French firm Global Bioenergies has joined a consortium of Swedish firms Preem, Sekab and Sveaskog to develop a high-performance fuel entirely based on forest resources.

In April 2016, Preem, Sekab and Sveaskog partnered to develop a gasoline fuel using forest resources.

Under the bio-based gasoline project, a collaboration agreement has been signed by the consortium to undertake a conceptual scope study for a first plant in Sweden.

Sekab E-Technology AB vice-president Thore Lindgren said: “The Bio-Based Gasoline Project will enable the large scale commercial deployment of our CelluAPP wood-conversion technology and will demonstrate how it can open the forestry sector to the vast new array of markets and in the first instance to high performance bio-based gasoline”.

The bio-based gasoline project will combine Sveaskog's forestry activities, Sekab's biomass-to-sugar conversion process, Global Bioenergies' wood-sugars to Isobutene process, and Preem's gasoline production processes, blending and retailing activities.

Supported by the Swedish Energy Agency, the project is expected to reduce Sweden’s dependence on fossil transport fuels and maximize regional impact.

The consortium plans to study various plant scenarios over the coming months to profitably convert forestry products and residues into bio-isooctane.

Bio-isooctane is 100-octane rating, high-performance bio-based gasoline derived from bio-isobutene, Global Bioenergies said.

Preem business development engineer Stefan Nystrom said: “The ability to produce drop-in, high performance bio-based gasoline in Sweden from residuals of the Swedish forestry is a central brick in our strategy and commitment to the environment.

“This partnership offers an entirely new technical solution to produce well known, high performance molecules such as isooctane and to establish a new bridge between our country’s forest and our consumers need for sustainable energy sources”.

The cooperative project is planned to enter service during the year 2016/17.


Image: Swedish firms are developing high-performance fuel based on forest resources. Photo: courtesy of think4photop/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.