At Södra we invest a lot in development for the future. In our industry some are more efficient at using energy than others. Reduced energy consumption is important for the environment in the future, but also increases a company’s profitability. We are also very involved in the change from fossil energy sources to bio-based energy sources and we support a number of research and development projects in that field.

Chrisgas
Chrisgas is a research project with the aim of demonstrating bio-fuel combustion on a pilot scale. The project extends for 5 years and has 20 industrial and research partners from seven EU countries. Södra is the only forestry company participating in the project, which is based in Växjö and Värnamo. If the project is successful it will be possible to produce a synthetic gas from bio-mass. From the synthetic gas, consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, a liquid fuel can be produced using existing technology. Further research may provide the possibility of producing chemicals and products from the synthetic gas that are today produced from fossil sources.

Black liquor gasification
Black liquor gasification aims to produce the same synthetic gas as Chrisgas, which can then be converted to fuel. The difference is the source for the fuel, which in this case is the black liquor at Södra's sulphate works. Black liquor consists of wood by-products and used cooking chemicals and at present goes to the soda boiler. In the soda boiler the cooking chemicals are recovered at the same time that produced electricity and steam run the sulphate works. In some conditions it is possible to channel a partial flow of black liquor to the gasification. The development of the black liquor gasification is being carried out by Chemrec at a pilot installation in Piteå.

Lignin powder
The above named projects have the objective of replacing fossil fuels, while lignin powder will chiefly replace heavy fuel oil and coal for burning. Lignin is a very energy rich constituent of wood that in sulphate works is found in the black liquor. Processing black liquor can produce lignin in dry powder form. This product then replaces oil and coal within industry and power stations because lignin has a similar calorific value to coal. A further area of research is the replacement of oil-based products with lignin. The technology is being demonstrated by STFI at a pilot installation in Bäckhammar.