St1 Biofuels Oy in Finland is a bioethanol producer making biofuel from food waste, which it claims can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80%.
The food-waste fuel is 85 parts ethanol blended with 15 parts gasoline components and additives, and is sold in Finland as Refuel or RE85. It can be used in flex-fuel vehicles.
St1 biofuel plants are located near the food waste source used in its production, usually on the sites of pastry and candy manufacturers or potato processors. The food waste used in the process is not edible. St1 uses small, automated plants at these sites to produce the fuel. The plants are controlled from one central location.
The plants use Ethanolix processing units devised by St1 to create a dilute biofuel using a process controlled by ABB’s Extended Automation System 800xA.
The biofuel mixture is later concentrated at St1’s central dehydration plant at Hamina Harbor, where it is blended with gasoline components and additives before being delivered to pumping stations around Finland as RE85.
A third site at Narpio is located on the site of a potato processor, creating a million liters of ethanol a year from potato slurry and starch waste water.
St1 plans to have up to15 automated bioethanol plants in operation by 2014. A fourth site for food waste is currently in the works in Vantaa and a fifth, in Lahti, Finland.
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