"Staring at a pile of freshly cut beechwood, forestry manager Johannes Brodowski wonders if he is looking at the future of Germany's chemicals industry. A local factory will use Brodowski's trees and other organic material - instead of climate-harming fossil fuels - to make chemical products used to manufacture items ranging from packaging to car tyres and fleece jackets. "The innovative part of the whole thing is that a new product is getting made,""
"UPM Biochemicals unveiled its 1.3-billion-euro biorefinery in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt this year, taking a big risk at a difficult time for the sector. Germany's traditional chemicals industry has been battered by high energy prices and cheap competition from Asia, with national output now at its lowest level since 1995. Still, UPM thinks now is the right time to try and get chemical giants to break with fossil fuels and switch to renewable biomass, in this case wood which grows abundantly in the region."
Energy costs and intense global competition are pressuring German chemical producers. UPM Biochemicals opened a 1.3-billion-euro biorefinery in Saxony-Anhalt to produce chemical materials from renewable biomass. The facility will process locally sourced beech branches, twigs and other organic material instead of fossil feedstocks to make inputs for packaging, car tyres and textiles. About 80 percent of German chemical products currently rely on imported fossil-based materials. UPM signed a supply contract with Saxony-Anhalt and expects local beech wood production to rise by 20–30 percent. The project aims to build competitive local supply chains and encourage a shift away from fossil raw materials.
Read at The Local Germany
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