Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet begin construction of the 3D fiber product pilot plant in Äänekoski, Finland. The pilot plant enables testing and further development of the novel process for producing a new type of packaging solution.
The greenfield building will host the pilot line, which converts wood fiber into ready-to-use 3D fiber products, which, in turn, can replace similar packaging solutions made from plastic and aluminum. The goal of the pilot plant project is to develop a new competitive product and the supporting production process and equipment.
“Our project is a good example of our role as a pioneering company. We have an ambitious goal to build a significant business based on the top-class know-how of Metsä Group, Valmet, and several other companies. We use familiar, sustainably-produced wood fiber as our main raw material and strive to process it into first-class packages while minimizing the environmental impact. The pilot plant is developing and testing many new innovations that support, for example, our goal to replace plastic in various packaging solutions,” says Jarkko Tuominen, Project Lead at Metsä Spring.
Construction of the plant is scheduled to start operations in late 2021. The location of the pilot plant, in a globally unique bioeconomy ecosystem, is ideal – for example, Metsä Fibre’s bioproduct mill, Metsä Board’s paperboard mill, and Excellence Centre, Metsä Wood’s veneer mill, Pro Nemus visitor center, and Metsä Spring’s and Itochu Corporation’s demo plant producing textile fiber from wood pulp are all located on the site.
