TALL OIL REPLACES FOSSIL MATERIALS
With a modern process, tall oil, a by-product of the forest industry, is turned into a raw material for many everyday goods.
Fintoil distills various products suitable for different industrial sectors from tall oil at its production facility. These are used as raw materials in the production of fuels, adhesives, paints, tires, perfumes, and spreads used on bread. Tall oil distillates replace raw materials made from fossil oil or natural gas.
The feed capacity of Fintoil’s factory, which started operations in the HaminaKotka port in autumn 2022, is 200,000 tons of tall oil per year, making it the third largest tall oil refining facility in the world. The facility produces nearly the same amount of end products, as there is hardly any waste generated from the modern facility. Fintoil sources its tall oil from the global market, although the majority comes from Finland and other Nordic countries.
“We aim to source tall oil responsibly and as locally as possible. This way, we also save on logistics costs,” says Olli Mähönen, Commercial Director at Fintoil.
The production of tall oil increases at the same time the need for long fiber pulp increases. Long-fibered pulp is used, among other things, for the growing cardboard industry’s needs. Demand for tall oil product, on the other hand, increases with the growth of the packaging industry. Adhesives are needed more and more, and they are increasingly expected to be responsibly produced, i.e., non-fossil.
“Our modern tall oil refinery is based on highly optimized fractionation, where different tall oil fractions are separated. Both equipment selection and process control have been optimized for efficiency and flexibility, allowing us to meet our customers’ changing needs,” says Tanja Volanen, Development Manager at Fintoil.
When the process is flexible, the yield of various fatty and rosin acids can be adjusted according to demand.
“We can produce products for different enduse areas according to our customers’ needs. During the first year alone, we have succeeded in significantly improving
and optimizing distillation. The flexibility offered by modern technology gives us
a significant advantage compared to our competitors,” says Mähönen.
Since tall oil production in pulp mills is continuous, Fintoil’s process runs around the clock, and the company must find buyers for its end products at the same perennial pace. Between 40–60 percent of the production consists of various fatty acid
fractions, and just over 20 percent consists of rosin acids. A couple of percent of the production is turpentine, and the rest is tall oil pitch, a by-product of production.
Fatty acids are used as raw materials for renewable transportation fuels and in the chemical industry for applications such as paints, soaps and surfactants, lubricants, and as additives in various end-products.
Tall oil rosin is used, among other things, as a raw material for hot melt adhesives, printing ink binders, paper sizing agent and synthetic rubber. Turpentine has a wide range of uses in the cleaning agent and cosmetics industry.
Tall oil pitch is a byproduct, and its quantity is sought to be minimized in the Fintoil
process. In addition to energy usage it can also replace fossil raw materials when used in the production of roofing felt and asphalt, instead of bitumen refined from crude oil.