Stora Enso will use the allocated funds to improve the odour and noise situation, as well as decrease the water emissions of the mill
Stora Enso’s Oulu paper mill in Finland. (Credit: Stora Enso)
Stora Enso has secured an environmental permit from the Regional State Administrative Agency of Northern Finland for the conversion of its Oulu paper mill into a containerboard mill.
The company will use around €40m ($44.5m) for environmental improvements of the mill from the total €350m ($389.46m) investment used for the conversion of the mill.
Stora Enso will use the allocated funds to enhance the odour and noise situation, as well as reduce the water emissions of the mill.
The changes to minimise the environmental impact will be completed before the mill begin production by the end of this year
The multi-stage combustion systems for malodorous will be used to prevent the spread of odours in the environment. The wood chip silos will help minimise the noise from the mill.
Stora Enso intends to complete the changes to minimise the environmental impact before the mill is scheduled to be operational by the end of this year.
Oulu mill will hold the technical capability to generate all energy without fossil fuels following the conversion activities.
The environmental permit is said to cover conditions for emissions to water and air, noise, waste treatment and utilization, energy production, by-products, storage, best available techniques, disturbance and emergency situations, monitoring, accounting and reporting, and fish planting compensation.
In May 2019, the company first revealed plans to convert Oulu mill’s paper machine 7 into a virgin kraftliner machine.
The conversion allows increasing the pulp mill’s annual production capacity to 530,000 tonnes of unbleached pulp.
The planned annual production capacity of the virgin kraftliner is 450,000 tonnes, while the environmental permit facilitates an annual production of 500,000 tonnes of kraftliner.
Oulu mill director Juha Mäkimattila said: “As part of Stora Enso’s transformation into a renewable materials company, the Oulu paper mill will be converted to produce high-end packaging material.
“The kraftliner is used, for example, in food packaging and high-quality e-commerce packaging, which require high strength, purity and excellent visual appearance.”
In April, Valmet, a Finnish supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries, has been selected to supply automation technology Oulu mill.