BillerudKorsnäs’ tall oil and pitch oil from pulp mills
11 April 2017
BillerudKorsnäs AB
Description
A by-product in the manufacture of kraft pulp is tall oil consisting of pitch substances. At BillerudKorsnäs and many other forest companies, this is sent to a chemical plant for extraction of different rosins before the residual (pitch oil) is returned and used as biofuel in the pulping process. This biofuel could also be used as fuel in general, thereby replacing fossil fuels. The raw material from BillerudKorsnäs comes from sustainable forestry.
Added value
Our by-product adds value for the chemical industry:
- We have very limited use of fossil fuels. The goal is to have zero fossil use.
- By doing so, our by-product is important for making other bio-based products and for us to have bio-based fuel.
- The amount of by-product is proportional to the amount of pulp produced. In other words, the higher the pulp production the more tall oil (crude tall oil).
- Roughly about 20,000 ton crude tall oil per year for a normal-sized Swedish mill (production 600,000 ton/year).
Challenges
- There are more regulatory restrictions for bio-fuels than for the use of fossil based fuels. This is a disadvantage for bio-fuels in general.