Fibre customer magazine 2019/2020

2019

2020

METSÄ FIBRE CUSTOMER MAGAZINE

EXPLORING INNOVATIONS FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE CARING FOR THE FOREST

Contents METSÄ FIBRE CUSTOMER MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL

PAGE 4

READING MANUAL

PAGE 5

WORLD OF FIBRE Pulp news, industry trends and intresting facts about Metsä Fibre’s latest projects.

PAGES 6–9

SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY For the past 40 years, the forests of Finnish Vanha-Pälsilä farm have been managed by Matti Eerola. Now his children are taking over with the help of Metsä Group’s Forest Management Specialists.

PAGES 10–17

A LEAP INTO THE FUTURE, PAGES 25–29

PROBLEM SOLVER Professor Tekla Tammelin

NEW REGULATIONS CREATE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES The EU ban on single-use plastics creates a growth in demand for paper- based packaging. Susanne Oste, VP of Innovation and Sustainability at Sappi shares her insight.

studies the uses of cellulose. Tammelin is a star in her field, and her enthusiasm is infectious.

PAGES 36–41

PAGES 44–45

A CHAIR FOR BETTER SCHOOL DAYS A wood-based biocomposite is perfect for a chair.

PLASTIC BECAME A PROBLEM Plastic has become a problem to which we are trying to find a solution. Wood is one of the most promising replacements.

PAGES 42–43

PAGES 18–24

A LEAP INTO THE FUTURE Investments in the Kemi bioproduct mill and the Rauma sawmill, in Finland, would strengthen Metsä Fibre’s competitiveness.

PAGES 25–29

CHINA’S CARDBOARD MARKET IS CHANGING Sun Paper Group’s Chairman, Hongxin Li, has a solid strategy to make his company thrive in the situa- tion that is changing.

THE COMPETITION OVER FIBRE The pulp market will be shaped by new investments, corporate acquisi- tions and China’s fibre shortage.

PAGES 30–35

PAGES 46–49

A SMALL MARKET WITH LARGE PLAYERS Australia’s cardboard business

RFID IMPROVES TRACEABILITY A small tag attached to a pulp unit allows tracking from the mill to the customer.

RFID READ

is in the hands of few large companies. The need for virgin pulp will change the market.

PAGES 66–67

PAGES 50–53

PULP TECH The new FORE tool optimises pulp refining.

COLUMN Jaakko Anttila, the head of pulp production and member of Metsä Fibre management team, is a sports enthusiast.

IN COOPERATION WITH THE CUSTOMERS Metsä Fibre continuously develops its global services.

PAGES 68–69

PAGES 54–59

A PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSIONAL Piia Pellinen is a process

PAGE 73

OUR 2030 SUSTAINABILITY GOALS

operator at the pulp drying machine of Metsä Fibre’s Joutseno mill. She loves her job.

Our goal is carbon neutral process in 2030. Where are we now and where are we heading?

PAGES 70–71

PAGE 74

REDUCING OUR CARBON EMISSIONS BY 3,230 TONNES. Sustainable logistics in Äänekoski, Finland.

WE ARE METSÄ FIBRE Basic information about our pulp mills and sawmills.

PAGE 75

PAGE 72

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

“It takes courage to be a forerunner. Continuous improvement is impor- tant,” says CEO Ismo Nousiainen.

PLASTIC BECAME A PROBLEM – IS WOOD THE SOLUTION?, PAGES 18–24

PAGES 60–63

A REVOLUTION IN TEXTILE PRODUCTION

There is immense market demand for more sustainably produced clothes. Metsä Spring’s new textile fibre aims to meet this demand.

PAGES 64–65

WELCOME

DEAR READER,

You hold in your hands the first issue of our new customer magazine, Fibre!

During the past year, we have worked hard to renew and refresh our branding. At the heart of this change is our ambitious purpose – to create sustainable growth for our customers from renewable Northern wood. Therefore, this new magazine presents a new feel with a selection of interesting stories and a refreshed layout, which reflects our Nordic origins. The main themes throughout this issue are innovations from fresh fibre, industry trends and fighting climate change.

There is much to discover in this issue of Fibre and we’re delighted that you’re with us on this journey!

EVA MARTIN Editor-in-chief

P.S. We’d love to hear what you think about our magazine. Feel free to send us feedback: metsafibre.marketing@metsagroup.com . Thank you!

This is how you read our new customer magazine Fibre

We have gathered the latest news, trends and insights about the pulp industry and will share them with you on the following pages. The magazine is published once a year and it is made for our customers around the world.

On some pages of this magazine you can see a QR code. When you scan the code with your device you will be able to read a digital article that will give you interesting additional information about the subject.

The magazine is published in three languages: English, Finnish and Chinese. In addition to the paper magazine the Fibre customer magazine is published online. You will find the digital magazines in this address: www.customermagazine.metsafibre.com .

READ MORE ABOUT SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY:

We regularly publish articles about interesting topics on Metsä Fibre’s web page.

You can subscribe to our quarterly newsletter and stay informed on pulp trends, innovations and Metsä Fibre’s latest news.

HOW TO READ A QR CODE Open up the camera in your phone. If your phone has built-in QR code scanning, you do not have to download a separate scanning app. Position your smartphone so that the QR code appears on your screen. Take care that you have the right distance. All the corners of the code should be visible. A notification should pop up at your screen showing that the QR code has been read. It might open the web page automatically. You can also tap the notification to use the code.

WE HAVE RECEIVED YOUR FEEDBACK

Our customers consider us as a reliable partner with consistent pulp quality.

scores, but more communication when there are pulp deviations ongoing. “On a daily basis we are seen as a partner that strives to improve the relationship and cooperation with the cus- tomers. RADAR gives us more insight to where specifically we need improvements and these are individual and very specific cases with relatively easy and quick fixes,” tells Mi- kael Lagerblom , Metsä Fibre’s VP for Sales EMEA. “One of the requests from our Asian customers has been to improve shipment tracking. We’ve developed a shipment tracking tool and will further improve that tool to meet our customers’ demands. This is a good example of how the customer survey helps to identify important development targets,” says Metsä Fibre’s Harri Vertanen , VP for Sales Asia. Based on the customer feedback, various logistical studies were done to find ways to shorten delivery times. In addition to that, the shipment tracking tool develop- ment started. “We also worked on improving the communication. FibreOnline was introduced to many customers to ena- ble easier communication regarding shipments and pulp quality follow up,” Vertanen says. “We’re currently also reviewing in the whole Metsä Group how we can improve and renew continuous meas- urements of customer experience,” Harmaala says. •

Gathering customer feedback is a systematic process in Metsä Fibre. The feedback data is distributed to the whole organisation where functional teams analyse the results and make corrective action plans. The customer surveys have been carried out for more than 20 years in Europe and are completed today in all market areas we are present. The survey method is an in-depth phone interview. The annual customer satisfaction survey, RADAR, states that the customers’ satisfaction remains high. The cus- tomers consider us as a reliable supplier with even pulp quality. This is a welcomed result, since we have worked hard in improving quality consistency and especially af- ter introducing Metris FOX quality index (developed by Metsä Fibre, and now owned by international technology company Andritz). Communication with customers has been in general on a good level, but there is always room for improvement. “Based on the results, customer expectations and com- munication don’t always meet. Therefore, we need to focus our efforts on improving the customer expectations by developing the amount, the content and the quality of communication,” says Metsä Fibre’s Ari Harmaala , SVP Sales and Customership. “One example here is to show better the clear customer benefits that our services offer.” The survey tells that the satisfaction in EMEA has im- proved. Customer support and knowledge received high

“Metsä Fibre is seen as a partner that strives to improve the relationship and cooperation with the customers.”

BOTNIA PULP IS NOW CALLED METSÄ PULP

84% The utilisation rate of sidestreams at Metsä Fibre stands at 84 per cent.

brand,” says Ari Harmaala , SVP Sales and Customership, Metsä Fibre. NO CHANGES TO RAW MATERIAL Only the branding has changed. The products and product range are exactly the same, with the same raw material and guaran- teed Metsä Fibre quality. We will be applying the same changes to the branding of the pulp products, services, and bio- chemicals. •

We have rebranded our Botnia products. All products will now use the Metsä name instead of Botnia. For example, Botnia Nordic Pine pulp is now called Metsä Pine pulp. We want to strengthen our Metsä brand, and refresh our branding and marketing to focus more on our customers. “We’re simplifying the naming of our pulp product and service portfolio by moving our pulp offering under one unified Metsä

3 INDUSTRY TRENDS According to McKinsey’s report, there are some paper and pulp market trends that should be considered in the next few years: 1. Graphic papers will continue to decline in demand. The segment needs to restructure its production capacity. 2. Consumer packaging and tissue will be influenced by sustainability and demand for convenience. The market is expected to grow. Innovation will be essential for success inside the business. 3. E-commerce will be respon- sible for about a half of the demand growth in transport packaging.

Source: mckinsey.com

electrical energy than it consumes. 174%

The self-sufficiency in electricity of Metsä Fibre’s mills is 174 per cent – generating more

FOLLOW METSÄ FIBRE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Photos PETRI LYYTIKÄINEN

PAPER DISPENSERS OF RECYCLED ABS PLASTIC We use tissue papers in toilet facilities, offices, hospitals, schools and other public spaces. These products need clean, moisture-proof and often tamper-proof dis- pensers. To make the dispensers more sustainable, Metsä Tissue’s professional brand Katrin has trialled recycled ABS plastic in them. ABS stands for Acrylonitrile buta diene styrene. “Development of Katrin dispensers has been success- ful and we have been able to replace all black plastic parts of the dispensers with recycled plastic,” says Markus Reivala , VP, Global Offering at Metsä Tissue. Also pin plugs that secure the smooth operation of the dispensers are gradually going to be made of recycled plastic. In the future, Katrin aims to use as much recycled material in the dispensers as possible.

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FACILITATE THE PREDICTION OF PROBLEMS

“Digitalisation is already playing a key role in the pulp industry. Inno- vations will take place as long as operators have the courage to invest in new technology,” says Matti Toivonen , VP, Technology. He heads the technology team in Metsä Fibre’s business development. “We can get better and better at anticipating the state of our equipment and avoiding break- downs. Digitalisation increases internal efficiency, evens up quality and helps us serve our customers in increasingly better ways,” says Toivonen. Currently, an average of 40,000 data points are gathered from pulp mills and analysed largely by employees. A data point can be, say, a machine’s temperature, pressure or the position of a valve. “We aim to be able to ana- lyse at least 80 per cent of this data automatically. We’re also

in the process of developing a digital twin for the causticizing department in Äänekoski.” According to Toivonen, the finished programme is a little like a computer game which aims to imitate the real world as closely as possible. “The twin allows us to practice for both problem situations and normal running of the depart- ment. The programme gives tips on which parameter to put in which position, for example.” In terms of the digital services provided to customers, he mentions RFID, which allows for increasingly detailed tracking of pulp movement within the logistics chain. Toivonen says that digitalisation should always be well-founded. “There’s no point in going digital for the sake of digitalisa- tion alone.” •

The black parts of Katrin dispensers are made of ABS plastic.

100 PER CENT TRACEABLE WOOD More than 90 per cent of the wood used by Metsä Fibre is certified. All the wood we use, meaning 100 per cent of it, is traceable and comes from certified or controlled forests. This allows us to ensure the legality of the wood supply, as well as the acceptability and sustainability of the supply chain.

100%

NEW INVENTIONS BOOST BUSINESS

METRIS FOX MONITORS PULP QUALITY The Metris FOX index is a quality index developed by Metsä Fibre which was sold roughly a year ago to the international technology com- pany Andritz. Andritz supplies equipment and services to the pulp and paper industry. The Metris FOX tool, based on online data gathered at a pulp mill, monitors and fore- casts the quality of pulp from the beginning of a process right to the end product. The results given by the Metris FOX tool allow mills to optimise their processes, so they can maintain the best possible quality of pulp. “We’ve run customer pro- jects on paperboard, grease- proof paper and magazine paper, for example. We’ve noticed that the higher the Metris FOX index is, the less refining energy the process needs,” says Kirsi

Metsä Fibre’s Business Develop- ment Manager Jukka Rantamäki is a little bit like a scientist and explorer in his work: he follows the competition, gathers data and supervises development projects in which Metsä Fibre’s profes- sionals come up with new ideas in cooperation with the company’s partners. These projects may progress all the way to patents. Rantamäki began working in his new job in September 2019. ”This is unnoticeable but highly important work. We get to be at the cutting edge of devel- opment, and that’s something.” The monitoring includes keeping an eye on any patent applications filed by competitors which may pose a challenge to Metsä Fibre’s business operations. During the opposition period, a patent can be challenged by showing that the idea has already been presented elsewhere at an earlier date. Right now, Metsä Fibre is par- ticularly focused on the develop- ment of biocomposites. “There’s potential for new opportunities on that front. The global market is rather big.” One of the companies engaged in the industry is Aqvacomp, which makes a biocomposite

from pulp at Metsä Fibre’s Rauma mill. The bioplastic polyactide, or PLA, could also be used as a bind- ing agent in composites. Other plastic replacements are also being studied. Superabsor- bents are used in nappies, for example, and while these absorb a large amount of liquid in propor- tion to their weight, they can also be unecological. “Perhaps we’ll be able to make something nearly as efficient out of fibre.” Metsä Spring’s textile product mill aims to produce pulp-based fabrics for the fabric industry. Rantamäki would also like to study lignin, which is used as an energy source for mills. “We’re kind of heading back to the 1970s, when stores mostly provided paper bags to their customers. These degrade in the ocean and do not end up in fish or mammals. Paper and paperboard are good packaging materials. We also have premium sawn timber, which can replace plastic and concrete.” These new applications of pulp secure the continuity of Metsä Fibre’s business. “It’s also reasonable to foster a better, greener lifestyle to pre- serve the environment.” •

Hirvonen , Development Manager of Metsä Fibre.

GOLD RATING IN CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL AND

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Metsä Fibre has been awarded a gold medal in recognition of CSR achievement. EcoVadis Gold rating was given to Metsä Fibre for the work the com- pany has done related to envi- ronment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. In the overall score, Metsä Fibre is in the top 3 per cent of companies assessed by EcoVadis in the Manufacture of pulp, paper and paperboard industry.

“It’s also reasonable to foster a better, greener lifestyle to preserve the environment.”

The occupational safety indicators that are monitored in Metsä Fibre encourage to continuously develop the operations. The aim is to decrease the TRI (Total Recordable Injury) frequency to 3 by 2025, when in 2018, it was 17.1. The long-term goal is zero accidents.

Photos PETRI LYYTIKÄINEN & METSÄ GROUP

For the past 40 years, the forests of Vanha-Pälsilä farm, located on the shore of Poikkijärvi in Kuhmoinen, in Finland, have been managed with great care by Matti Eerola. Now the next generation, Eerola’s children Simo and Hanna, are taking over with the help of Metsä Group’s Forest Management Specialists. GENERATIONS OF SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT

ANNA GUSTAFSSON, photos HANNE MANELIUS

The thick crowns of spruces cast a pleasant shade on the footpath and make the air seem cool. Big-leaved wood sorrels grow on the mosses, ants are busily scurrying along trunks and plump cones swing on the spruce branches. The Vanha-Pälsilä farm, located in Kuhmoinen, Central Finland, is a perfect example of sustainable forestry and love for nature. The old farmer Matti Eerola has success- fully transformed an underproductive forest and field estate into a thriving one: the volume of trees has doubled in forty years. He has been happy to hand over the well-managed estate to the hands of the next generation. His children, Simo and Hanna Eerola , took charge of the estate two years ago. Matti’s wife Eira Eerola sets a freshly baked salmon pie on the table. We are joined by Metsä Group’s Forest Specialist Pekka Seppälä , who has worked with the Eerola family since 2006. “The story of Eerola’s forests is quite something. The estate is a great example of how you can improve a forest’s growth considerably with sustainable management,” says Seppälä. The volume of trees growing on a hectare of land in the estate’s most heavily forested area has almost doubled compared to what it was when Eerola bought the estate.

SUPPORTING THE OWNER IN FOREST MANAGEMENT The cooperation between Metsä Group’s specialists and a forest owner starts from the forest owner’s goals. According to Seppälä, urban forest owners are particularly interested in outsourcing forest management entirely to a professional. “The owners may, for example, instruct us to emphasise the value of nature in their forests’ management decisions. This is more common than an owner who seeks only max- imum profit from their forest.” For a Finnish forest estate, Vanha-Pälsilä is sizeable, given that the average size of a privately-owned forest estate in Finland is 30 hectares. Matti Eerola started off with slightly more than 100 hectares of fields, forest and pasture, but gradually increased the amount of forest hec- tares, which now total 240. We set off to take a look at his forests together with Eerola himself and the estate’s current owner Hanna Eerola. We are joined by Seppälä and Silviculture Manager Teppo Oijala from Metsä Group. ENOUGH WOOD FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Eerola’s hands, worn from decades of hard work, gently twirl a seedling planted a month ago. Its growth has gotten

COMMENT “Forest management is a long-term job, and the results can be enjoyed by future generations. I feel happy when I look at my forest.” Matti Eerola, forest owner

Hanna Eerola has been enthusiastic about forestry her whole life. “There is always more to learn,” she says. Hanna is here with her father Matti Eerola (left), Pekka Seppälä and Teppo Oijala from Metsä Group.

off to a good start. When managed well, these seedlings will be sturdy logs in 60–80 years’ time. This makes the intergenerational nature of forestry visible. The stand we are in, named Terrimäki, went through a regeneration felling last autumn, which yielded 640 cubic metres of wood from an area of two hectares. After the regeneration felling, the area was planted with spruce seedlings, whose growth will be monitored closely for the next few years. Ensuring continuity is important for both forest owners and forestry. In Finland, the Forest Act – which requires a forest to be replanted with a new seedling stand after a regeneration felling – ensures that there is enough wood for future generations. Each felled tree is replaced with four to five new seedlings. Metsä Group delivers more than 30 million seedlings a year to be planted in Finnish forests. The planting and sowing rely on domestic tree species. This ensures that the living conditions of the natural forest-dwelling species are retained. The most common tree species are spruce, pine and birch. For Matti Eerola, who went to an agricultural school, forests have been a source of great interest since he was a boy. What is remarkable is that, felling excluded, all

COMMENT “It’s great to be part of the chain of generations that has managed these forests. A well-managed forest is beautiful.” Hanna Eerola, forest owner

“This is where we started from.” Matti Eerola holds a photograph from 40 years ago to show how proper management of a forest can support excellent growth.

180 M

107 M m 3

Each year 180 million trees are planted in Finland. Finnish forests are 50 per cent pine, 30 per cent spruce and 17 per cent birch.

Finnish forests grow 107 million cubic meters per year. Forests cover a staggering 75 per cent of Finland’s surface area.

forest management work at the Vanha-Pälsilä farm has been carried out unaided by the Eerola family. This is also notable, because roughly a third of Finland’s more than 600,000 forest owners do not even reside in the same lo- cality as their forest. “Both partial and full outsourcing of forest management work is very common,” says Pekka Seppälä. RETENTION TREES INTRODUCE BIODIVERSITY Teppo Oijala reminds us that forests are managed not only for people’s own livelihood, or that of future genera- tions, but to mitigate climate change. Wood is a renewable resource, and the products made from it serve as respon- sible alternatives to products made from non-renewable resources. Well-managed, robust forests sequester carbon dioxide from the air and function as carbon sinks. Seppälä points out the features in the landscape which demonstrate that the forest’s biodiversity has been taken care of after the regeneration. A group of retention trees have been left standing in the middle of the felling site. The best groups of retention trees consist of a variety of tree species of varying ages, some of which will begin decaying over time. This is vitally important for many organisms. In addition, the retention trees provide the forest with trees of different ages, which is also important for many organisms. Retention trees are also a requirement for both PEFC and FSC certification. For Eerola, obtaining a certificate was a “given”. Nearly 90 per cent of the wood purchased by Metsä Group is certified. One of the trees left standing is a naturally formed high stump, meaning that its top has broken off at a height of about four or five metres. While trees that decay where

COMMENT “Growing a mixed forest is a superb way to improve the soil. A forest with multiple tree species is also more resistant to pests. We aim for mixed forests whenever it’s right for the growth location.” Teppo Oijala, Silviculture Manager, Metsä Group

COMMENT “The story of Eerola’s forests is quite something. The estate is a great example of how you can improve a forest’s growth considerably with sustainable management.”

Pekka Seppälä, Forest Specialist, Metsä Group

Saving trees are left to the logging site to form habitats for species who live on decaying wood.

Planting new seedlings after harvesting is an essential part of sustainable forestry. With good care, this seedling will keep growing over the decades.

“Dad has done a great job. Now I want to see my own hand in how my forest is managed.”

READ MORE ABOUT SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY:

22 M ha

Regeneration felling or thinning is performed on 3 per cent of Finland’s forests each year. 89 per cent of the trees are used by the forest industry, 11 per cent are used as energy wood.

There are 22 million hectares of forest in Finland. This means 4 hectares per Finn. In Europe the average is 1.3 hectares per citizen.

they stand are a haven for birds which nest in holes, they are also used as look-out posts by birds of prey. “This is why we make high stumps in the majority of felling sites. We cut a trunk at a height of 2–4 metres and leave it in the forest, with the landowner’s consent, of course,” says Oijala. Prior to planting, the soil in the Terrimäki stand has been prepared by way of inverting. This soil preparation method, developed by Metsä Group, breaks the soil as lit- tle as possible from the spot in which a seedling is planted. The soil is prepared so that the planted seedlings will have as good and warm growing conditions as possible. When the seedlings grow fast, they will not give up space to grasses. The scarcity of grass, on the other hand, wards off pests and voles. THINNING A FOREST MAKES FOR STURDIER TREES We take to a winding gravel road and head off to a stand called Hakamäki. The forest is lush and green. There is no shortage of insects. On the ground, a spider is flexing its long legs. We can also spot a beetle. Hakamäki has already been thinned twice. Seppälä reck- ons that the next thinning will take place next year. He says that a successful thinning accelerates the growth of the trees, since it improves the growth conditions. A thinning involves the removal of trees that have lagged behind in growth and leaves the best trees in the forest to grow and become sturdy. For the forest owner, a thinning generates income. A PLANTED FOREST IS SIMILAR TO A NATURAL ONE The Pukkaharju stand is located a short drive away, in the middle of a quintessential Central Finnish scenery, in the nook of an esker. The Pukkaharju stand is the first stand on which Matti Eerola himself planted trees 30 years ago.

Even so, the Pukkaharju forest does not differ from a natural forest, in terms of the way it looks. The trees are mainly spruces, but there are also some pines. In addition, the forest is home to deciduous trees, such as birch and rowan, and even a few junipers. The tussocks are popu- lated by already ripening blueberries and lingonberries. A mixed forest has a lot of advantages. “Growing a mixed forest with enough broad-leaved trees alongside coniferous ones is a superb way to improve the soil. A forest with multiple tree species is also more resist- ant to pests than a forest with only a single tree species. In forest management, we aim for mixed forests whenever it’s right for the growth location,” says Oijala. FOREST MANAGEMENT IN THE FATHER’S FOOTPRINTS Forest work is a nice counterbalance to working life in the city. Hanna Eerola, the estate’s new owner, has a job in Helsinki, but she does a lot of remote work from her farm. As an active forest owner she is a rare exception, given that the average age of forest owners in Finland is over 60. Even so, for Hanna, it felt natural to take over responsibil- ity for the forest estate together with her brother. “There’s no single right answer in forest management. I like the fact that I can investigate various views and use them in finding my own way of managing a forest,” she says. Forest management is rewarding when you see the results and benefit from them, too. The generational change with her father has gone well. While the know-how on forest management gathered by the previous generation is valuable, there is also a lot to learn, since forest management tends to develop contin- uously. “Dad has done a great job, and a huge one at that. While I wouldn’t even dream of learning everything at once, I do want see my own hand in how my forest is managed.” •

60 per cent of Finland’s forests are owned by private forest owners. 26 per cent are owned by the state and little less than 10 per cent by forest companies. The rest, approximately five per cent, is owned by municipalities, parishes and jointly owned forests. 60%

PLASTIC BECAME

Plastic was once considered an irreplaceable material that improves people’s quality of life. Now plastic has become a problem to which we are frantically trying to find a solution. Wood is one of the most promising replacements for plastic. The goal is to recycle plastic more effectively and replace it with wood fibre when suitable. A PROBLEM – IS WOOD THE SOLUTION?

ANNA GUSTAFSSON, photos SAMI VALLIUS, PAPTIC, PETRI LYYTIKÄINEN, SHUTTERSTOCK

There is no buzzer or doorbell to be found in the wall of the low brick building located in the courtyard of this office complex. The janitor who happens to pass by opens the door a little hesitantly, given that it is, after all, risky to let a stranger in to a building where people are working on a revolutionary, patented invention. The innovation is called Paptic, and it aims to resolve the entire world’s plastic bag problems, at least for starters. A production unit roughly the size of a small paper ma- chine can be found on the first floor of the office space, clearly past its prime. The machine is pushing out a wood- based, papery material made using the foam forming method, where in addition to water, air is mixed into the paper pulp. Esa Torniainen , one of Paptic’s founders, goes in search of an unoccupied space for our interview. The corridor of the office is lined with cardboard boxes full of bro- chures, samples and specimens. Finding a free space proves challenging, since each office is occupied by one of the company’s 15 employees. Finally we find a small space in the corner of an office the size of a cleaning cupboard, in which an old chair has been re-purposed as a table. This start-up, which managed to secure more than a million euros from investors during its first round of funding, has made a full-on investment in product development instead of impressive office premises.

Paptic is made of wood fibres from controlled and sustainably managed forests. The material is completely biodegradable.

Tuomas Mustonen and Karita Kinnunen-Raudaskoski established Paptic with Esa Torniainen in 2015. At the time, Mustonen and Torniainen were working at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland on the development of the sales and business operations of research services aimed at the forest industry, while Kinnunen-Raudaskoski was also working at VTT, as a senior scientist. “Whether there was a material that could replace plastic was a standard question asked by customers as early as five years ago. When you hear a question often enough, you begin to believe that there’s an opportunity for business here,” says Torniainen. The test batches were made with a laboratory sheet mould. The approach when meeting potential customers was akin to being “willing to learn, but prepared to take a beating” as Torniainen puts it, in his straightforward manner. The fact that the very first customer immediately ordered replace- ments for plastic bags made from Paptic’s material was a welcome surprise. The next customer was a major European fashion industry company, the management of which agreed to meet Paptic’s representatives on the basis of a single email. “I’d never had a reaction like it in my whole career. Rather than just welcoming us, our customers are practi- cally pulling us through the door. The desire to get rid of plastic is real,” says Torniainen. THE WINNER BECAME THE PROBLEM When you touch the Paptic material, it feels like some- thing between paper and fabric. It crumples up like paper, but returns to its shape like a fabric. As a shopping bag, the material is strong, yet it can still be sewn or glued. Plasticity, lightness and numerous application possibil- ities also guaranteed the success of plastic, back in the day when plastic beat its rivals – paper, paperboard and glass – in the packaging and manufacturing industries. Plastic played an important role in the economic growth of Western countries throughout the 20th century. Con- sumption, the rise in living standards and a desire to make everyday tasks easier all walked hand-in-hand with the growth of plastic consumption. The world produces 350 million tonnes of plastic a year, of which 85 per cent ends up in landfills or, increasingly, in

bodies of water. Every year, eight million more tonnes of plastic end up in the world’s oceans, most of it from Asia. The oft-quoted 2016 report by the Ellen McArthur Foun- dation – named after sailor Ellen McArthur – presents a truly troubling scenario: by 2050, the world’s oceans will contain more plastic than fish. The micro-plastic that enters the oceans accumulates in people through drinking water, food and even the air we breathe, with as yet unforeseen consequences. The bi- odiversity and well-being of marine animals and nature are at risk. This once desired material, which symbolised progress, has become a liability we need to get rid of. In the United Nations convention held in Geneva in July 2019, 187 countries made a commitment to reduce plas- tic waste and increase plastic recycling. So far, 127 coun- tries have imposed a charge on disposable plastic bags or banned them altogether. Many developing countries which used to accept waste from the Western countries are now refusing to accept plastic waste. In the European Union, the ban on dispos- able plastics will take effect in 2021. There is therefore plenty of demand for a biodegradable, bio-based and sus- tainably produced material. PULP LENDS ITSELF TO EVERYTHING The line is bad, and no wonder – Professor Thomas Rosenau answers his phone from the basement lab of an Austrian university where, he tells us, he spends most of his time. Professor Rosenau works as a professor of wood and pulp chemistry in the Austrian University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, or BOKU, and he has also visited Finland and the United States as a researcher. He focuses on basic research in polymers, meaning that he looks deeper and deeper into their molecular structure. Polymers are found in nature and in synthetic form. Cel- lulose is one of nature’s polymers. The thought of using wood instead of oil-based plastic is not new. “Academic research on the properties of wood fibre has been done for 70 years now,” says Rosenau. The good properties of wood fibre – such as its softness, strength, lightness and good elasticity – have been known

A man collects plastic things in a pile of garbage brought by the surf from the sea in Manila, Philippines.

Paptic is an alternative to plastic.

The decomposition time of oil-based plastic. 450 years

The proportion of plastic that ends up in landfilss in EU-countries. 31%

for decades. Wood fibre can be used even in applications where plastic was thought to be irreplaceable. Indeed, nowadays we can make almost anything from wood fibre, from tableware to packaging and clothing. Professor Rosenau believes that as the transition to clean energy progresses, the production of plastic will decline. As fossil fuels become scarce, or when their use must be restrict- ed due to climate change, their applications will change. “Fossil components shouldn’t be wasted in plastic pro- duction, because you can achieve the same properties by using entirely renewable raw materials,” says Rosenau. Despite their good qualities, plastic replacements have yet to surpass the popularity of plastic. Bioplastics account for less than one per cent of the raw material used in the entire plastic industry, which is equal to a little more than a million tonnes a year. There is a greater need for cooperation between academic research and the business sector. “As it stands, academic research is not adequately aware of the needs that the markets already have, and businesses are unaware of all the things that academic research has already made possible,” adds Rosenau. PROMISING DEVELOPMENT Anna Suurnäkki , VP of Research at Metsä Fibre, has spent her decades-long research and work career on adapting the properties of wood fibres. She began studying pulp applications back when she was working on her doctoral dissertation, and came to Metsä Fibre from her position of Principal Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. According to Anna, the advances made so far are prom- ising – the perspective of the corporate world has broad- ened at the same time as research methods have under- gone remarkable development. Analytical methods have developed enormously. “We can now access the structure of fibres at an entirely new level, which has increased our in-depth understand-

ing of fibres, starting from their structural components. When we understand the properties of fibre, we can also appreciate the opportunities it offers,” says Suurnäkki. The properties and applications of wood fibre are there- fore increasingly well understood. “I don’t think that we should try to make fibre as much like plastic as possible. Wood fibre has its properties, and any applications which make use of the particular advan- tages of fibre – such as strength, flexibility and bonding capacity – are especially interesting,” Suurnäkki says. In addition to pulp production, Metsä Fibre has inno vated plenty of things from pulp in cooperation with its partners. Aqvacomp, for one, makes a biocomposite which combines plastic and biomass in the demo plant located next to Metsä Fibre’s Rauma mill. MI Demo, a joint venture of Itochu Corporation and Metsä Spring, part of Metsä Group, is also initiating the further development of a production technology for a pulp-based textile fibre on the premises of the Metsä Fibre’s Äänekoski bioproduct mill. COURAGE IS REQUIRED For now, plastic’s superior competitive advantage is its price. Whereas you may have to pay 30 euros for a gram of lab-manufactured nano cellulose, you can order vast amounts of plastic granulate from China for less than one euro a kilo. Many plastic product manufacturers have invested in their production lines for decades, and the transition to a new material is not always easy, let alone cheap. You should also be sure that consumers are willing to pay more for a more sustainably produced material. Suurnäkki reminds us that, even though all signs point towards the limitless future possibilities of wood fibre, we do need patience. New investments in the process industry take their time. “You need to be realistic and brave. A big production unit is always a major investment and requires thorough

Esa Torniainen Paptic’s co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer. The company is a startup that produces a wood- based material that replaces plastics in packaging. Paptic was founded in 2015.

Wood fibre can be used even in applications where plastic was thought to be irreplaceable.

Thomas Rosenau Professor at BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. Rosenau holds the chair of Wood, Pulp and Fibre Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry.

studies before the decision. Pilot projects and demonstra- tions also take time. Even so, I’d say that you need to have the stomach for uncertainties, too, and seize new oppor- tunities,” Suurnäkki says. After all, Paptic’s founder Esa Torniainen and his two colleagues also found the courage to become start-up en- trepreneurs, even though, in his own words, Torniainen is no longer “of the age where you set up companies from scratch, wearing a hoodie.” The confidence in the new ma- terial and the market demand was nonetheless so strong that Torniainen considered it his duty to become an en- trepreneur. Especially since he freely admits to having complained, during his previous career, that people do not do enough new things. “This may be wishful thinking, but I do believe that the train is running so smoothly now that there’s no stopping it. When a sufficient number of companies and people change their attitude toward plastic, the rest have no other alternative than to follow,” says Torniainen. •

“I’d say that you need to have the stomach for uncertainties, too, and seize new opportunities.”

“We can now access the structure of fibres at an entirely new level, which has increased our in-depth understanding of fibres,” says Anna Suurnäkki.

Anna Suurnäkki Vice President of Research in Metsä Fibre. She has extensive experience in the reasearch of fibre processing and wood-based materials.

Investments in the Kemi bioproduct mill and the Rauma sawmill would strengthen Metsä Fibre’s competitiveness. A LEAP INTO THE FUTURE

MARKKU RIMPILÄINEN photos SAMI VALLIUS

In the summer of 2019, Metsä Fibre kicked off pre-engi- neering projects for two far-reaching investments. For Kemi, Metsä Fibre is planning a next-generation bioproduct mill which would have the capacity to pro- duce 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp a year, as well as numerous other bioproducts. If realised, the mill would be the largest wood-processing mill in the northern hemisphere. In terms of Rauma, the plan of Metsä Fibre is to build the world’s largest and most efficient and modern sin- gle-line pine sawmill, which would produce 750,000 cubic metres of sawn timber a year. The investments would strengthen Metsä Fibre’s com- petitiveness in the long run. FOREST FRACTIONS ARE USED IN A BALANCED WAY Metsä Group’s President and CEO Ilkka Hämälä stresses that Metsä Fibre should invest in a new bioproduct mill and an increase of its sawing capacity simultaneously. “There must be a balance between the use of the differ- ent fractions of the Finnish forest. Otherwise we won’t be able to make this whole thing work,” he says.

Ilkka Hämälä President and CEO of Metsä Group since 2018.

Metsä Fibre intends to build the Kemi bioproduct mill according to the model implemented already at Äänekoski.

“Our starting point is the sustainable and efficient management of forests, which helps us to ensure that our forests serve as sufficient carbon sinks.”

Thinning wood can be converted as competitively as pos- sible in the bioproduct mills, given that sales proceeds are generated by other bioproducts as well, in addition to pulp. “The aim of the highly automated and very fast next-gen- eration sawmill would be to ensure that Metsä Fibre can operate profitably in the mechanical forest industry.” Hämälä says that both investments also make sense from the perspective of forest management and combatting cli- mate change. “Our starting point is the sustainable and efficient man- agement of forests, which helps us to ensure that our for- ests serve as sufficient carbon sinks. We can make wood- based products that replace fossil-based raw materials or store carbon for long periods of time.” The Kemi and Rauma investments would furthermore reduce the use of fossil fuels and increase the production of electrical energy. ACTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT SECURES WOOD GROWTH The wood supply in Metsä Group is based on close coop- eration with forest owners. Systematic forest management and regular thinning accelerate a forest’s growth. The pulpwood resulting from thinning is an excellent raw material for pulp mills. Following a thinning, the trees left in the forest grow into sturdy logs, suitable for sawn timber. It is intended that the Kemi bioproduct mill will primar- ily use the pulpwood generated in the thinning and regen- eration fellings in Northern Finland as its raw material. The mill would be able to make use of every part of the tree. Locating a new sawmill next to Metsä Fibre’s Rauma pulp mill would be sensible.

The bark, sawdust and chips produced in the sawing would be used as bioenergy and as a raw material for pulp in the pulp mill, which is located on the same plot of land. The sawmill, on the other hand, would get all the en- ergy it needs fossil-free from the pulp mill. In the future, the entire integrated mill’s operations could be entirely fossil-free. THE BEST POSSIBLE BIOPRODUCT MILL Metsä Fibre intends to build the Kemi bioproduct mill according to the model implemented at Äänekoski. “We have a good bioproduct mill concept and a project implementation model which we can repeat in Kemi. It’s important for us to build the best possible mill on the basis of these lessons. We’ll be taking Kemi’s special char- acteristics and the technological advancements that have taken place since Äänekoski into account,” says Project Director Jari-Pekka Johansson . He is in charge of the Kemi bioproduct mill project. The bioproduct mill’s key product is pulp, and it would produce 1.5 million tonnes of pulp a year. This is slightly more than at Äänekoski, where the annual production of pulp amounts to 1.3 million tonnes. The side streams of the pulp production are used in the production of bioproducts, such as tall oil, turpentine, product gas and sulphuric acid. “We’ll be making a reservation for the production of, for example, lignin and textile fibres as early as during the pre-engineering phase,” says Johansson. The process creates so much renewable bioenergy that the mill’s self-sufficiency rate would reach 250 per cent.

Jari-Pekka Johansson Project Director of the Kemi bioproduct mill project. The investment decision will be made at the earliest in the summer of 2020 and the new mill would be started in the first half of the 2020s.

READ MORE ABOUT THE KEMI BIOPRODUCT MILL PROJECT:

“We can make wood-based products that replace fossil-based raw materials or store carbon for long periods of time.”

from customers, and the sawmill would invest heavily in drying solutions. “The end result is that the new technology will help us to make first-rate products from northern wood for demanding customer applications,” says Haapaniemi. ALL WOOD IS TRACEABLE The Kemi bioproduct mill would use some 7.6 million cubic metres of pulpwood a year, which is approximately 4.5 million cubic metres more than the current mill uses. The Rauma sawmill would use roughly 1.5 million cubic metres of Finnish logs a year. In the autumn of 2018, Natural Resources Institute Fin- land (Luke) estimated that the maximum amount of wood that could be felled sustainably in Finland each year until 2024 is 84 million cubic metres. The amount of wood felled in Finland in 2018 was 78.2 million cubic metres. If you add the raw materials needed for Kemi and Rauma to that, you come very close to the maximum limit. “The majority of the wood to be used at the Kemi bi- oproduct mill would come from Finland. The wood can be procured in a sustainable way, because the potential for pulpwood lies in Northern Finland. Ensuring the availability of the wood raw material is indeed one of the prerequisites for a decision to invest in the mill,” says Johansson. All wood purchased by Metsä Fibre is traceable. In 2018, the certification rate of the wood used by Metsä Fibre was 92 per cent. Third-party forest certification signifies sustainable forest use. The final investment decisions concerning Kemi and Rauma will be made, at earliest and respectively, in the summer of 2020 and in early 2020. •

UNSEEN SOLUTIONS IN THE SAWMILL INDUSTRY Both of these large-scale investments are being pre-engi- neered with a clean slate. This will enable the use of the latest technology. “The leaps we’re taking in technology and our opera- tions are so big that we’ll be pointing the way forward for the sawmill industry on a global scale. We’ll be creating a new, competitive concept for the sawmill sector,” says Harri Haapaniemi , Project Director of the pre-engineer- ing project of the Rauma sawmill. At Rauma, the company aims to use solutions previous- ly unseen in the sawmill industry. The aims also include making use of the lessons learned in pulp production. The model for the new sawmill includes a central control room from where the entire production process is run. The operating model emphasises doing things together, multiple skills and user maintenance, in which the oper- ating personnel is partly responsible for the preventive maintenance routines. The key technologies in the next-generation sawmill would include computer vision, smart control and robot- ics. Items that are defective or cause congestion would be identified at an early stage and removed from the line without a need to stop it. Automation would also be put to use in quality assur- ance and the packaging of products. The Rauma sawmill would be the most cutting-edge and efficient sawmill in the world. The sawmill’s target speed is a whopping 250 metres a minute – in other words nearly three times that of a conventional sawmill. The company also intends to surpass old standards in the products’ quality, which would be ensured throughout the process with the help of aids such as computer vision. Specific quality indicators and targets are common needs

Harri Haapaniemi Project Director of the pre-engineering project of the Rauma sawmill. The sawmill would be the largest, most modern and efficient single-line pine sawmill in the world.

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