AF&PA Calls for Infrastructure Investments in Support of U.S. Manufacturing Jobs

Stora Enso is investing EUR 14 million to build a granulation and packing plant for lignin, allowing easier packing and handling of lignin compared to powder and wet form. According to Stora Enso’s strategy, lignin is one of the key innovation areas for delivering growth on new applications, such as energy storage, binders and carbon fiber. The granulation plant will be located at Stora Enso’s Sunila Mill in Finland. Lignin is one of the main building blocks of a tree. Today, the lignin produced at Sunila Mill, Lineo™ by Stora Enso, is delivered as a dusty powder or as wet lignin. It is used, for example, as a phenol replacement in adhesives, as a bio-based natural binder replacing bitumen in asphalt, and in bioplastics. In the future, it can be used as a source of biocarbon in energy storage systems such as batteries for electric vehicles, as bio-based binders in plywood and as material for carbon fiber.

Paper Excellence Canada announced today that Northern Pulp notified Nova Scotia Environment of its intention to pause the Environment Assessment for the new Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) to facilitate further detailed discussions with stakeholders about how Northern Pulp and the community can best work together to foster a clean environment, maintain and protect jobs, and contribute to a strong Nova Scotian economy. “We remain concerned that the Environmental Assessment, based on the current terms of reference, is ambiguous and would not result in a clear outcome. Instead, it could lead to more uncertainty, division, and disappointment among stakeholders,” said Graham Kissack, VP, Environment, Health, Safety and Communications for Paper Excellence Canada, on behalf of Northern Pulp. “Pausing the assessment will provide time for us to further engage the community in discussion about the mill and its future, how we can best co-exist, and an appropriate Environmental Assessment process for the environmental improvement being proposed.”

Following the takeover by Koehler and its then sister company Euler GmbH & Co. KG the mill saw significant investment. This allowed the company to switch from producing punched card to high-quality colored office and specialty card made from 100% waste paper. It’s clear just from looking at the variety of Euler ColorTech paper available that the paper machine 1 (PM 1) developed into a real all-rounder during its 50-year career. One unique feature of the PM 1 is that it can quickly switch between colors and paper types, which is due to the short material and water circulation in the machine’s approach flow, according to Holger Palm, Plant Manager at Koehler Greiz. Another special feature of the PM 1 are the two efficient material processing systems and the resulting duplex paper formation. Thanks to these two systems, two different colored paper webs can be couched in the machine. “We are proud, with the help of PM 1, to have established ourselves firmly on the market for high-quality ‘Made in Germany’ recycled paper over the last 50 years,” says Holger Palm.