Händelös in Norrköping in Sweden is like a beautiful ecological park. It is very green and full of trees. From the city center to Händelös, one goes through a long corridor of oak trees which is called walking street, even though people can drive in. In the middle of the forests, one sees the plant. Today we have a look at the ethanol production in Linköping, Sweden.
Ethanol or food?
Ethanol is the most widely used biofuel in Sweden. Lantmännen Agroetanol based in Händelös is Sweden's only large-scale producer of grain-based fuel ethanol with its large production plant.
Ethanol plant in NorrkopingAccording to Jonas Hansson, Manager of Sales and Trading in Lantmännen Agroetanol Company, Lantmännen is one of the Nordic largest groups in food, energy and agriculture. It is owned by 44 thousand Swedish farmers, has around 13 thousand employees and operates in 19 countries in the world.
To deal with climate change issue and reduce the emission of CO2, Lantmännen Agroetanol opened its first ethanol plant in 2001. It was set up in cooperation with major oil companies in order to test ethanol's credentials as a biofuel and lay the groundwork for an expanded use of ethanol in the future. But only after two years, all the advantages of ethanol has been shown to the oil companies.
Customer demand for ethanol has been increasing since then. It is estimated that the demand will be 500 million litres by the end of the year. To face the challenge of this market, Lantmännen Agroetanol is now expanding its plant to quadrupling its production in Norrköping.
The new production line will also use grain which are mainly wheat and barley. It will require some additional 400 thousand tones of grain, which is equivalent to Sweden's current grain export. Lantmännen Agroetanol's total ethanol production capacity is estimated at about 210 million litre, based on a total of 550 thousand tonsof grain.
Jonas Hansson (L) and Erik Herland "It depends on our customers' needs. Currently we produce ethanol to supply for the 5% needs in the market. We hope in 2010, the EU will approve 10% of ethanol use in the market. We are expanding." said Jonas Hansson.
On the question whether ethanol should be blamed for the cause of food crisis, Erik Herland, Director of Economic Policy in Lantmännen Agroenergi said he didn't think so.
"We produce both heat and electricity and animal feed while producing food and ethanol as we use a combined operating system. Food is the major part and ethanol only uses 7% of the total wheat or barley we have grown. So far, the food industry is still the bulk part that makes money. But we can utilize straws and wheat to produce ethanol which not necessarily affects food supply. Our input and output ratio is 1 to 5 compared with those who only produce ethanol." Herland explained that the key is cooperation between different players and all actors can benefit from the same resources as they use different parts of the resources. For example the waste of ethanol plant can be used by the biogas plant to produce biogas.
In Sweden, ethanol is widely used. Oil companies blend five percent of ethanol into all 95-octane petrol. Ethanol has very good combustion properties and therefore acts well as an additive to petrol.
Ethanol is also used for the production of ETBE(an octane-enhancing additive to petrol), E85 (a petrol with an ethanol content of 85 percent for fuel-flexible vehicles) and bus fuel(for the use of ethanol in buses).
When using a low ethanol blend, the engine needs no modifications. However, when running on E85 or pure ethanol, modifications to the fuel and spark ignition systems are required, experiments show.
Environmental thinking at every stageThe environmental aspect of ethanol production is very important.to Lantmännen Agroetanol. With Eon's thermal power plant, a German company locating nearby, biofuel can be converted into electricity and steam. Agroetanol then use the electricity and steam in the ethanol plant, explained Herland.
In addition to ethanol, the Norrköping plant also produces protein-rich crops for animal feeding. The majority of this raw material is supplied to animal feed factories and farms throughout the country, and a smaller quantity is sold for the production of biogas. The by-product of the fermentation involved in ethanol production is carbon dioxide, which can be used as an additive to soft drinks for example soda water or for food chilling or liquid CO2 which is widely used all over the world.
Statistics show that during the manufacturing process, one part of fossil energy is required to produce between 5 and 7 parts of renewable energy and 2.65kilogram of wheat can produce 1 litre ethanol(E100) and 0.85 kg feed for animals.
Ethanol is a renewable biofuel which can reduces people's dependence on oil. Lantmännen Agroetanol plays an important role in the transition from fossil energy to bioenergy in Sweden.
According to Hansson, the greenhouse gas emissions of Lantmännen's ethanol are only 20 percent those of petrol, calculated along the whole chain from production to car. Ethanol from Lantmännen Agroetanol consists of locally produced raw materials, which reduces transportation, while promoting employment in the area.
Farmers won't put all eggs in one basketAccording to Erik Herland, Director of Economic Policy, right now, the food sector is more profitable than energy sector. But that varies, so they will try to balance.
"The farmers don't want to rely on only one market. They want to produce a number of products, and they want us to manufacture, they are very smart because that will be safer for them to produce food as well as energy. For instance, food from the kernel, and energy from the straw", said Herland.
Currently, biofuel only accounts for 4% of the total local energy supply.
"We shouldn't be shortsighted, we should be longsighted and expand our capacity to produce biofuel in addition to food. And I think it is imperative to develop the second generation of technology so that we can make full use of the crops. Sweden is in a fantastic position in this field." Said Herland.
The EU biofuel Directive provides that by 2010, biofuels must account for a minimum of 5.75% of the fuel consumption. With bioethanol and biodiesel as the most important alternatives, some 11% of arable land in the EU will be required to grow crops used in the production of bioethanol and biodiesel.
It is reported that Brazil and the US have been at the forefront of ethanol production with an annual production of over 15 billion litres of ethanol each, but the USA is now working fast to double its production and become the world ethanol leader. In Brazil, all petrol vehicles run on ethanol, either in its pure form or in the form of a 20-25% additive to petrol. Some of the federal states in the USA use a 90% petrol and 10% ethanol blend.
The EU produces a mere 1 billion litres, but this should be seen against the backdrop of a 70 % increase in 2005.
By Xuefei Chen People's Daily Online correspondent in Stockholm.
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