Maintaining and developing a competitive operating environment plays a key role in the development of a high value-added bioproduct industry in Finland.
Future pulp mills enable improved circularity and may act as a platform for external companies working in a bioecosystem. A mill willl have more departments/plants that use all streams, as well as possible external operators, all on the same mill site. There is no single solution for the mill, but rather a range of options in both the core mill and operating within the ecosystem.
Global forests are a rich source of antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal bioactive compounds with underutilized commercial opportunities. Many of the potential candidate compounds or groups of compounds have already been identified and studied to some extent on R&D level, but there is still a vast amount of untapped business potential in finding new more potent compounds, and developing new innovations based on already accumulated knowledge. The forest industry can offer solutions by producing antiviral and antimicrobial bioactive compounds that can be used as part of the treatment against the viral infection.
Lignin has been a good source for renewable bioenergy, but it is currently an underutilized source for biobased products and has the potential to replace many of the oil-based products. While lignosulfonates have found their use cases, there is a huge untapped potential for kraft-lignin and lignin originating from second generation (2G) biorefineries.
China’s strive for sustainability has recently caused major turbulence in the pulp and paper industry. The waste paper import ban has shifted global trade flows while a potential complete ban in 2020 would further impact fibre availability and prices.
Continuous improvement and operational excellence are often marketed as solutions to cope with tightened profitability, but identification and prioritization of actions is the key for efficient improvement.
The growing e-commerce will not only increase the demand for packaging, but it is changing the packaging solutions for good. What will be the most important characteristics of packaging when the competition is not on the shelf in a retail store?