Realizing bioeconomy in the North of Finland:design of a co-digester for the municipality of Sodankylä

• Main Author: Alaraudanjoki, J. (Joonas)
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Oulu 2016
• Subjects: Environmental Engineering; Sodankylä; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201604061383

Finnish government has set an ambitious goal of reaching 50% share of renewable energies by year 2030. To reach this goal several structural changes and new strategies are required. One possible solution is the initiation of bioeconomy program. This thesis work focuses on the implementation of bioeconomy in the North of Finland by reviewing the challenges and opportunities involved in it. The goal is to perform a preliminary technological and economic assessment of a co-digestion plant located in Sodankylä, thus contributing to its bioeconomy strategy. The RECENT project is introduced in the introduction, as this work is closely connected to it. In the theoretical part, the North of Finland, its natural resources and critical infrastructure are introduced. Issues related to bioeconomy realization, climate change’s effect on water services, and municipality’s challenges in northern conditions, are reviewed. Three different biomass utilization methods that are possible in northern conditions are discussed in depth. It was found out that there is great potential for bioeconomy utilization in Northern Finland. There is a lot of biomass available and organic waste unused. At the same time, there are difficulties on their implementation. Few difficulties to overcome are long distances, lack of employees, diminishing population, and doubts regarded to economic sustainability of bioeconomy. One way to speed up the implementation of a new energy system is to use energy assessment tools. Three different tools were reviewed and it was found out that the best tool to use was RETScreen. It is designed to assess single energy systems and was used also to assess the co-digestion plant in Sodankylä. In the experimental part, the municipality of Sodankylä is introduced and the preliminary assessment for the co-digester is performed. All the data for assessing the co-digestion plant were obtained from the municipality itself and from literature. Upgrading the wastewater treatment plant to biogas plant would be profitable if the ...