Chlorine dioxide engineering services
and application know-how,
helping make pulp bright and white!
Bleached pulp

Reprinted with permission of Pulp & Paper International, June 2014.

bleaching

By MARTIN KOEPENICK

Numerous improvements including an upgraded chlorine dioxide
facility has given the Iggesund mill the “wow” factor

SUSTAINABLE EMOTIONCAN ANYTHING REALLY be new at an integrated pulp and paperboard mill, where theleading position in Europe has been held formore than 40 years? First, let’s take a look at the facts
about this business.
Invercote from Iggesund has enhanced themessages and functionality of packaging for leading
brands for many decades. Iconic perfume boutiquesalong the Champs-Élysées in Paris would not be thesame without the mood established by elegantly
printed and converted paperboard. Duty free shops
at international airports rely even more on the impactof packaging for luxury goods, also including chocolate and spirits. Even pharmaceutical packages and amyriad of other products convey image.
“Emotion rules in luxury retail. When a consumer
connects with a product – a brand, sales happen, andsatisfaction follows, especially when the product itself
delivers a promise,” says Jessica Tommila, Iggesund’s
marketing communications manager. “What’s new inour business is the growing expectation of a sustainability commitment, including environmental aswell as corporate and social responsibility. Many
consumers will support brands, based upon evidenceof actions taken for a better planet.”
In this new context, Iggesund is an even better ﬁt
for branders, because “emotional sustainability” goesfrom their forest nurseries to ﬁnished packages andgraphical applications, as well as recycling and making use of all waste streams as value streams.

Anna Mårtensson, environment manager at the Iggesund Mill36

I N D U S T R Y I N A N AT U R A LWONDERLAND“At Iggesund, daily life of running a pulp and paperboard mill balances well with the joy of living in anatural wonderland. Around here we think long term,and we live long term, always with the next generations in mind,” says Anna Mårtensson, environmental manager at the Iggesund Mill. “As families, wecross country ski, jog and take walks, and hunt in theforests. We place a high value on the various waysthat trees enhance our lives. We take full responsibilJune 2014

Pulp & Paper International (PPI)bleaching

Iggesund’s Hans Nilsson (left) and Morgan
Arousell, process operator, at the retroﬁtted
chlorine dioxide plant.
Photo also includes
Kimona Häggströmand Helena Falgén with
AkzoNobel.

ity for our handling of the forest, including constantdialog with customers about raw material reduction
to full custody of every aspect of our products. Withhundreds of customers from around the world coming to see our forests and our mill it adds up to a lot ofvisibility for our actions.”
Every modernization project crossesMårtensson’s desk, because continuous improvement for environmental practices are designed into
everything. A recent retroﬁt of the chlorine dioxide
facility improved safety and productivity. An ongoing
effort to minimize the impact of efﬂuent from themill aims to reduce undesirable or toxic substances toimmeasurable levels.
Fifth generation Mårtensson reluctantly settled
down to live and work in her hometown. “I traveled
the world for ﬁve years, teaching kids in Cambodia,
milking cows in Israel, chopping ﬁsh in Norway andstufﬁng croutons into lunch packages in Scotland forMarks and Spencer. Actually, all of my life experiences prepared me well for my current job. We makeproducts that touch lives in many obvious ways.
What’s not obvious is whether coated paperboard
meets high sustainability levels or not.
“Every time we have a win for safety, efﬁciency
and the environment, we are genuinely excited andmotivated to ﬁnd the next step ahead.”Mårtensson is passionate about continuing
Iggesund’s stewardship of water and elimination of
unwanted substances in wastewater. Since the early
Pulp & Paper International (PPI) J u n e 2 0 1 4

1990s, there have been frequent and continuous
environmental investments that included less water
usage, or changing washing and after-treatment
techniques to decrease emissions.
While some of these efforts may be small,Mårtensson believes they add up to making a bigimpact. “We may not see the effects immediately, but
over time, all of these small efforts decrease our emissions,” she says.
And there are the big investments too, such asthe 2009 purchase of a Euro 25-million chemicaltreatment plant to improve water quality. “In 2012
we had the highest production in the mill’s history
and also the lowest emissions to water in our history,” Mårtensson says. The new treatment plant has
reduced phosphorus by nearly 80%, which is an important step in combating the growth of aquatic plantlife (eutrophication) in the nearby Baltic Sea. “We areworld-class when it comes to the quality of efﬂuentwater. We borrow water from the Iggesund River. First
we clean it to use it in production and then we clean
it in three additional steps. The last step is equivalent
to how drinking water is processed, so the water is ofa very high quality when it is returned to the sea.”
CHLORINE DIOXIDE SAFETY AND
PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTHans Nilsson, pulp supervisor with Iggesund, whoﬁrst worked in the bleach plant and chlorine dioxide
facility back in 1987, places a high value on safety.

37

bleaching

Karl Gunnar Karlsson,
visitor guide, and 38
year veteran of Iggesund and Jessica Tommila, market communications manager at theIggesund nursery.

Says Nilsson, “Our decision to eliminate sulphur
dioxide from our on-site chlorine dioxide production
for bleaching made our entire mill safer, and was aplus for the community. A dangerous substance nolonger crosses local highways on a regular basis. And
for families living near the mill, we took away any
possibility of a negative impact on them.”Continues Nilsson, “Now, we deliver precise
quality to the bleach plant. The process is easier torun and more stable. With a storage tank of only 1500

m3, which is a 12-hour supply, we need to run well all
the time.”Nilsson points out that the AkzoNobel teamretroﬁtted Iggesund’s existing equipment, and helped
steadily increase the efﬁciency of chlorine dioxide
production from 85 to 96%. “Their training of ourpeople, and their know-how is fundamental to oursuccess. Safe, smart practices always produce thehighest level of efﬁciency.”“Partnership is built on
trust, which is earned on a daily basis by AkzoNobel,”says Christer Bengtsson, Iggesund director of purchasing. “We expect a lot of each other, and that’s why
the relationship has been successful for decades.”Sonny Nielsen, sales manager, AkzoNobel Bleaching Chemicals Europe, suggests, “Iggesund andAkzoNobel have common values. This is most evident
through a passion for making pulp and paperboard
in the most sustainable way possible. A continuous
improvement practice and mentality of “attainability,
not just sustaining the status quo, is our core value.
The fact that AkzoNobel shares the honor with Holmen on the United Nations list of top sustainability
companies speaks volumes (United Nations Global
Compact (UN GC 100) stock index).”Helena Falgén, sales engineer for AkzoNobel in
Scandinavia, comments “Together we realized that a
retroﬁtted generator was what Iggesund needed forhigher efﬁciency and performance. This saved a lot ofcapital. Greater stability, higher yield, and increased
safety all came with the change. We are told that pulp
is bleached more precisely, too, which is anotheradvantage. On a practical level, using hydrogen
peroxide is easier because it’s employed as a liquid,
not as a gas.”

The gold reserve of more than
three million seedlings
A visit to the Friggesund seedling nursery is more like a living laboratory for high-tech incubation, not just a place whereseeds are planted and start to grow. A high-tech, but simple enclosed structure closely controls temperature and purityof the air, so that seeds have the best chance of one day becoming tall, healthy trees for harvest in 60 to 100 years.
“We are in the ﬁber design business,” says Karl-Gunnar Karlsson, visitor guide at Iggesund, who has 38 years invested
in the company. “Planting for the next several generations, our R & D has already helped us ﬁnd ways to produce
a 25% greater yield than a decade ago. In addition, our ﬁber quality is consistently better.“Great care is taken forseedlings to get started right to achieve the highest possible yield. Flaws may not show up for 50 years, so we are
meticulous about the early stages of tree growth.”38

June 2014

Pulp & Paper International (PPI)bleaching

Christer Bengtsson,
Iggesund director ofpurchasing and Sonny
Nielsen, AkzoNobel,
sales manager, bleaching.

Kimona Häggström, technology specialist atAkzoNobel, who lives within an hour’s drive of themill, stays close via text messages. According toHäggström, “First, Iggesund runs smoothly, becauseof their commitment to training, and the dedicationof their entire team. Our role is to minimize theirfocus on chlorine dioxide production, which enables
them to concentrate on producing top quality solid
bleached board. Iggesund continuously ﬁne-tunes
its operation; maximizing yield and optimizing
parameters.”
MAKING ENERGY A PRIORITY
In June 2012, a bio-driven recovery boiler replaced
two old boilers at the mill at a cost of Euro 260 million. Only a year later, sulphur emissions were down
84%. Particles have been reduced by nearly 90% andnitrogen emissions have decreased by 10%. Most ofall, Iggesund is 100% thermal energy self-sufﬁcientand 90% for electricity needs. Iggesund even delivers
energy for the local community’s district heating
The new boiler has a strong environmental capability, incinerating weak, sulphur-containing gases tofurther reduce sulphur emissions to air. The investment is a key factor in being able to run the operation
without using fossil fuels or purchased electricity overthe long term.
W H AT A B O U T A P R I C E P R E M I U M ?
Arvid Sundblad, Iggesund’s head of sales and marketing comments, “When an end user or carton makerchooses Invercote, they do so knowing that they pay apremium.” Sundblad is quick to point out that paying
more for Iggesund board is often a wise economic

decision. “Converters tell us that they have less wastewith Invercote, and often they run their machines
faster. Some choose our lighter weight grades andachieve equal results for their customers. Invercote’s
technical support, and understanding of how to optimize production runs, as well as creative appearance
on the shelf, wins us a lot of repeat business.”
Adds Sundblad, “Our recent marketing campaign called “The Black Box,” was very popular withdesigners. They created showcase examples of what ispossible when you combine original thinking and ourIt stays in the family
Sweden’s Iggesund Paperboard, a member of the Holmen Group, leads Europe as a manufacturer of high quality,
virgin ﬁber paperboard for use in the packaging and graphics sectors. Invercote produced at Iggesund, and Incada inWorkington, England produce 340,000 and 200,000 tonnes/yr respectively. Invercote and Incada are available as FSCand PEFC certiﬁed.
For more than ﬁve generations, premium boardmaking at the Iggesund Mill has been a profession of choice by localpeople. Holmen owns more than 1 million hectares of forestland of which --70% is within 100 km of the mill. Since
1948, the timber yield on Holmen’s land has increased by 77%.
Last fall, Holmen was cited as one of the top 100 companies on the United Nations list of most sustainable companies
for achieving good returns through sustainable practices. AkzoNobel, their partner for chlorine dioxide production,
shares this distinction.

Pulp & Paper International (PPI) J u n e 2 0 1 439

bleachingproducts. Our current efforts are shifting more to support for converters and their customers; the ownersof the branded consumer goods.”
Sundblad says that Iggesund’s business is
becoming global, and reaching into markets andend use segments, where the company has not beenvery active in the past. He believes that packaging
growth will continue to be strong in Asia over the nextdecade.
“We have learned that converters in Asia arebeing strongly challenged by international as well as
local brand owners. They want the most out of every
carton. So we are educating them about functionality,and planting sustainability ideas for their customers
to harvest.”
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
Torgny Ljungberg, Iggesund chemist has a sweet job.
He’s in charge of testing whether chocolate has theﬂavor that most people crave, and not any Invercote“ﬂavor” or aroma.
“Our taste and odor lab is important to ourcustomers, who want a veriﬁable seal of approval forthe lack of migration of paperboard ﬂavor or odor in
their products. We joke that pine and spruce could beconsidered a plus, but actually that’s not the reality.

Following strict criteria for taint and odor, we tabulate
results according to the Robinson method.“Because
chocolate contains a lot of fat, it absorbs. For thisreason we place graded chocolate and strips of Iggesund products with it. Covered with aluminum foil,and waiting 48 hours, then the testers arrive. Using aseries of objectives, their noses and minds determine
a series of factors, which could taint the chocolate. We
score very high, based on the scientiﬁc criteria.”“What’s new at Iggesund is something small,and sometimes very big, every day,” says Mårtensson. “Often very small is what I like the best, becausewith my work, no measurable content of unwanted
substances is always good.”
Concludes Tommila, “We tend to get very excitedabout sustainability progress all along the value
chain. That’s why “emotional sustainability” welldescribes our approach to business, and way of satisfying customers and end users.”
Martin Koepenick, Innova, has extensive experience
covering the forest products industry and is based inAtlanta, GA, mkoepen@gmail.com PPI
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Multi-faceted “wow” factor
The “wow” factor for leading brands of fragrances and cosmetics is all about emotional response-- at airports andairplane duty free shops, retail stores, and even the experience at home after a web purchase. Consumers are drawn toperfume, premium Scotch and liquors, or chocolates partly because of the visual power made possible by strong graphics and converting, which Invercote achieves.
The “wow” for converters is ease in running with Invercote, lack of waste, and high value/functionality performance.
Invercote is a workhorse—not just the thoroughbred to cross the ﬁnish line ﬁrst.
The “wow” for generations of workers at Iggesund is dedication to use and renewal of vast forests, high productivity at
the integrated mill, and a strong commitment to sustainability.
The “wow” for the local communities is to enjoy leisure in the forests and the beneﬁts of blue skies and clean water.
The “wow” for environmental groups is to showcase Iggesund as a model.
While both Invercote and Incada have a reputation for superior physical characteristics like strength and foldability,
Iggesund management believes that brands must be more than just the paperboard products themselves. All aspects ofthe business relationship - from product and service development through manufacturing, distribution and commercial
service, after-sales support, recycling and high environmental performance - is the broader expression of the productline.
The Invercote brand family consists of a range of products customized for different end-use applications and is manufactured at the integrated Iggesund mill in Sweden. Invercote is a multilayered Solid Bleached Board (SBB), made fromchemical pulp produced by the sulphate pulping method.
The use of virgin ﬁber and the sulphate pulping method deliver hygienic and odor and taint neutral products. All materials used in the making of Invercote are approved for food contact.

40June 2014

Pulp & Paper International (PPI)We help
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white andbright!

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