Finnpulp received environmental permit for its bioproduct plant in Finland
The Regional State Administrative Agency of FInland granted Finnpulp an environmental permit for the bioproduct plant being planned for the Sorsasalo area in Kuopio. According to the announcement, the permit conditions are, by far, the strictest ever set for any facility in the industry.
The company decided not to exercise its right to appeal the permit granted by the agency. Instead, it will comply with the conditions set for the plant’s operations. The bioproduct plant is expected to be the most environmentally friendly facility of its kind in the world.
The project preparations continue as planned in all areas. As its main priority in the near future, the company will explore solutions and technologies to enable the plant to operate within the permit conditions. The go-ahead decision of the investment is scheduled for the second half of 2018.
Finnpulp submitted the environmental and water permit application to the Regional State Administrative Agency of Eastern Finland regarding the construction of bioproduction mill in Sorsasalo, Kuopio at the beginning of 2016.
The new bioproduction facility consists of sulphate pulp mill, a bark-drying and gasification unit, a power plant and a wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plant will also be used to treat wastewaters from the Savon Sellu Oy fluting mill and the leachate from Ekokem-Palvelu Oy. If implemented, the Finnpulp project would be the largest softwood pulp mill in the world.
The employment effect of the 1.4 billion euro facility investment in the project phase is 5,700 full-time work years. The immediate employment effect of the completed bioproduction facility equals 1,500 people in North Savo and 3,400 people in the national value chain. 200 people will work in the facility area. The annual production capacity of the facility will be 1.2 million tons of pulp.
Additionally, the facility will produce 60,000 tons of tall oil and one terawatt hour (TWh) of bioelectricity for the national electricity grid. The facility will use 6.7 million cubic metres of raw wood material per year. Earlier the new pulp mill project in Finland completed environmental assessment.
