Representatives of the Finnish forest industry giant Metsä Group have announced the launch of a feasibility study for a project to install the company's first commercial biogenic carbon dioxide capture facility. As part of the project's financing plan, the company has submitted an application to the reverse auction organised by Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, which awards investment support to clean energy projects.
The facility will be located at the Metsä Group pulp mill in Rauma, in south-western Finland, and will have a nominal capacity of approximately 100,000 tonnes of captured wood-based carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. Capturing carbon dioxide from the mill's flue gases, the planned capacity of this commercial carbon capture plant would be the first step towards a larger scale. Metsä Group's long-term potential for capturing wood-based biogenic carbon dioxide (bioCO2) amounts to several million tonnes per year. The captured bioCO2 can be used, for example, as a raw material in the chemicals and fuel industries, replacing fossil raw materials and products.
“Metsä Group has been working for several years to make use of wood-based carbon dioxide. We are exploring this opportunity mainly from the perspective that carbon dioxide can serve as a raw material for new products. We are very pleased that the first supply agreements with customers have already been signed,” said Niklas von Weymarn, CEO of Metsä Group's innovation company Metsä Spring.
Application submitted for an environmental permit
The application for an environmental permit was submitted in December 2025, and an official decision on granting the permit is expected at the end of this year. The amount of state funding applied for does not exceed 30 per cent of the total investment.
“The emergence of entirely new value chains and markets often requires state funding in the initial stages. The reverse auction is a one-off investment grant that can accelerate the commercialisation of the technology and generate significant new industrial activity in Finland,” Niklas von Weymarn noted.
A decision on investing in the Rauma carbon capture plant could be taken as early as the beginning of 2027, provided that a positive decision on the grant is made, the environmental permit is received, the design work is completed and customer demand is confirmed.
“Capturing wood-based carbon dioxide would support Metsä Group's strategy of strengthening its fossil-free businesses and developing competitive new products. At the same time, it would improve the competitiveness of our pulp production,” stressed Metsä Fibre CEO Ismo Nousiainen.
A successful pilot project
In 2025, Metsä Group, in cooperation with the Austrian international technology group Andritz AG, trialled technology for capturing flue gas CO₂ from the Rauma pulp mill. The trial showed that the technology is developed enough to be rolled out on a wider scale in a controlled manner. At present, the most challenging issue relates to market development, as the industrial value chains that use wood-based carbon dioxide are still being built.
The emergence of new markets requires simultaneous investment decisions from several businesses. This potential Metsä Group investment could help accelerate the development of an entirely new value chain.