IBTC Statement on the Joensuu Biocoal Project
The recent insolvency filing of the Joensuu Biocoal project in Finland has sparked discussions across the bioenergy and biocarbon sector about the future of industrial scale torrefaction projects.
From the perspective of the International Biomass Torrefaction and Carbonisation Council (IBTC), it is important to place developments such as Joensuu into the broader context of industrial innovation and scale up.
First industrial projects are rarely straightforward. This applies to almost every emerging energy technology as well as to torrefaction projects. New industrial systems require the coordination of multiple process steps, suppliers, engineering disciplines, financing structures and raw material supply chains. In these environments, even a single bottleneck can affect the performance of the entire plant.
According to currently available information, the core torrefaction process at Joensuu was successfully demonstrated during commissioning campaigns. Biomass was torrefied, densified and produced within the targeted quality specifications. The broader challenges appear to have originated primarily from project integration, raw material economics and operational coordination within a highly complex multi vendor project structure. Michael Wild, President of IBTC, comments: "Torrefaction plants involve a series of technological steps that must be finely coordinated, and any single step can become a bottleneck affecting overall performance, just like in any other bioenergy project. Unfortunately, we repeatedly observe developers taking on the role of system integrator themselves in order to reduce investment costs, while unintentionally assuming significant interface risks. Combined with the unforeseeable loss of low cost Russian biomass following the geopolitical developments after the invasion of Ukraine, this created enormous pressure on the Joensuu project. However, from everything currently known, the torrefaction technology itself does not appear to have been the bottleneck."
The Joensuu facility remains one of the most significant industrial torrefaction projects developed to date and has provided valuable operational and engineering experience for the sector. The project demonstrated both the opportunities and the complexity involved in integrating torrefaction into established industrial value chains and large scale energy systems. IBTC understands that discussions regarding restructuring and future operation of the plant are ongoing. "The technology installed in Joensuu is among the best currently available. This is also why we are currently seeing several initiatives aimed at bringing the plant back online and overcoming the existing bottlenecks in raw material processing. We therefore expect Joensuu to resume production in the near future," says Wild.
IBTC continues to support knowledge exchange, technical collaboration and the development of robust industrial standards for scalable, safe and commercially viable biocarbon value chains.
