March 6, 2024 - Södra said that it has decided to invest in a new condensing turbine at its pulp mill at Mörrum, Sweden, which will increase the county of Blekinge's electricity generation by 20 percent.
According to Södra, the investment, amounting to several hundreds of millions of Swedish kronor, will allow the mill to utilize more of the wood raw material from family forestry, increasing the profitability of forest estates.
"Our mission is to generate maximum value from every wood fibre that family forestry delivers to our mills," said Stefan Sandberg, Mill Manager, Södra Cell Mörrum. "This investment will achieve that in both the long and short term.
"In the short term, it will increase our energy efficiency so that we can generate more electricity in the order of what hydropower currently generates across the whole of Blekinge. In the long term, it will give us the right conditions to continue developing our mills," Sandberg explained.
Södra noted that the condensing turbine will optimize the energy yield from the process by generating more electricity from the same amount of raw material.
"The amount of electricity supplied by Södra Cell Mörrum will reduce the need to import electricity from fossil fuel power plants for Blekinge's grid. It will also deliver continuous and weather-independent electricity to the grid, which will improve stability," the company said.
The new turbine will be placed in a new turbine hall and is scheduled for operation by mid-2026.
The Mörrum mill has the capacity to produce 300,000 tpy of softwood paper pulp and 170,000 tpy hardwood dissolving pulp. The mill has about 360 employees.
Södra was founded in 1938 and is now the largest forest-owner association in Sweden, with more than 50,000 family forest owners as members.
SOURCE: Södra
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