Metsä Fibre’s new bioproduct mill
October 2023
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Metsä Fibre’s Kemi bioproduct mill in Finland was recently successfully commissioned. The material, environmental and energy efficient mill will not use any fossil fuels, and it will produce two terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity per year. Valmet’s technology and automation contributed to the sustainable operation and high-quality end product.
The new mill is located on the same site as an old pulp mill, which was decommissioned. After startup, the production process will be fine-tuned for full-scale production, which will be achieved within a year from startup. Valmet’s delivery covers the full production process from wood handling to baling, flow control solutions and mill-wide automation systems. Annual pulp production capacity will be 1,5 million tons, and in addition, the mill will produce various other bioproducts.
“The startup of the mill is an important milestone for us. I am looking forward to seeing how the most significant investment in the history of the Finnish forest industry will achieve its full production capacity,” says Jari-Pekka Johansson, director of the bioproduct mill project at Metsä Fibre.
“By combining Valmet’s innovative process technology, automation and services we have delivered a solution with world-class sustainability and minimised emissions. For example, energy efficiency has been improved by steam integration between the evaporation and digester, and with new pulp drying features. The advanced mill-wide automation system and integrated industrial internet applications help to optimise the mill’s production efficiency,” says Sami Riekkola, pulp and energy business line president at Valmet.
The mill features leading process technology and the most advanced automation systems. Valmet’s delivery includes the wood handling; cooking and fibre line; pulp drying and baling; evaporation; recovery boiler; recausticising; lime kiln; biomass dryer and gasifier; ash crystallisation; mill-wide non-condensable gases handling solution; and dry and wet electrostatic precipitators for the recovery boiler and lime kiln. Valmet also delivered the sulphuric acid plant, which uses the mill’s own odorous gases to produce sulphuric acid. In addition, Valmet delivered a rebuild of the existing fibre line, including new chip feeding and washing systems.
Valmet’s automation delivery includes a mill-wide Valmet DNA automation system, plant information management system, Valmet IQ Quality Management System, advanced process controls, analysers and a measurement package. The industrial internet solutions embedded in the delivery include analytics tools, monitoring and optimisation applications, simulators for selected process and Valmet Performance Centre connectivity. With this mill-wide automation system, the mill can run in a balanced way, control the process and ensure it runs flawlessly with high quality, cost-effectiveness and environmental efficiency.
Further reading:
EtherCAT interoperability removes industrial networking barriers
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Selecting the right communication technology is one of the most important decisions engineers make, and interoperability helps with that decision. Key development tools and standards ensure interoperability among many EtherCAT devices and manufacturers.
Read more...
Condition monitoring to go
Turck Banner Southern Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Anyone who wants to efficiently monitor the climate in control cabinets will find a comprehensive range of control cabinet monitors for the DIN rail in Turck Banner’s cabinet condition monitoring family.
Read more...
Innovative separation of recyclable materials
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A plant built by Belgian specialist machine builder, Absolem Engineering features an innovative process for separating recyclable materials. Using PC-based control from Beckhoff, a major problem has been elegantly solved - the generation of different signal sequences for the exact synchronisation of different camera systems.
Read more...
Enhancing AI-powered object detection and recognition capabilities
Vepac Electronics
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Innodisk has announced its cooperation with Advantech, a global leader in AIoT and edge computing. This collaboration leverages Innodisk’s customisable MIPI camera modules and Advantech’s Intel x86-based AFE-R360 solution to enhance AI-powered object detection and recognition capabilities, expanding visual applications for autonomous mobile robots in smart factories and warehouses.
Read more...
Rugged, agile and scalable boards
Vepac Electronics
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Embedded computing pioneer, AAEON has launched the PICO-ASL4 and GENE-ASL6, both featuring the new Intel Atom x7000RE Processor Series for the edge.
Read more...
Rugged gateway board with open-source flexibility
Vepac Electronics
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The SRG-CM4 from Vepac brings all the open-source flexibility of the Raspberry Pi OS and ecosystem to AAEON’s signature rugged, durable gateway design to create a truly industry-ready modular system.
Read more...
New safety I/O modules for functional safety in highly automated operations
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Belden has expanded the Lumberg Automation LioN family with its new LioN-Safety I/O Modules. Designed to support functional safety efforts in industrial operations, the modules streamline the transmission of data over existing networks.
Read more...
IO-Link master for the automation and IT world
ifm - South Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The decentralised IO-Link master modules from ifm serve as a gateway between intelligent IO-Link sensors and the fieldbus. Important information on the intelligent sensors can also be simultaneously sent.
Read more...
Condition monitoring with IO-Link rotary encoders
Pepperl+Fuchs
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Whether in the materials handling industry, in packaging machines or in wind turbines, sensors with an IO-Link interface are increasingly being used to pave the way to Industry 4.0. Pepperl+Fuchs was one of the first manufacturers to launch an absolute rotary encoder with IO-Link interface, that was available in numerous variants and with a wide range of setting parameters.
Read more...
Efficiently consolidate analogue signals and reduce wiring
Turck Banner Southern Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Control engineers can bring analogue signals into a control system more efficiently with the new R95C 8-port analogue input to modbus hub.
Read more...
printer friendly version