Iggesund Mill Powers Towards Self Sufficiency

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter  06/20/2012

Jun 19, 2012-Costing almost 240 million, Iggesund Paperboard's new recovery boiler and turbine, which came on line at Iggesund Mill last week, is the mill's biggest ever investment. (It is also the mill's tallest building and has changed its skyline: seen above in a picture that was taken during security testing when the steam in the boiler was being quickly evacuated.) Despite the fact that the recovery boiler is the 'heart' of Iggesund Mill's sulphate pulp mill, the company managed the instantaneous switchover from two old recovery boilers to the new one without any interruption to the production process. The boiler is built to withstand higher pressure than any other recovery boiler in Europe, and will work with a steam pressure of 110 bar. This increased pressure makes it possible to generate more electricity and the new turbine should be able to supply 520 GWh/year, which, in the longer term, will make Iggesund Mill self-sufficient in electricity. But when exactly self sufficiency will be achieved will depend on how the pulp production develops. Currently the mill has a permit to produce 255,000 tonnes of pulp annually, but has applied for permission to increase yearly production to 420,000 tonnes. "We're building for the future step by step," said Iggesund Mill director Staffan Jonsson. "With increased pulp production we can also grow our paperboard production as we continue to eliminate bottlenecks and fine-tune our board machines." Iggesund Mill says that it has made some of the highest levels of investment of any paperboard mill world-wide. And what lies behind this willingness to invest, according to Jonsson, is the company's desire to attract and keep the most demanding customers with the most exacting quality requirements: "Our location in Sweden means we can never compete with the cheapest raw materials or lowest paid workforce," he said. "Instead, our competitive tool is a product that provides the greatest possible efficiency in our customers' processes, top-class environmental features and, of course, printing and converting properties which mean that the end products – packaging or printed materials – have a power of attraction that creates superior shelf appeal." Meanwhile, Iggesund's manager of the project, Lennart Wanberg, said that it felt "terrific" that the project had come to a successful conclusion, and that it had been completed both within the projected time frame and without any significant mishaps or accidents. "We've focused very strongly on safety, not least because people have been working up to 60 meters above the ground," he said. Concurrently with the investment in its recovery boiler in Sweden, Iggesund is investing 123 million in a biomass boiler in Workington, England. Both investments will help reduce fossil carbon emissions from the mills.Enditem