Metsä Group’s Joutseno pulp mill’s gasification plant inaugurated

Metsä Group’s significant bioenergy investment, the Joutseno pulp mill’s gasification plant, was inaugurated on 7 March 2013.

Metsä Fibre’s Joutseno pulp mill is the world's largest single-line softwood pulp mill. The new gasification plant improves the efficiency of renewable energy usage by replacing the natural gas used with bio fuel made from tree bark. The gasification plant makes the pulp mill the first carbon dioxide-neutral facility in Finland during normal operations.

The technology in the gasification plant is a new application in the Finnish pulp industry. This innovative and comprehensive solution uses surplus heat from the mill in drying tree bark. The plant considerably improves the mill’s energy-efficiency and further improves the mill’s environmental performance.

Similar development work is under way at Metsä Fibre’s other mills as well, and all Metsä Fibre’s mills will become carbon dioxide-neutral in the coming years.

Metsä Fibre is a significant supplier of bioenergy in Finland. Metsä Fibre’s mills account for approximately one fifth of all wood-derived electricity generated in Finland.


METSÄ GROUP
Group Communications

For further information, please contact:
Ismo Nousiainen, SVP, Production, Metsä Fibre, tel. +358 50 598 7378
Henrik Söderström, Mill Manager, Metsä Fibre, tel. +358 40 577 3421

www.metsagroup.fi

Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products’ main raw material is renewable and sustainably grown Nordic wood. Metsä Group focuses on tissue and cooking papers, consumer packaging paperboards, pulp, wood products, and wood supply. Its high-quality products combine renewable raw materials, customer-orientation, sustainable development and innovation. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.0 billion in 2012, and it employs approximately 11,500 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries. Metsäliitto Cooperative is the parent company of Metsä Group and is owned by approximately 125,000 Finnish forest owners.

www.metsafibre.fi

Metsä Fibre is a world-leading producer of softwood pulp. Our main products – sustainably and cost-efficiently produced softwood and birch pulp – are specially developed for the production of high-quality fine papers, magazine and tissue papers, and board. Our main brand is Botnia. With four pulp mills in Finland, we employ a total of about 900 people. Our sales in 2012 were approximately EUR 1.3 billion. Metsä Fibre is part of Metsä Group.