The European Patent Office announces the Finnish team from Neste as a finalist for the European Inventor Award

MUNICH, June 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global transport sector emits approximately 7.3 billion tonnes of CO2 a year, around 20% of global CO2 emissions. A Finnish team; consisting of Pia Bergström, Annika Malm, Jukka Myllyoja, Jukka-Pekka Pasanen and Blanka Toukoniitty; have been part of developing an innovative process to convert waste and residue raw materials into renewable products for road transportation, aviation and other sectors. The Finnish team are finalists for the European Inventor Award 2023 in the 'Industry' category in recognition of their promising work.

The inventors from Finland have been part of developing Neste's proprietary NEXBTL™ technology and related processes to turn a wide variety of renewable fats and oils into premium-quality renewable products.

The company uses a wide variety of globally-sourced raw materials, such as animal fat waste, used cooking oil and vegetable oil processing waste and residues, to produce its renewable products.

Currently, Neste produces ca. 3.3 million tonnes of renewable diesel and other renewable products each year and plans to increase production capacity to 5.5 million tons by the end of 2023. It also plans to introduce liquefied waste plastic as a drop-in feedstock for petrochemicals.

Innovation is a team effort, drawing on expertise across the company and with partners, including from chemists, engineers, research and development professionals, and experts in renewable raw materials. When talking about disruptive ideas, Blanka Toukoniitty says: "Everything is possible, impossible just takes more time. We really believed and worked hard. In the times of challenges and disbelief, it is important to  remain focused on the goal. In research and development, you have to have patience and really just  keep going".

Myllyoja describes the difficulties and their collective motivation to reduce transport carbon emissions; "climate change is a huge challenge. All  possible solutions are needed to reduce the transport GHG emissions, no individual technology can  solve this issue…",  Bergström adds, "we consider ourselves the forerunners in the field of renewable fuels…"

The team has been shortlisted by an independent international jury. The winners of the 2023 edition of the European Inventor Award will be announced at a hybrid ceremony on 4 July 2023 in Valencia (Spain). This ceremony will be broadcast online here and will be open to the public.