Stora Enso is investing EUR 14 million to build a granulation and packing plant for lignin at its own Sunila Mill in Finland.
Lignin is one of the key innovation areas for delivering growth on new applications, such as energy storage, binders and carbon fiber.
Lignin is one of the main building blocks of a tree. Today, the lignin produced at Sunila Mill, Lineo by Stora Enso, is delivered as a dusty powder or as wet lignin.
It is used, for example, as a phenol replacement in adhesives, as a bio-based natural binder replacing bitumen in asphalt, and in bioplastics.
The construction of the granulation plant is estimated to begin by the end of the second quarter of 2021 and to be complete in the second quarter of 2022.
Stora Enso has been producing lignin industrially at its Sunila Mill in Finland since 2015. The annual production capacity is 50,000 tonnes, making Stora Enso the largest kraft lignin producer in the world.
