— By Plasteurope.com correspondent — 

Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (Espoo; www.vttresearch.com) and the country’s LUT University (Lappeenranta; www.lut.fi) have developed a technique to convert carbon emissions from the forest industry and the burning of waste into raw materials including polyethylene and polypropylene.

Juha Lehtonen, a research professor at VTT, said the team had used pilot activities and modelling to discover how the biogenic carbon dioxide recovery chain could be adapted to existing petrochemical plants and production of key basic plastics.

Lehtonen said the studies had found the Fischer-Tropsch process to be a promising alternative for the production of renewable polymers, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. The Fischer-Tropsch process dates back to 1925, when it was discovered that a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen could be turned into liquid and solid hydrocarbons.

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“We can use Fischer-Tropsch naphtha directly in existing petrochemical processes as a feedstock [for PP and PE], without major additional investments into current petrochemical units,” Lehtonen said.

“Producing the necessary hydrocarbons through alternative process routes such as methanol or the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch process would require expensive investments in production facilities,” he added.

The research was carried out as part of the Forest CUMP project, which launched in August 2022 and ran until the end of 2024. The project was funded by government agency Business Finland and was part of the Business Finland Veturi ecosystem – a strategic funding programme – which supports the development of sustainable industrial solutions and national carbon neutrality.

In addition to VTT and LUT University, the Forest CUMP project included numerous industrial and energy partners such as Borealis, Neste, ABB, Metsä Spring, Kemira, and Vantaa Energy.

The project specifically focused on producing long-lasting polymer products – rather than fuels – from captured CO₂. These include applications like cable insulation, recyclable packaging, and industrial piping.

The research team said Finland had significant biogenic carbon dioxide reserves, “based on large, relatively easily exploitable individual sources of bio-based carbon dioxide, such as forest industry production facilities”.

Nearly three quarters of Finland’s land area is covered by forest.