18 Oct 2022

Residual Streams and By-Products From Metsä Board Husum Create Establishment Opportunities

Residual streams and by-products from Metsä Board's pulp and board mill in Husum in Örnsköldsvik municipality have the potential to create an industrial symbiosis and new establishments.

In North Sweden Cleantech’s collaboration project, The Climate-Smart Innovation Site of the Future, RISE Processum, Metsä Board and Örnsköldsvik municipality have carried out a study which focused on the requirements necessary to implement a scenario with the establishment of innovative companies that will recover residual streams and by-products from the factory. In interviews with the business community, electrical filter dust, crude methanol, bark, bio-sludge and biogenic carbon dioxide have proven to be particularly interesting residual streams for the companies that participated in the study.

As a result from the study, Örnsköldsvik municipality is now identifying areas in Husum that are interesting for potential business establishments. The areas that the study has identified are the most suitable from an integration and logistics point of view and are located north of the mill by the industrial track. The study is a first step in a process to investigate the conditions further.

- Husum has a good infrastructure for growth and now that Metsä Board Husum also sees the possibilities to start collaborating with external companies, we see great opportunities for positive growth in the area, says Fredrik Holmgren, Business Director of Örnsköldsvik municipality.

In recent years, interest has grown for companies to create new products through process development focused on specific residual streams, or to create improved, sustainable products.

- I see great potential for innovative companies to develop and test their ideas on the residual streams from Metsä Board Husum, says Karin Johnson, CEO of RISE Processum.

Metsä Board Husum is expanding the facility and is currently investing heavily in both capacity on the cardboard production side and in a renewal of the pulp mill, where the first step in the form of a new soda boiler and turbine is just in the start-up phase.

- At Metsä Board Husum, we are working towards a clear goal of being fossil free until the end of 2030 and the modernization of the pulp mill creates a number of new conditions. With our products and state-of-the-art factory, we offer solutions for the transition towards a sustainable society. With the right partnership, we also see great opportunities to be able to develop long-term circular solutions linked to our residual streams and by-products, says Olov Winblad von Walter, Site Manager at Metsä Board Husum.