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Fact Metsä Board’s goal is to eliminate the use of fos- sil fuels and fossil-based energy (scopes 1 & 2) at its mills by the end of 2030 and to reduce process water use per tonne of product by 35 per cent. To achieve this goal, the company is taking actions such as replacing natural gas with biogas and other renewable energy sources and investing in a more efficient new boiler, water system, drying and power plant technology.
technology, will supply customers with 800,000 tonnes of premium-quality, lightweight product every year. In line with Metsä Board’s 2030 target, the mill will be fos- sil free (scopes 1 & 2). The investment decision will be made in 2024 at the earliest. “In the board-making business, this project is as big and important as it gets – in terms of financial invest- ment, capacity and sustainability,” says Tero Ojala , Pro- ject Director at Metsä Board. “This is a billion-euro investment, and the plans not only include a board machine but also a debarking plant, mechanical pulp plant, a converting and warehousing solution, a power plant, and a water handling and ef- fluent treatment plant, as well as all the necessary aux- iliaries, infrastructure and logistics. Everything is being planned from the ground up, with efficiency at the core.” Pre-engineering began during the last quarter of 2022 and is now nearing completion. To date, everything has proceeded as expected, and the plan is that the pre-en- gineering process and the environmental impact assess- ment will be completed this year. The environmental permitting process is also ongoing. “This has been a long and thorough process, but for a good reason. We want
our customers to benefit from the best in the business when it comes to sustainable folding boxboard prod- ucts,” Ojala says. “As in our other mill investments, we aim to reduce the product’s carbon footprint, as well as to re-engineer the process and make fine tunings that will save waste, en- ergy and water at every step of the value chain. We’re on track to provide all the pre-engineering data to support the final investment decision, and the team involved has done a fantastic job so far,” he continues. With the 2030 target in mind, Metsä Board has set tough demands for the proposed new mill, as Ojala ex- plains: “The mill is being designed to have the lowest possible energy consumption per tonne of board and the lowest water consumption of any of our sites. Every process step, piece of equipment and system are being planned with this in mind.” All three sites we’ve looked at in this article repre- sent an investment in sustainable, profitable growth for Metsä Board. More importantly, they demonstrate the company’s commitment to supporting customers and the market with higher volumes of more sustainable premium-quality paperboard products. •
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