Stora Enso builds granulation and packing plant for lignin in Finland

Stora Enso is investing € 14 million in the construction of a granulating and packaging plant for lignin at the Sunila plant in Finland. The company has been producing 50,000 t / year there since 2015 and currently. These have so far been delivered to customers in powder or wet form. Now the renewable raw material is supposed to be easier to pack, transport and dispense for various technological applications.

Lignin is one of the company’s most important areas of innovation. “Lineo” is used, for example, as a phenol substitute in adhesives, as a bio-based natural binding agent that replaces bitumen in asphalt, and in bioplastics. In the future, it can be used as a biocarbon source in energy storage systems such as batteries for electric vehicles, as a bio-based binder in plywood, and as a material for carbon fiber.

Construction of the granulation plant is expected to begin at the end of the second quarter of 2021 and be completed in the second quarter of 2022.