Metsä Group to increase use of bioenergy at Kemi

Metsä Group will launch a feasibility study to increase the use and production of renewable energy sources at the Kemi pulp mill in Finland. The company said that one possible production technology being reviewed is a gasification plant for biofuel production replacing the fossil fuel of the lime kiln.

According to Metsä, a similar gasification plant will be commissioned at the Joutseno pulp mill this summer. The mill is to become a carbon dioxide-neutral production plant during normal operation.

The feasibility study in Kemi will focus on the technical concepts and business model of the investment options. It is planned to be completed by the end of the year.

A new production technology would increase the Kemi mill's use of wood-based fuels obtained from external suppliers, Metsä said in a statement. At the moment, the mill produces more energy than it needs. According to the company, the self-sufficiency rate of the mill's electrical energy is about 141%.

Biodiesel project in Ajos not feasible

While the feasibility for a biofuel plant at the Kemi mill is to be examined, Metsä Group decided to abandon a project for a biodiesel plant in Finland. The feasibility study for this had been conducted since spring 2009.

The final stage of the study reviewed the opportunity of establishing a plant in Ajos, Kemi, which would use wood as its raw material. However, Metsä Group finds that there are insufficient profitability prerequisites for executing the project.

"As a whole, and particularly in regard to the scale of the investment, the project profitability doesn’t reach a level where investing to this plan would be financially justified for Metsä Group. There was no single reason for our decision. Instead, this is expressly an overall review. Metsä Group will focus on further developing the Kemi mill integrate in Northern Finland and will, among other actions, review the opportunity to increase bioenergy production at the integrate. A possible investment will be allocated to replacing fossil fuels in particular," said Hannu Anttila, Executive Vice President, Strategy in a statement.

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