The forest industry needs to increase its value added.
“That's what I think about almost all the time in my day job,” Innovation Director at Stora Enso's Biomaterials division Lauri Lehtonen grant.
The ongoing transition to more sustainable products and production methods is a great opportunity for the forest industry, as the world needs sustainable solutions to replace fossil raw materials.
However, from a product development and value-added perspective, bracketing new products is challenging.
"The fact is that added value in production comes from new types of value chains. Therefore, innovation is above all about considering new business models. In other words, what kind of partnerships are needed to create certain types of products. This requires close cooperation with your customers, understanding the operation of value chains and knowing how to cooperate with representatives of different industries."
Lehtonen cites as examples the battery industry cooperation agreement with Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt or the recent cooperation agreement related to polymer chemistry with South Korean Kolon Industries. The purpose of Kolon's product development cooperation is to develop and industrialize bio-based polyesters and their applications in various plastic-replacement applications.
For the battery industry, Biomaterials is developing bio-based hard carbon refined from lignin as an anode material for batteries.
"One of our partners is the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt. In both collaborations, we are dealing with partners who are new to us, so understanding the production process becomes essential. There are a large number of actors involved in the value chains who are completely new to us."
Courage also for public visioning
According to Lehtonen, increasing RDI investments by increasing public support is a good thing in itself and can also help activate companies.
"Such a national level innovation investment is reflected in our ideas and especially in a good new workforce. This allows us to quickly try out new things in terms of product development. The challenges, in turn, come from the use of investments. There too, courage is needed to go and explore and see new value chains so that experts are available quickly enough to meet their needs. In other words, in addition to increasing RDI investments, we should also build competence centers and boldly open up new directions."
