1 Sep 2022

On the 18th of August, through CMCPC Ventures, CMPC officially opened its new office inside Aalto University in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

Attendees included CMPC’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Luis Felipe Gazitúa; General Manager, Francisco Ruiz-Tagle; Manager of Innovation and Information, Felipe Alcalde; Manager of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Guillermo Turner; and the Manager of CMPC Ventures, Bernardita Araya. CMPC will be represented in the new venture by Finnish national, Anna Niityla.

The new facility will enable CMPC to connect much more closely with innovation programs in Finland and the rest of the Nordic countries. To this end, the Company's management also had a series of meetings in Stockholm, Sweden, with representatives from the Swedish government, academia and research.

CMPC’s base in Helsinki is the latest addition to its international presence, which now spans operations/sales offices in 12 countries around the world: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, China, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, Finland, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

 

One step further

The new office is another step forward following the partnership announced in January between CMPC and the Finnish Norm Bioproducts Group to develop textile fiber from cellulose. Development will be scaled up from the university-owned, patented AaltoCell™ technology. In addition, the company has created a new wood-based textile fiber branded Norratex. Both technologies are pioneering technological developments for cellulose because they do not use any toxic chemicals or solvents, paving the way for more sustainable and environmentally friendly products to replace fossil-based materials.

The alliance between CMPC and Nordic Bioproducts Group involves an initial investment of 6.5 million euros from CMPC to accelerate the development of textile fiber technology via a dedicated Research and Development facility. The CMCPC delegation visited the site which is currently under construction.

 

Wide agenda in Sweden and Finland

CMPC's tour of Northern Europe began in Stockholm with a meeting with Regina Summer, Senior Manager of Strategy and International Collaboration at Vinnova, which promotes innovation through collaboration between the Swedish state, private companies and academia.

A meeting was also held with representatives of Business Sweden, which connects the public and private sectors for the exploration of new businesses. Multilateral discussions were also held with members of RISE, the Swedish Innovation and Development Institute, as well as representatives of the Wallenberg Wood Science Center and KTH, Sweden's leading technical university. Finally, the agenda in Sweden closed with a visit to the Kista Innovation Center, located in what is known as Sweden’s Silicon Valley.

The Wednesday agenda in Finland was equally busy, including senior-level meetings with the authorities of Business Finland, led by its CEO, Nina Kopola, as well as representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Employment.

CMPC also visited the offices of Sitra, the Research, Development and Future Fund, headed by Jyrki Katainen, former Prime Minister of Finland, with whom the Chilean delegation had the opportunity to share views and discuss future trends.

On Thursday, the agenda was focused on the opening of CMPC’s Helsinki facility, but also included a meeting with VTT, one of Finland's leading research centers, with a special focus on the development of new products from wood fibers.

Finally, back at the University of Aalto, Gazitúa, Ruiz-Tagle and the rest of CMPC’s managerial representatives, saw the first prototypes of products made entirely of cellulose from CMPC.

"In both Sweden and Finland, the message we have heard is the same: to reach new levels of development and sustainable solutions that improve quality of life, governments, the private sector and universities will need to work together. Therein lies the secret of the success of the Nordic countries that we admire so much," said Luis Felipe Gazitúa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CMPC.

"The learnings from this tour for a forest-based company such as ours are all the more relevant since we were vising two highly-forested countries. Take just one example: In Sweden more than 73% of the land area is forests and of these, 80% is productively managed," he added.

"Being able to open this office and above all deepen our alliance with Aalto University and Nordic Bioproducts Group fills us with pride but also presents challenges, because it means we are part of one of the most challenging and interesting innovation networks in the world. The stakes are very high and long-term, and this collaboration will surely motivate us all to meet the challenges ahead without fear of failure."

"A couple of years ago, we made the decision to strongly promote innovation. The forestry sector in general, and CMPC in particular, have a lot of potential to advance, because our products, based on cellulose from wood, are precisely those that are in the spotlight for their numerous benefits as substitutes for much more polluting fossil-based materials. "

 

The Aaltocell™ Process

In the NBG method, cellulose is first broken down into small particles in an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way, using the patented AaltoCell™ process. Its inventor, Professor Olli Dahl of Aalto University, was convinced from the outset that his technology could also be applied to the production of plant-based textile fibers.

 

The Norratex process

NBG has been exploring textile fiber production from cellulose for several years, and determined ideal conditions for its production in June last year. Now the Norratex process can use both short and long fiber kraft pulp, which has a significant advantage over the traditional viscose made from dissolving pulp, and whose costs can be up to 30% higher.

Olli Kähkönen, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Nordic Bioproducts Group: "Collaborative guidelines are critical to the success of the project. We partnered with CMPC to initiate an intensive product development period of approximately one year. Then, if everything goes as planned, we will start producing Norratex textile fiber on a pilot scale."

With a total investment to date of 6.5 million euros, the project includes the creation of a small-scale plant to start the production of samples for customers and key partners, as well as to optimize the process for our fiber. The long-term plan envisages key milestones to increase the production capacity of Norratex, which has the potential to become one of the most sustainable textile fibres in the world.