owned by Kiram, Preem, Sveaskog, Södra and Lawter. Its Piteå biorefinery transforms crude tall oil (a byproduct from pulp and paper manufacturing) into crude tall diesel (raw material for biofuels), bio-oil (green fuel oil used in the paper industry) and rosin (raw material for printing inks and adhesives). The crude tall diesel from the plant is mixed with Preem’s Evolution Diesel.

The owners of SunPine have decided to invest in a completely new facility in Piteå (press release, 4/4/2018). Magnus Edin, SunPine CEO, said: “The market for our sustainable tall diesel fuel is growing, and we want assume responsibility for the Swedish shift to renewable fuels. The main aim is to increase tall diesel production capacity, which – as Sweden’s only diesel fuel carrying the Nordic Eco-label – is supplied to consumers via Preem”.

Figure 1. Model of the new biorefinery (extracted from the press release)

Those are the key data of the new facility:
Location
Adjacent to the company’s existing plant at Haraholmen (Piteå, Sweden).
Capacity
It will increase tall diesel fuel capacity by 50%.
The existing plant has a yearly production of 100,000 m3 of raw tall oil diesel.
Investment
250 million SEK (around 24 M€)
Employment
20 new direct jobs and significantly more resulting from all the services needed.
Timeline
The environmental permit application will be submitted during this spring, after which the procurement of equipment and services will begin.
Expected start-up: 2020.

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