FINLAND – Metsä Group, one of the world’s largest forest industry groups, produces around 12 million tonnes of wood-based CO₂ annually and is now focused on large-scale carbon capture.

Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, the new project director, sees bio-based CO₂ as a valuable yet underutilized resource. “This CO₂ could be better harnessed as technology and markets advance,” she says.

Successful carbon capture could offer a new, high-volume wood-based raw material to replace fossil fuels. Sari Pajari-Sederholm, EVP of Strategy, adds, “We aim to use Nordic wood efficiently and convert by-products into valuable products.”

This autumn, Metsä Group will complete a study on the potential of large-scale carbon capture. Next year, they will pilot the technology at the Rauma pulp mill with Andritz. If successful, this could create a new chemical industry in Finland and enhance the hydrogen economy. “Renewable hydrogen and wood-based CO₂ could produce synthetic methane or methanol,” Pajari-Sederholm notes.