SAUNA Technical Workshop Advances Biorefinery Process Design

On 31 August and 1 September 2026, SAUNA project partners gathered for an onsite Technical Workshop hosted by ANDRITZ at its facilities in Helsinki, Finland.

The two-day workshop provided an important opportunity for the consortium to work together on the technical development of the SAUNA biorefinery concept, bringing together expertise from different partners to discuss the process design, experimental activities and technology assessment.

A key focus of the workshop was the process design of the SAUNA biorefinery. Partners actively discussed the current process concept and explored several potential improvements. As a result of these discussions, the Process Flow Diagram (PFD) was revised and simplified, helping to further improve and clarify the overall process concept.

Another important outcome was the increased alignment between the project's experimental activities and model development. This will help streamline the implementation of the process flowsheet and ensure better consistency between experimental results, modelling activities and the overall technology assessment.

These efforts will contribute to the project's ongoing Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), supporting a more comprehensive evaluation of the SAUNA biorefinery technology.

The workshop was a valuable opportunity for technical exchange, collaborative problem-solving and coordination among the project partners. The discussions and solutions developed during these two days will support the consortium in the next stages of the SAUNA project.

We would like to thank all participants for their active engagement and valuable contributions, and ANDRITZ for hosting the workshop in Helsinki.

The SAUNA consortium looks forward to building on the outcomes of the workshop and continuing to advance the development and assessment of the SAUNA biorefinery concept.