Stora Enso invests €80M to slash water usage at Imatra Mill pulp facility

11 Nov 2022 --- Stora Enso commits €80 million (US$82 million) to centralize and modernize the wood handling process at its Imatra Mill in Finland. The funds have been used to boost the facility’s capacity for premium packaging board production and decrease water consumption throughout the debarking process. 

The Imatra Mill consists of two industrial units – Kaukopää and Tainionkoski – which manufacture pulp and consumer packaging board. 

The new line at Kaukopää Mill will now be used to centrally debark and handle all wood. A third debarking line was installed as part of the project, chip handling technologies were improved and the architecture of the existing wood yard was changed.

According to the company, water use will be cut by 85% when compared to the former debarking line, saving 500 million liters of water annually. As wood handling at the Tainionkoski Mill is brought to an end, noise pollution in the local area will also drop.

Overcoming obstacles
The company has faced an array of challenges over the past few years. The wood handling modification was completed over the course of two winters, under adverse weather conditions.

Water use will be cut by 85% when compared to the former debarking line, says Stora Enso.However, Mikko Nieminen, Stora Enso’s Mill Director, asserts that those challenges brought on by the pandemic did not hinder the company’s plans.

“Construction progressed as usual,” he says, “and the investment was completed on time and within budget. Most importantly, the work was completed safely.”

This investment worksite was the first time a Stora Enso mill employed the House building (TR) Audit, a technique frequently used in the construction sector to evaluate the safety of a project, maintain a tidy working environment and monitor behavior on worksites.

This technique allowed the company to pay special attention to safe working procedures. The TR Audit has been found to be a good predictor of accidents since it gives a broad overview of the entire worksite while concentrating on tiny regions at a time.

“Co-operation between the various players was very smooth. The investment will serve Imatra Mills for decades to come,” Nieminen says.

The large-scale project took close to 700,000 hours to complete. Nearly 40% of the project’s participants were from South Karelia, represented by more than 500 businesses. Challenges brought on by the pandemic did not hinder the company’s construction progress.

Additionally, 700 steel pipe piles and 100 digging piles totaling around 18 kilometers were inserted into the ground throughout the investment’s building phase. To store chips, two new silos were constructed near the Kaukopää Mill. The biggest silo is 25 meters tall and 38 meters in diameter.

Evacuating from the east
As a form of protest against the invasion of Ukraine, major paper packaging organizations and forestry standards agencies, including  Stora Enso, froze operations in Russia and Belarus.

The company sold its three corrugated packaging units in Russia due to uncertainty in the Russian market, claiming that local ownership and operation will offer a better long-term sustainable answer for its enterprises and the employees involved. 

Focusing on strengthening its place in the European market, Stora Enso moved slightly to central Europe and announced a new production site for cross-laminated timber in Ždírec, Czech Republic, last month. The Ždírec site will supply what the company considers to be environmentally sustainable materials to consumers.

Edited by Mieke Meintjes

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