On Wednesday, September 20, 2023, Metsä Fibre’s Kemi bioproduct mill in Finland was successfully started up. The material, environmental and energy efficient mill will not use any fossil fuels, and it will produce two terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity per year. Valmet’s technology and automation contribute to sustainable operation and high-quality end-product.
The new mill is located at the same site with an old pulp mill which was decommissioned. After the start-up the production process will be fine-tuned for full-scale production, which will be achieved within approximately one year from start-up.
Valmet’s delivery covers the full production process from wood handling to baling as well as flow control solutions and mill-wide automation systems. Annual pulp production capacity will be 1.5 million tonnes and in addition the mill will produce various other bioproducts.
“The start-up of the mill is an important milestone for us and now our joint effort towards next milestones continues. I’m looking forward to see how the most significant investment in the history of the Finnish forest industry will achieve its full production capacity,” says Jari-Pekka Johansson, Director of the bioproduct mill project at Metsä Fibre.
“By combining Valmet’s innovative process technology, automation and services we have delivered a solution representing leading sustainability performance with minimized emissions. As an example, energy efficiency is improved with steam integration between evaporation and digester, and with new pulp drying features. The advanced mill-wide automation system and integrated industrial internet applications help to optimize the mill’s production efficiency,” says Sami Riekkola, Pulp and Energy Business Line President at Valmet.
The mill features leading process technology and the most advanced automation systems. Valmet’s delivery includes the wood handling, cooking and fiber line, pulp drying and baling, evaporation, recovery boiler, recausticizing, lime kiln, biomass dryer and gasifier, ash crystallization, mill-wide non-condensable gases (NCG) handling solution, and dry and wet electrostatic precipitators (ESP) for the recovery boiler and lime kiln. Valmet also delivered the sulfuric acid plant which uses the mills own odorous gases to produce sulfuric acid. In addition, Valmet delivered a rebuild of the existing fiber line including new chip feeding and washing systems.
Valmet’s automation delivery includes a mill wide Valmet DNA automation system, plant information management system, Valmet IQ Quality Management System, advanced process controls, as well as analyzers and measurements package.
The industrial internet solutions embedded in the delivery include analytics tools, monitoring and optimization applications, simulators for selected process, as well as Valmet Performance Center connectivity. With mill-wide automation system the mill can run in a balanced way, control the process and ensure it runs flawlessly with high quality, cost-effectiveness and environmental efficiency.
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