The Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland has today, on 18 December 2020, granted environmental and water supply permits to the Kemi bioproduct mill of Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group. The environmental permit defines the limit values for the emissions of the new mill. Press release of The Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland can be found at www.avi.fi/tiedotteet and environmental permit decisions at http://ylupa.avi.fi, both in Finnish.
The environmental permit has been received and now it will be analyzed in more detail. According to current estimate it is possible to reach a decision on the investment to the Kemi bioproduct mill in early 2021.
The planning of the bioproduct mill is based on a high degree of environmental, material and energy efficiency. Despite the clearly increased production, the new bioproduct mill would stay below the emission limits of the currently valid environmental permit for the existing Kemi pulp mill. The bioproduct mill would be built according to the Best Available Technology (BAT) principle and, in part, using even more advanced technology, for example, at the wastewater treatment plant and the sulphuric acid plant. The investment of the bioproduct mill would be EUR 1.5 billion and the construction of the new mill would take approximately two and a half years.
The bioproduct mill would produce 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp per year, as well as many other bioproducts. The mill would not use any fossil fuels, and its power self-sufficiency rate would be high, 250 per cent. This would further strengthen Metsä Group’s position as a major electricity producer relying on renewable Finnish fuels.
Metsä Fibre will organise a virtual public event concerning the environmental permit on Tuesday 29 December 2020 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The broadcast will be available on the Metsä Fibre website at www.metsafibre.fi and Metsä Group’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/metsagroup, where a recording of the event will be published afterwards. Viewers will be able to send questions and comments through Metsä Fibre’s website during the broadcast. Jari-Pekka Johansson, Director of the bioproduct mill project, and Kaisu Annala, EIA and Environmental Permit Manager, will speak at the event. The event will take place in Finnish. Comments and questions can be sent to the event in advance at [email protected].
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