The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has provided bioenergy company Vaskiluodon Voima Oy with €18 million to build a gasification plant in Vaasa, Finland. The total project cost is expected to be about €40 million.
The facility will produce 140MW and is to be connected to a power plant that is already established, allowing for domestic biofuels and peat to be substituted for a portion of the coal used by the power plant.
Coal use will be lowered by between 25-40%. The fuel mix for the gasification system that will be made up of about 25% peat and 75% forest residues and biomaterials such as reed.
This is the first plant of its size to be built in Finland. This biomass gasification technology has never before been used on such a large scale, and it has previously been used for drier fuels, the company states.