Biofuel production from food industry residues

The plant is a symbiosis of energy company St1 and beverage company Hartwall where residues from Hartwell’s drinks manufacturing are used as material for bioethanol production. By locating the plants next to each other, the leftover yeast and other liquid waste containing sugar and alcohols can be directly pumped to the bioethanol plant, accounting for up to 40 % of the raw material required by the ethanol plant, with rest shipped from other locations.
As part of the European Union’s RES-directive, in Finland, fuel sold for transport must contain an aggregate percentage of biofuels, the obligation in 2020 being 20 %. This has led to the creation of various novel bioethanol production efforts in Finland, including many by St1.
The plant's fermentation system uses a variety of waste biomass from failed beverage batches, yeast, leftover bread from stores and other waste from bakeries and biowaste from stores. Etanolix plants as a concept were born out of a desire to make bioethanol production more local moving it out of the third world and into Europe and not being dependent on food crops by using waste instead.
The produced fuel is mixed into transport fuel and sold, making the stakeholders of the practice the transport sector as well as commuters. From the supply side, drinks manufacturers, bakeries and stores are all beneficiaries. The yeast leftover is also further processed into feed for pigs, making farmers another stakeholder group.