Photo: Mukran Port in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Credit: Fährhafen Sassnitz GmbH
Outokumpu has decided to invest EUR 40 million for building up a high quality biocarbon production plant in Germany. Approximately EUR 10 million of the capital expenditure is included in the CAPEX frame related to Outokumpu’s second strategy phase and the company remains committed to maintaining the maximum CAPEX frame of EUR 600 million between 2023–2025.
The plant will be built in the city of Sassnitz in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Northeastern Germany, utilizing existing infrastructure and buildings at the Mukran Port. The planned annual production capacity is 15,000 tonnes of biocarbon using waste wood as raw material. The commissioning of the site is scheduled for the first half of 2026. The new plant will provide feedstock material for biocoke to Outokumpu’s pelletizing plant in Tornio, Finland, which is on schedule and expected to be completed mid-2025. Biocoke is used as a reductant in Outokumpu’s ferrochrome production.
“We are proud that our stainless steel has the lowest carbon footprint in the industry, and we are progressing steadily towards our target to reduce our emission intensity across our direct, indirect and supply chain emissions by 42% by 2030 from a 2016 base year. Currently, biocoke represents the best available technology to decrease our direct emissions and we are investigating also other innovations as well as the use of carbon capture technology to achieve further reductions,” said Stefan Erdmann, Chief Technology Officer at Outokumpu.
Outokumpu has established a roadmap to build up future supply for biocoke and it consists of a mixture of own production, external sourcing, and partnerships. In addition to biocarbon, side stream gases will be used at the plant in the Mukran Port to generate heat and electricity.
“Biomass-based raw materials offer exciting possibilities for Outokumpu to cut direct emissions. I am proud of our team’s innovative thinking in developing an industrial concept that ensures technical readiness and financial viability for the new investment, driving progress in the green transition today. We want to take an active role in developing the biocoke market which will give us scale-up and new business opportunities also going forward,” said Timo Huhtala, General Manager at Outokumpu EvoCarbon, unit responsible for building up biocoke supply and investigating new technologies and investments opportunities in carbon capture and new energy projects at Outokumpu.
