The Swedish forest owners' association and the country's largest forestry company, Södra, has announced that Finland's largest forestry company, UPM, has become one of the first buyers of kraft lignin. This follows Södra's announcement of investment in kraft lignin production at the Södra mill in Mönsterås.
The kraft lignin plant, announced in June 2024, is expected to come on stream in 2027. It will be the first commercial kraft lignin plant in Sweden and one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.
The investment is funded with support from the Swedish Energy Agency and forms part of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and Next Generation EU.
A biochemical raw material
UPM holds a leading position in lignin technologies and markets, built on 15 years of intensive development that has produced a strong patent portfolio. The applications of lignin are growing rapidly, driven by market demand for sustainable materials and solutions.
UPM will use the lignin obtained from Södra to manufacture more sustainable products and materials, such as resins for the plywood and MDF industries and binders for insulation materials.
Alongside its positive performance properties, lignin appeals to customers for its renewable content, reduced carbon dioxide emissions and biodegradability. Lignin is the second most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose.
"From 2027, Södra will play a significant part in the growth of kraft lignin as a renewable and sustainable replacement for fossil materials. Together with UPM, we will be part of a value chain that can deliver climate-efficient solutions for the green transition. UPM, in turn, can rely on our responsible forestry and the low carbon emissions of our pulp mills. UPM's experience and industry expertise make it an ideal customer, and we look forward to a fruitful collaboration," says Johannes Bogren, head of Södra Bioproducts.
A precisely matched agreement
Södra and UPM are ideally suited to an agreement of this kind, because Södra has access to wood through more than 50,000 forest-owning families who are members of Södra. The company aims to be the supplier of raw materials, combined with the UPM group's knowledge base in using wood in innovative production processes.
Södra also offers scope to increase volumes: if the technology is deployed at all three of its pulp mills, up to 250,000 tonnes of kraft lignin a year could be produced.
"Kraft lignin is a key raw material enabling UPM to deliver commercially viable decarbonisation solutions to industrial and consumer markets. The uses of kraft lignin are expanding rapidly and opening up growing markets. We are pleased that Södra is taking a step to expand kraft lignin extraction at its pulp mills, and we consider Södra an ideal partner for UPM in supporting our own growth ambitions by supplying high-quality kraft lignin with an indisputable sustainability impact," commented Winfried Schauer, head of UPM Technologies and the UPM Biorefining division.
In 2020, one of the world's Mönsterås saw the start-up of one of the world's first commercial biomethanol plants, reinforcing Södra's position as a supplier of a "green alternative" to fossil energy. Kraft lignin is a further step along that road.
* Kraft lignin is a by-product of pulp production – it is burned in the recovery boiler during the chemical recovery cycle, generating valuable bioenergy and recycling the inorganic chemicals used in the pulp production process.