Negative environmental impact from greenhouse gas emissions and a dwindling oil supply have resulted in an interest in biorefineries based on renewable resources. The objective of a biorefinery is to upgrade the biomass to more valuable products such as biofuels, electricity, materials, and chemicals. Wood biomass is a suitable raw material for a biorefinery since it is abundant, renewable and can be harvested all year round.

In the kraft pulping process, only half of the wood biomass is converted into pulp while the remaining part is turned into energy. A conventional kraft pulp mill could be transformed into an integrated forest biorefinery, and thus produce for example biofuels and chemicals in addition to the traditional pulp and paper products, by implementing several new processes that could utilize the byproducts. Utilization of the byproducts for other purposes than energy would obviously affect the energy balance but also the important sodium/sulfur balance.

The processes that are discussed in this report have the potential to be included in a BAT pulp mill built in 2040. The processes are black liquor gasification, on-site production of sulfuric acid, production of tall oil diesel, and lignin and hemicellulose extraction. The possibility to produce a cleaner green liquor through a new membrane filter is also discussed.