The opening of a new biopower plant at its Kyro mill site in Finland, should enable Finish carton board maker Metsä Board to approximate halve of the carbon footprint of Metsä Board’s high quality folding boxboards Carta Elega and Avanta Prima – especially recommended for beautycare and healthcare packaging – and of the Cresta wallpaper base product family, which is produced at the same location. The investments amounts to EUR 50 million in partnership with two Finnish energy companies.
“We have been working on improving energy efficiency and sustainability of our mills. The new biopower plant will help us in these efforts, as well as meeting our target of cutting CO2 emissions by 30% across operations by 2020 compared to 2009 levels,” says Mikko Helander, CEO of Metsä Board, Europe’s leading producer of fresh forest fibre cartonboards.
The new biopower plant will replace the use of fossil natural gas with CO2-neutral, discarded wood. This is predominantly bark and other biomass from industrial side streams, as well as logging residual and chips from first thinnings of growing forests. The biopower plant will produce electricity and heat for Metsä Board Kyro, and also provide heating for the neighbouring district of Hämeenkyrö. After start-up of the plant, CO2 emissions from the Kyro mill will be reduced by approximately 100,000 tpa, to about a quarter of previous levels.
