“We’re getting close to the vision of a fossil-free mill that we’ve lived with and that has driven our investments for a long time,” says Mill Director Olov Winblad von Walter. “Our new recovery boiler, which came on line in spring 2012, is getting better and better as we fine tune it, and our increasing pulp production is also boosting our energy production.”
Iggesund Mill is one of the world’s integrated paperboard mills with the highest level of investment. When it started up the new recovery boiler was the mill’s biggest investment to date, at a cost of about Euro 250 million. The boiler enabled the mill to gradually increase its annual pulp production from what was then 350,000 tonnes to 420,000.
“Our sulphate process for pulp production means that we separate out the cellulose fibres that comprise half the mass of a log,” Winblad von Walter continues. “The other half consists of the wood’s binding agent, which is mostly an energy-rich substance called lignin. We burn this in the recovery boiler and it produces enough steam and electricity to cover more than 90% of our energy needs.”
