€45m investment in Estonian torrefaction bio-coal plant

4th December 2017

Alice Matthews

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A 100% owned subsidiary of Dutch private equity investment firm Momentum Capital, Baltania OÜ, has made a conditional investment decision to commission an industrial scale torrefaction bio-coal plant in Vägari, Estonia. Value of the investment is approximately €45m. Providing, that all conditions of the investment decision are met the construction of the bio-coal plant will start in Q2 2018.

Investment in sustainable energy
Baltania's production will focus on torrefied bio-coal pellets produced from sustainable woody biomass. The bio-coal pellets can be used to partially or to fully replace fossil coal in electrical power or heat generation plants as a sustainable alternative without significant additional investment in plant conversion.

The energy density and grind-ability of renewable and sustainable bio-coal pellets are similar to thermal steam coal and significantly higher than that of white wood pellets or wood chips. This also means that logistic costs per tonne transported are significantly lower. The main customer base will consist of utility companies in Nordic countries and Central Europe. The bio-coal plant will be commissioned on CEG's torrefaction technology.

The bio-coal pellets, based on CEG's technology, can be stored and handled using existing fossil coal infrastructure, and are strongly hydrophobic in nature. Hydrophobicity can be further improved using CEG's premium water proof pellet specification. The output capacity of the bio-coal plant will be approximately 160,000 tonnes of torrefied bio-coal pellets per annum. The investment of approximately €45m will be funded by Momentum Capital together with other investors and financial institutions.

European Union has approved NER300 grant of €25m for the torrefaction project. The torrefaction project will be carried out in co-operation with the Estonian Ministry of the Environment. The bio-coal plant investment will have a significantly positive impact on employment in surroundings of Vägari.

The bio-coal plant will offer directly at least 30 jobs in production, added with many overhead support opportunities via third party local businesses to be selected. In addition, approximately 300 jobs will be created in harvesting and logistics, and more than 200 temporary jobs are to be created during construction of the bio-coal plant.

Pöyry, one of the World's leading engineering and consulting companies, has been assigned to carry out a torrefaction project feasibility study on behalf of Baltania OÜ.