Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.2. Environmental burdens from cradle to customer for Borregaard's products (Modahl Saur and
Vold, 2010). Transport to customer (100 km) is included.
Ethanol
Ethanol
Lignin
Lignin
Environmental impact
Cellulose
(96%)
(99%)
(liquid)
(powder)
Vanillin
[m
3
]
[m
3
]
category
Unit
[BDt]
[BDt]
[BDt]
[BDt]
Global warming potential
kg CO
2
-eqv.
1160
324
666
666
1120
1090
Acidification potential
kg SO
2
-eqv.
10.6
4.5
7.2
7.9
10.8
10.5
kg PO
3
4
-eqv.
Eutrophication potential
3.56
2.17
2.68
3.04
5.14
3.12
Photochemical ozone
kg C
2
H
4
-eqv.
0.77
0.29
0.49
0.5
0.78
0.75
creation potential
Ozone depletion potential
9.3
×
10
−
5
2.6
×
10
−
5
5.1
×
10
−
5
4.9
×
10
−
5
1.1
×
10
−
4
8.9
×
10
−
5
kg CFC-11-eqv.
Cumulative energy
MJ
LHV
32993
8718
18084
18216
31481
36490
demand
Waste (solid)
kg
1386
408
793
701
1639
1330
BDt, Bone Dry tonne. Values on dry basis. For ethanol, the water content is subtracted.
environmental impact of our products (Modahl Saur and Vold, 2010). It was concluded that
both the cellulose, bioethanol, vanillin, and lignin chemicals compared favorably to fossil-based
equivalent products. As an example, vanillin from wood is associated with only 10% of the CO
2
emission of vanillin from petrochemicals.
It is also worth noticing that the remaining fossil fuels make a notable contribution in the
figures in Table 8.2. Thus, these will be further improved when the use of fossil oil is eliminated.
8.5 THE FUTURE
The circumstances have changed greatly since the start of Borregaard. The once cheap labor and
raw materials are now expensive relative to the other parts of the world. The financial situation
has improved and so has also the local chemical and technical competence. This makes it possible
to continue on the specialization and innovation path so fruitful in the past. The commercial goal
is to always have more than 20% of the sales coming from products introduced to the market
during the last 5 years.
The lignin and pulp production in the mill is continuously improved. This is done by optimizing
the cooking and bleaching recipes, utilizing only the necessary amounts of chemicals and energy
to obtain the target grades. Most of the investments in the mill the last 20 years have been of an
environmental nature. Gaseous and liquid streams are collected and used in energy production.
More efficient pulp washing equipment has been installed.
Another example of continuous improvements is a common control room for all the plants in
the mill area (Kristiansen, 2010). The process from wood chips to marketable products is highly
complicated and integrated, involving many different plants and departments. A common control
room for all plants integrates the process control and makes it more efficient. It also reduces the
need for manual labor.
Borregaard is also investigating the possibility to convert even more of the wood to marketable
products. This will be interesting when the cost of products based on petrochemicals increases
due to an increasing oil price. One example may be the acetovanillone mentioned above, which
manufacturing was stopped due to cheaper alternatives made of fossil oil.
Borregaard needs to be competitive also in the future and to further increase the chemical and
technical competence in the biorefinery area. Borregaard has therefore allocated more resources
both for laboratory research and a pilot plant (Rødsrud
et al
., 2011). Borregaard strategy is to
move in the direction of an “ideal process” depicted in Figure 8.6. This is in contrast to making
fuel (e.g. ethanol) out of high cost wood raw materials.
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