Chemical plants in Germany bet on biomass

STARING at a pile of freshly cut beechwood, forestry manager Johannes Brodowski wonders if he is looking at the future of Germany’s chemicals industry.

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BEECH trees are pictured in a forest near Annarode, Germany.

(AFP)

A local factory will use Brodowski’s trees and other organic material - instead of climate-harming fossil fuels - to make chemical products used to manufacture items ranging from packaging to car tyres and flecee jackets.

“The innovative part of the whole thing is that a new product is getting made,” he said: “Namely, chemical materials that were originally made from fossil fuels and now can be made from renewable sources.”

Finnish group UPM Biochemicals unveiled its 273 billion-euro biorefinery in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt this year, taking a big risk at a difficult time for the sector.

Germany’s traditional chemicals industry has been battered by high energy prices and cheap competition from Asia, with national output now at its lowest level since 1995.