Stora Enso Invests EUR 9 Million in Pilot Facility for Innovative Packaging

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Stora Enso announced investment of EUR 9 million to build a pilot facility to produce bio-based plastic packaging for the food and beverage industry.

The pilot plant will be located at Stora Enso’s Langerbrugge mill in Belgium. The design and engineering of the plant has already started. The construction is expected to begin in second half of 2020, with plant operations likely to commence by Q1 2021. The project will be run by Stora Enso’s Biomaterials division.

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The pilot plant will initially make use of industrially available fructose to manufacture PEF, a bio-based plastic. In future, it plans to run the process on sugars extracted from wood and other non-food biomasses.

Commenting on the development, Markus Mannstrom, Executive Vice President- Biomaterials division noted that the pilot is part of its long-term R&D work to replace fossil-based materials with innovative, renewable materials. The company is looking forward to expand its cooperation in the field of bio-based chemicals, he added.

The company stated that it has plans of commercialization, but a final decision will be taken only after evaluating the success of production from the pilot plant.