The market for 3D plastic packaging could be turned upside down by Metsä Spring's new project. The innovation subsidiary of the Finnish forestry company Metsä plans to work with Valmet to develop a new wood-based product in volume terms. The process would replace similar products made from fossil resources, especially in consumer products such as packaging.
Production on an industrial scale
"Our new product would be of high quality, safe, easily recyclable and based on sustainably grown and renewable northern wood. If recycling of materials, for whatever reason, is not possible, the product is biodegradable. In addition, its manufacture would be entirely free of fossils, says Jarkko Tuominen, project manager at Metsä Spring. We are targeting large-scale market segments and our ambition is high. We are optimistic about the potential to create a new and important value-added product for the Finnish forest industry".
In a first step, the objective is to analyse the technical and economic performance of this new concept and to assess the preconditions for the construction of a pilot plant integrated with the existing pulp or board production in Finland.
The pilot plant, if the analysis phase is favourable, could start up in 2021. And if this production test confirms the viability of the concept, the next step would be to build a first industrial production line in the coming years.
Two other interesting projects underway at Metsä Spring
The development project with Valmet is the third investment Metsä Spring has made since it was founded in spring 2018.
Currently, Metsä Spring is also working with the Japanese company Itochu on the development of a technology that produces textile fibres from paper pulp. The test plant (an investment of ?40 million) located in Äänekoski, Finland is currently in the early start-up phase. And last July, Metsä's subsidiary took a stake in Woodio Oy, a company that develops and manufactures fully waterproof wood composite materials.
