in the Finnish chemical industry - Kemia-lehti

Bioeconomy meets itsexpectationsChemistry in key positionModern bioeconomy isexpected to have positiveeffects on environmentalwell-being and competitionfor natural resources,regional development, andnational economy as a whole.Expectations include newexport products and new jobs.Expertise in chemistry alongwith the chemical industry isneeded in order to fully meetthe expectations.Sami NikanderWhile activities related to bioeconomyhave existed and developed through theages, the concept of bioeconomy wasactually born in the early 2000’s. Sincethen the expectations and internationaldiscussion concerning the sector havebecome more prominent.OECD has brought bioeconomy outas one of the future key sectors. TheEuropean Commission published itsbioeconomy strategy in 2012. Nationalbioeconomy strategies have been devisedby the United States, the Netherlands,Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Norway andCanada, for example.In Finland, a bioeconomy strategyprepared under the direction of theMinistry of Employment and the Economywill be published during autumn 2013.The per capita biocapacity in Finland isthe highest within the European Union.Biobased raw materialsare comingBioeconomy will reshape the chemicalindustry in many ways, although biomassbasedraw materials as such are not newto the chemical industry. Chemicalshave been processed in Finland alreadyfor decades, for example from tall oilcreated as a side product in the pulpingprocess.Broadening of the biomass raw materialbase is, however, new. According toEuropean estimations 30 per cent of thechemical industry raw materials wouldbe biobased.In addition to traditional applicationareas, biomass is being increasinglyused in productions where the rawmaterial base has traditionally beennonrenewable, such as in the productionof high-quality renewable fuels.In the future, biobased raw materialswill find use in medicines, cosmetics,coatings, adhesives, fuels, composites,chemicals, plastics and other highlyprocessed products. Within the chemicalsector, novel innovations can beexpected particularly from the field ofbioeconomy.The significance of chemical industryis also high in the production of solutionsenabling sustainable, effective andpractical processing of biomass. Manytraditional and new biomass utilisationtechnologies are based on chemical andbiochemical know-how and products.Products of the chemical industry play akey role in wood processing, purificationof process and municipal wastewaters aswell as in the production of biogas fromorganic waste.Bioeconomy is partof resource effectivenessDespite the fact that fossil raw materialswill continue to play a central role inthe chemical industry for a long time,nearly all companies are following theprogress of bioeconomy, as shown bythe survey among the members of theChemical Industry Federation of Finland.36 KEMIA 5/2013