The €35 million regenerated cellulose fibre demonstration plant of TreeToTextile at Stora Enso’s Nymölla mill in southern Sweden is now in the start-up phase.

The venture is owned by H&M Group, Inter IKEA Group, Stora Enso and LSCS Invest and construction of it commenced in Spring 2021. Its initial production capacity will be 1,500 tons of fibre per year prior to scale-up and commercialisation of the technology.

The new regenerated cellulosic fibre is produced from renewable and sustainably sourced raw materials from forests using less chemicals and water than the conventional industry.

Stockhom-headquartered AFRY has been the leading consultant and engineering partner of TreeToTextile from its early stages of project development in 2016. It was responsible for the engineering, project management and site services and also provided many additional services such as permit and procurement support, as well as machine and IT solutions.

The global production of man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) continues to grow at a higher rate than other textile fibres and there are many emerging technologies under development for the production of high quality MMCF. Although the majority of novel textile fibres are still in relatively early stages of development, commercialisation is being accelerated by partnerships in the value chain.

AFRY is working closely with the entire ecosystem including technology companies, textile companies and traditional pulp and paper companies who are transforming their production towards textile firers.

“AFRY’s long experience with bio-based materials, combined with our extensive process industry and project execution experience, makes us a unique partner for industrial clients in accelerating their bio-based fibres to scalable commercial production,” says Lisa Vedin, head of process industries in Sweden for AFRY.

“AFRY and TreeToTextile have a long-lasting, mutually developing relationship that we hope to continue,” adds Olli Ylä-Jarkko, CTO at TreeToTextile. “Together we have overcome any challenges arising in this project through close collaboration, flexibility, broad competence and most important of all, mutual commitment.”

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