By Kari Williamson

Neste Oil and Raisio have worked together for several years on how by-products and sidestreams generated by Finnish agriculture and food manufacturing can be used as inputs for producing biofuel. Up until now, cooperation between the two companies has focused on Finnish oilseed rape and the surplus oil left over from animal feed and food production that Neste Oil uses as one of its feedstocks for producing its low-emission NExBTL renewable diesel.

The two companies believe that it should be possible to make more efficient use of field-based biomass in the future than is the case today. Increasing oilseed rape yields and making more effective use of other biomass produced on arable land could benefit everyone in the food, animal feed, and biofuel industries.

"True innovations are often born out of people working together in the areas where different types of expertise interface with each other. Projects in areas like these are one way of helping develop a more sustainable food chain and support greater overall sustainability," say Raisio's CEO, Matti Rihko and Neste Oil's President & CEO, Matti Lievonen.