Neste Oil and St1 have begun working together on a fuel project as part of the TransEco development program coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
The project will focus on developing cost-efficient solutions tailored to Finnish conditions that will enable the 20% biocomponent target set for car fuel in 2020 as part of national climate goals to be achieved. The majority of the funding for the fuel project will come from the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, with the remainder accounted for by VTT, Neste Oil, and St1.
Finland has been a pioneer in making use of bioenergy and developing low-emission traffic fuels, and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy is now giving further support to the development of new biofuels through the recently launched TransEco program.
The joint project between VTT, Neste Oil, and St1 will concentrate on car fuels, as a number of other projects are already working on biofuel research related to trucks and other heavy vehicles. St1 will concentrate on optimizing high-blend bioethanol designed to replace fossil gasoline for Finnish conditions and minimizing the environmental impact of its use; while Neste Oil will focus on developing other biocomponents suitable for blending with conventional gasoline. The participation of both companies is expected to generate significant added value, as sharing findings has been highlighted as a key priority for all those involved.
"Neste Oil has already launched Neste Green diesel fuel in Finland, which contains a minimum of 10% NExBTL renewable diesel," says Simo Honkanen, Senior Vice President, Sustainability and HSSE. "Neste Oil's NExBTL renewable diesel can be blended with conventional fuel very flexibly and even used as such. Whatever the proportion used, no modifications are needed either to vehicles or fuel distribution systems. When our current round of capital projects are completed in 2011, Neste Oil will have close to 2 million t/a of renewable diesel capacity on stream. What is important now is to find new alternatives in the gasoline area, to ensure that Finland can retain its position as a pioneer in biofuel usage and achieve the tough targets that have been set - and even exceed them. We have an extensive R&D program in place aimed at developing new types of raw materials for biofuel use and new types of biofuels. As part of this, we have built a demonstration facility in Varkaus with Stora Enso to process and refine forest-derived biomass into traffic fuel."
"The oil industry has proposed increasing the biocomponent content of traffic fuels in Finland on a phased basis to 10% by 2015," says Jari Suominen, Director, Renewable Energy of St1. "This would enable us to reach the EU target for 2020 significantly earlier than would otherwise be the case, and would allow us to target 20% in the same time frame. St1 is already pressing ahead in this direction with its launch of Refuel RE85, a high-blend bioethanol. We have been building a network of ethanol plants across Finland since 2007, and our goal is to produce around 300,000 m3/a of ethanol for traffic fuel use from waste and sidestreams by 2020. We believe that Finland needs a range of alternative biofuel solutions as we go forward. The ability of vehicles to use high-blend biofuels represents a major challenge in this respect, which is why it will be essential to increase the number of new vehicles on the road if we want to boost demand for biofuels and make these fuels more widely available. The TransEco fuel project has the potential to make a valuable contribution here, as it will offer an excellent opportunity for the authorities, researchers, and others in the field to work closely together to achieve common goals."
Cutting traffic-related energy usage and emissions
Current targets call for a significant reduction in the amount of energy used by vehicles and the volume of greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere, together with an increase in the use of renewables, by 2020. VTT's five-year TransEco research program has been designed to help reduce overall energy usage on the roads and increase the use of renewable energy in this area, and will focus both on developing new technology and commercializing the results of R&D work.
Renewable energy in this respect covers both biofuels and green energy. VTT will investigate the use of electric and hybrid vehicles in a range of operating environments and road conditions in other TransEco projects; while Metropolia University of Applied Sciences will research new types of electrical power trains for vehicles and machinery.
