Top Ten Cleantech Highlights of Metso

Metso is a Finland-based global supplier of technology and services helping customers process natural resources and recycle materials into valuable products. Metso’s customers operate in the mining, construction, power, oil and gas, recycling and pulp and paper industries. Metso is a leading global bio-energy solutions provider for energy producers. Metso has a long and profound know-how of a variety of challenging fuels such as by-products from the forest industry and agriculture as well as energy crops and municipal waste. Metso’s bio-energy solution includes the receiving and handling of fuel, boiler and flue gas cleaning, and plant-wide automation systems to ensure energy efficiency and the lowest possible emissions. Metso has operations in over 300 units in more than 50 countries and about 29,000 employees. There are three main technology sectors of Metso – paper and fiber, energy and environmental, and mining and construction. Metso has been heavily involved in a number of clean technology projects and initiatives to show global support toward solving many of the world’s environmental and sustainability challenges.

1) Metso Participates in Sustainable Urban Planning Project in China. In April 2011, Metso started a joint collaboration with Aalto University and the Aalto Tongji Design Factory to implement the Good Mill Project. The project looks to integrate sustainability and urban environment in an innovative fashion with the aim of creating an eco-efficient urban planning model. Petteri Venetjoki, an employee from the Metso Industrial Design Center stated, “The goal is to create a foundation for an ecological, urban community in which industry is an integral element in the heart of the metropolis.”

2) Metso to start Building Biomass Power Plant in Germany. In August 2011, Metso won a contract from Heizkraftwerk Zwickau Sud to provide a modularized biomass power plan for combined heat and power production in the German municipality of Zwickau. This new facility will provide 10MWth of heat to the entire municipality and five megawatts of electricity to go to the power grid, which will be connected in the late half of 2012.

3) Metso Supplies World’s Largest Biomass Boiler to United States. In July 2011, Mesto made the announcement that it was planning to supply a 100 MWe biomass boiler island and plant automation system to the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center in Gainesville, Florida. The plant is planned to open in 2013. This boiler will be one of the largest in the world as well as one of the most efficient biomass generators. Once it is built, the biomass boiler plant will be one of the cleanest and biggest power supply plants in the entire history of biomass combustion.

4) Metso Provides Scrap Metal Shredding Technology to Russian Company. In August 2011, Mesto received an order for metal shredding technology from Vyksa Steel Works in Russia. This new technology will provide the Russian company with the ability to save over 70 percent of all the energy required to run the steelmaking process. The technology will also reduce an estimated 86 percent of pollutants released, thereby increasing environmental sustainability. This is the largest order Russia has ever placed with Metso for its metal shredding technology. The scrap metal purification, shredding, separation and purification process provided by this technology will assist in reusing the materials and save on the use of natural resources.

5) Metso Provices Biomass Boiler to Martinska Power Plant in Slovakia. Metso provided the first biomass-fired boiler for power generation use in Slovakia to the Martinska power plant. The boiler will be in full operations for six months throughout the summer season and then for three months with the old coal boilers throughout the coldest winter months. According to Jaroslav Mihal, the General Director of the Martinska power plant, “Metso could provide out power plant with technology that helps us reach high efficiency, and the emission limited targeted for the coming years. A good track record of similar type of projects assured us of the competence in Metso.”

6) Metso Delivers Largest Biomass Gasification Plant in Finland. In June of 2011, Metso created a new deal to deliver to Vaskiluodon Voima Oy in Vaasa, Finland a 140 megawatt bio-gasification plant. It is scheduled to be commissioned in December of 2012. It will be the largest biomass gasification plant in the world. The biomass gasification plant will be fueled with primarily wood-based biomasses, including forest residue, and the gas produced will be combusted with coal in the coal boiler. The result of this solution is that between 25 and 40 percent of all the coal used will be replaced with renewable energy products, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 230,000 tons annually.

7) Metso Supplies Biomass Power Plant to Estonia. In January of 2011, Metso was tasked to supply a biomass power plant used for combined heat and power production to Estonian-based Ou Helme Energia. The plant will begin startup in 2012’s third quarter and will continue to maintain the clean power footprint the company has long established. The biomass power plant is going to produce 6.4 megawatts of electricity and 15 megawatts of heat. A portion of what is provided will be used in the pellet factory and all remaining heat and electricity will be fed into Estonia’s power grid.

8 ) Metso has supplied one of one Europe’s largest biomass-fired combined heat and power plant in France. Residents of Facture, a city in southwest France, have been breathing cleaner air since October 2010. A biomass-fired combined heat and power plant, representing Metso’s latest technology, was commissioned at the local Smurfit Kappa paper mill. The plant’s dust and nitrogen oxide emissions are significantly lower compared to those of the old grate boiler plant. The plant is fueled with bark from the mill and forest residue collected from neighboring areas. Collecting the forest residue has created new jobs for the local people. Owned by Dalkia, the plant generates steam for the mill and electricity for the national grid. The investment is the largest in France’s national green energy program, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to curb climate change.

9) Metso is leading the development for new conversion technologies. In addition to traditional combustion solutions, Metso focuses on developing new biomass conversion technologies that maximize the energy values of biomass and minimize the environmental impacts of production and logistics. Some examples of Metso’s latest solutions are gasification, bio-oil production through pyrolysis, and torrefaction, which results in bio-coal as well as the LignoBoost process to extract lignin from a pulp mill’s black liquor. Industrial-scale projects involving various biomass and waste gasification technologies already exist, and LignoBoost process and pyrolysis facilities for producing bio-oil are in pilot stage.

10) Metso is currently building in Finland world’s first waste gasification power plant of its kind, and acts as a new technology demonstration venture in the EU. Metso also sees a significant potential for growth for the use of recycled waste. Waste sorting and treatment will improve recycling rates and energy efficiency. Scheduled to start up in 2012, the Lahti 160 MW waste gasification plant in Finland will help to cut the use of fossil fuels considerably. The replacement of coal with biofuels will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions to match the carbon footprint of 260,000 cars. High steam parameters provide a considerable increase in the total power output, and ensure sufficient heat supply for the growing needs of the Lahti area.

Article by Shawn Lesser, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Atlanta-based Watershed Capital Group – an investment bank assisting sustainable fund and companies raise capital, perform acquisitions, and in other strategic financial decisions. He is also a Co-founder of the GCCA Global Cleantech Cluster Association ”The Global Voice of Cleantech”. He writes for various cleantech publications and is known as the David Letterman of Cleantech for his “Top 10″ series. He can be reached at shawn@watershedcapital.com