Finnpulp launches environmental impact assessment program

The city of Kuopio. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Finnpulp Oy has submitted an environmental impact assessment program to the North Savo Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment regarding the pulp mill project in Sorsasalo, Kuopio, Finland. The assessment program includes Finnpulp Oy's plans on the various implementation alternatives for the mill project and a plan (working program) on the environmental impacts to be assessed and the implementation methods of the assessment.

The annual production capacity of this pulp mill, designed specifically to produce raw materials for the tissue and packaging board industries, is 1.2 million tons. In addition, it will produce bioelectricity and wood-based biochemicals such as tall oil and turpentine. It is estimated that the mill will use roughly 6.7 million cubic meters of wood raw material per year.

In addition to the construction and operation of the pulp mill itself, the assessment procedure will cover the essential auxiliary activities required by the mill such as road and rail connections and the power transmission network.

Finnpulp's proposed pulp mill would have an annual production capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of softwood pulp, 60,000 tonnes of tall oil (a by-product of the Kraft process of wood pulp production), and 0.8 TWh bio-electricity to the national grid.