The expanded pulp mill SCA Östrand in Timrå, Sweden, was started up end of June 2018, according to plan. SCA invested SEK 7.8 billion in Östrand pulp mill expansion project making it one of the largest industrial investments in Sweden to date. With this project SCA Östrand doubled its production capacity from 430,000 tonnes to 900,000 tonnes per year and became the largest production line for bleached softwood kraft pulp in the world.
"The rebuild and expansion of Östrand pulp mill is one of the greatest industrial investments in northern Sweden ever. In spite of complexities such as building a twice as big pulp mill in a running mill, we started up the new plant on schedule and budget. The success is the work of many actors, not the least our supplier Valmet", says Ingela Ekebro, Project Director, SCA.
"The start-up went very well. Valmet delivered the most sustainable solution available today consisting of the new cooking, fiber line and evaporation plants," says Stefan Mattsson, Sales Director, Fiber Processing Business Unit, Valmet.
The project was implemented in phases, and the new evaporation plant was started up some months before the cooking and fiber line. Very soon after the start-up, pulp was produced with high strength, purity and brightness. In the next phase, the production is increased gradually towards the new nominal production capacity.
State-of-the-art technology and environmental performance
Valmet's delivery to the project included new cooking, fiber line and evaporation plant. The cooking plant has the world's largest soft wood digester, while the new evaporation plant is Sweden's largest with an evaporation capacity of 1,150 tons of water per hour.
The 7-effect evaporation plant is extremely energy-efficient, with its in-built possibility to also recover excess heat from Valmet's cooking plant and includes a methanol plant for producing liquid methanol. This enables Östrand to sell surplus energy in the form of green electricity.
Following the investment, SCA Östrand mill has state-of-the-art technology to minimize emissions to air and water. Customers will be offered both TCF (total chlorine free) and ECF (elemental chlorine free) pulp, produced with wood from sustainable forestry.