Flying Forest picks Casale for Finnish bio methanol plant

Flying Forest has appointed Casale as integrator and technology provider for the Pre FEED of Project Loonbird, a biomass to methanol complex planned for Iisalmi, Finland, and targeted to start operations by 2030. The plant is designed to process around 210,000 t/y of non recyclable forestry biomass and 17,000 t/y of renewable hydrogen to produce approximately 180,000 t/y of bio e methanol for marine and, later, aviation fuels.

Casale will oversee overall process integration, including biomass handling, gasification, syngas conditioning, electrolysis integration, methanol synthesis and distillation, as well as utilities and offsites. Forestry residues will be gasified using oxygen blown technology from Sumitomo SHI FW, with syngas cleaning, CO₂ capture and conditioning provided by Honeywell UOP. The conditioned syngas will be combined with renewable hydrogen from electrolysis, with the system sized to supply oxygen to the gasification and reforming sections while avoiding CO shift under normal operation.

Methanol will be produced using a customised version of Casale’s BioFlex methanol technology and distilled to meet ISO/DIN 6583:2024 marine fuel specifications and Methanol Grade AA for conventional markets. Flying Forest plans to use the bio e methanol to supply low carbon fuel into the maritime sector under frameworks such as RTFO and FuelEU Maritime, with a second phase to add Sustainable Aviation Fuel production.

Flying Forest COO Timo Saarelainen said Project Loonbird “will not only establish a new benchmark for converting forestry residues and renewable hydrogen into high value bio e methanol but will also serve as the blueprint” for scalable circular economy energy solutions across Europe. Casale COO Sergio Debernardi called the project “a compelling example of how renewable resources and advanced process integration can be combined to produce sustainable fuels at industrial scale,” highlighting Casale’s experience in integrating complex process technologies across fertilizer, hydrogen, syngas and sustainable fuels.