Project Amli

The municipality of Amli in Agder county in Norway is situated in a large forest area. In Amli, one of the most modern sawmills in Scandinavia is located – Nidara at Simonstad. The sawmill consumes about 300,000 cubic meters of sawlogs annually and is an important player in Norwegian forestry operations.

At the neighbouring plot of the Nidara sawmill, Biozin will establish its production plant for advanced biofuels. A 160,000 m2 industrial plot has been allocated and zoned for the project, which will be Norway’s first full-scale production plant of advanced biofuels. The Amli plant will process the sawmill’s forestry residues, low-quality logs, and by-products.

The product from the Amli plant will be advanced biofuels. The utilization of Shell’s new innovative IH2® technology enables significant energy recovery (efficiency) and significant carbon intensity reduction due to unique energy and process integration features. This also
contributes to achieving the authorities’ objectives of Norway as a low-emission country.

In 2022, the EU Innovation Fund and Enova awarded the project EUR 75 million and NOK 507 million, respectively.

Progress

Strong industrial partners

The Biozin project is financially supported by the owner Bergene Holm. In addition, Shell provides financial, technology, and project support. The Biozin project has also received significant financial grants from Innovation Norway to support early project activities. When completed, the plant’s processing capacity will be about 1,000 metric tons of biomass per day. Total investments are estimated to be NOK 10+ billion.

Creating value locally and nationally

The Norwegian sawmill industry will see direct benefits from the project due to increased demand for their by-products and improve the forest operations’ overall attractiveness.

Locally, the project will result in significant job creation and several ripple effects for the Amli municipality and the entire county of Agder. The Biozin project will put Norway on the map as a considerable manufacturer of sustainable, advanced biofuels. Looking ahead, the product will be in strong demand across Europe, ensuring a long-term perspective for the Amli site.