Metsä Fibre's Joutseno mill soon to produce all its own energy

Metsä Fibre's significant bioenergy investment, i.e. the gasification plant at the Joutseno mill, has reached rooftop height. The plant will produce 48 MW of bioenergy based on bark. This corresponds to the annual consumption of 2,500 Finnish oil-heated houses.

 
Once the plant has been completed in the autumn, the mill will be the first carbon-neutral production unit in Finland. This means that the mill will not need any external energy during normal operation but will rather produce all its own energy using wood-based fuels. The mill uses the heat and electricity created during the pulp manufacturing process, but fossil natural gas has fuelled the lime kiln so far. The bioenergy produced by the gasification plant will replace the natural gas used in the lime kiln. The plant will considerably improve the energy efficiency of the mill.

Gasification plant to be launched in the autumn

The construction of the gasification plant commenced last summer and equipment will be installed in January. The plant will be introduced for trial use in the summer and for normal production in the autumn.

The gasification technology used in the plant was invented 70 years ago, but the Joutseno gasification plant concept is a new technology application in the Finnish pulp industry.

"The bark, dried with the heat created as the by-product of the mill, is used to produce biogas that will replace fossil fuels," says Henrik Söderström, VP, Mill Manager, Metsä Fibre Joutseno mill.

Metsä Fibre's pulp mills are more than self-sufficient in terms of energy since they produce more energy than they need. One-fifth of the electricity produced with wood-based fuels in Finland is created at Metsä Fibre pulp mills.