Reform of the Forest Industry Through Innovation
Developed and produced at the Lappeenranta mill site, UPM’s renewable diesel is a good example of the transformation of the forest industry. Finnish innovation helps the industry expand into new fields. Jaakko Nousiainen tells the story of BioVerno, UPM’s renewable diesel.
The story began nearly a decade ago when the management of UPM was looking into expanding the company’s operations from traditional wood and paper industries into new fields. One of the ideas discussed was biofuels.
Soon enough, UPM started research on converting wood mass to biofuel by gasification. Another approach to biofuel production was to utilise the side streams from pulp and paper production, but initially this option did not get as much attention.