Koskisen is using Stora Enso’s bio-based binder, NeoLigno® by Stora Enso, to replace fossil-based resins used in furniture boards. Both the furniture board raw material and the binder are made of wood and sourced from the production process flows of both companies. This results in all raw materials of the Zero Furniture Board being bio-based. Koskisen is a Finnish wood industry company producing sawn timber and panel products, such as birch plywood, furniture, and construction boards made of chip board.
The new Rauma pine sawmill of Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, was inaugurated last Monday, 10 October 2022, by Prime Minister Sanna Marin with Ilkka Hämälä, Metsä Group’s President and CEO, and Jussi Linnaranta, Chair of the Board of Directors of Metsäliitto Cooperative.
A new partnership between Stora Enso and EcoTelligent Oy will establish mass timber as the material of choice for telecommunication support structures. The collaboration is set to provide an alternative that will reduce the dependency on steel and concrete in telecom masts, through sustainable towers that naturally blend in with the environment.
Marc Palahi at the European Bioeconomy Investment Summit in Helsinki (2017)
Forests and forestry play a key role in policy targets to achieve climate neutrality. In a comprehensive new European Forest Institute study, a multidisciplinary team of 12 authors from 7 countries have analysed how much forests and wood use can contribute to climate change mitigation, and how that contribution can be maximised.
Carlsberg Group and Dutch biochemical company Avantium agreed to take the next step in the commercialisation of PEF. The Danish Group signed a conditional offtake agreement with Avantium to secure a fixed volume of the 100% plant-based, recyclable and high-performance polymer PEF (polyethylene furanoate) from Avantium’s FDCA Flagship Plant, which Avantium aims to start-up in 2024. Carlsberg will use the PEF resin for various packaging applications, including its Fibre Bottle – the bio-based and fully recyclable beer bottle.
Biofore Concept Car premiered at the Geneva International Motor last spring. Copyright UPM Photographer Sami Kulju
UPM has published a new Forest Action Programme, which will run until 2030. The global programme steers UPM’s global wood sourcing operations and covers its own forests in Finland and the United States as well as its plantations in Uruguay. The programme goes beyond current standard requirements and its measures have a positive impact on the fundamental aspects of sustainable forestry: climate, biodiversity, soil, water and societal contribution.
Lenzing Group, a leading global producer of wood-based specialty fibers, is partnering with Orange Fiber, an Italian company headquartered in Catania which has patented the pulp production process for citrus by-products, to produce the first ever TENCEL™ branded lyocell fiber made of orange and wood pulp. This new product aims to realize both companies’ shared vision to enhance sustainability in the textile and fashion industry. The new TENCEL™ Limited Edition initiative – both companies claim – combines the imagination, innovation and inspiration of eco-responsible textiles, through reinventing TENCEL™ branded fibers using unconventional sustainable raw materials.
UPM Plywood, Arctic Astronautics and Huld are ready to launch the first ever wooden satellite, WISA WOODSATTM, into Earth’s orbit by the end of 2021.
WISA Woodsat will go where no wood has gone before. With a mission to gather data on the behavior and durability of plywood over an extended period in the harsh temperatures, vacuum and radiation of space in order to assess the use of wood materials in space structures.
Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet last December bagan construction of the 3D fibre product pilot plant in Äänekoski, Finland. The pilot plant enables testing and further development of the novel process for producing of a new type of packaging solution.The greenfield building will host the pilot line, which converts wood fibre into ready-to-use 3D fibre products, which, in turn, can replace similar packaging solutions made from plastic and aluminium. The goal of the pilot plant project is to develop a new competitive product and the supporting production process and equipment.
“Austria’s first plant for the production of second-generation bioethanol is now up and running in Hallein and we have started our trailblazing cooperation with OMV. With our advanced biofuels, we are taking a responsible approach to resources and helping to reduce fossil fuel use. We will continue to pursue our long-term strategy of ‘Green AustroCel’, uniting sustainability and economic success”, said Jörg Harbring, CEO of AustroCel Hallein.
The first successful trial delivery of advanced bioethanol marks the start of the long-term cooperation between OMV, the integrated, international oil, gas and petrochemicals company headquartered in Vienna, and AustroCel Hallein GmbH. The Hallein-based bioethanol plant has an annual capacity of up to 35 million liters, making it the world’s largest bioethanol plant based on wood. In the first year AustroCel Hallein will already supply more than 1.5 million liters per month of second-generation bioethanol to OMV. With this, the cooperation partners are contributing to climate protection.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 