Carbon dioxide would be captured from the factory's flue gases. It would be a commercial production plant, the planned capacity of which would be the first step towards a larger scale. Metsä Group has a long-term potential for capturing wood-based carbon dioxide of several million tonnes per year. Carbon dioxide can be used as a raw material in, for example, the chemical and fuel industries, and can replace the use of fossil raw materials.
The plant's environmental permit application was submitted in December 2025, and the authority's permit decision is expected to be completed this year. If 100,000 tons of wood-based carbon dioxide were used annually in the fuel value chain, the annual fossil carbon dioxide emissions of almost 30,000 passenger cars would be avoided.
“The utilization of wood-based carbon dioxide has been developed at Metsä Group for several years. We are looking at the possibility primarily from the perspective of carbon dioxide acting as a raw material for new products. We are therefore very pleased that the first delivery agreements with customers have now been signed,” says CEO of Metsä Spring, Metsä Group’s innovation company. Niklas von Weymarn says.
"The emergence of completely new value chains and markets often requires public support in the initial stages. This is a one-off investment support that can accelerate the commercialisation of technology and create significant new industrial activity in Finland," says von Weymarn.
The support applied for may not exceed 30 percent of the total investment. The investment decision for the Rauma recovery plant could be made in early 2027 at the earliest, and requires a positive support decision, an environmental permit, completion of preliminary planning, and certainty about customer demand.
“The capture of wood-derived carbon dioxide would support Metsä Group’s strategy to strengthen fossil-free business and develop new, competitive products. At the same time, it would improve the competitiveness of our pulp production,” Metsä Fibre’s CEO Ismo Nousiainen says.
Metsä Group will pilot carbon dioxide capture technology from the flue gases of the Rauma pulp mill in 2025 in collaboration with technology company Andritz. The piloting showed that the technology is mature enough for controlled upscaling.
The key uncertainty in the project is related to market development, as industrial value chains utilizing wood-based carbon dioxide are still being built. The emergence of new markets requires simultaneous investment decisions from several actors. A potential investment by Metsä Group could contribute to accelerating the development of the entire new value chain.
