Finland Makes Batteries from Trees. Can Maine?

Business News/Analysis, Feedstocks, Finland, Forestry/Wood/Residues/Waste, R & D Focus

August 31, 2019

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(Biobased Maine) … Stora Enso just announced an investment of $11.2 million to build a pilot facility to produce lignin-based battery materials at their Sunila Mill in Finland.

The facility, anticipated for completion in early 2021, will process lignin (one of the three main components of trees) into carbon anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. In the future, these forest-based carbon anode materials could replace the mined and petroleum-based raw materials in widespread use today in electric vehicles, mobile phones, power tools, and more.

Stora Enso and other Finnish company’s investments come with support from the Finnish government, which launched a program in 2014 to expand its bioeconomy to $112 billion by 2025.

Here in Maine, the FOR/Maine coalition recently launched a new vision for Maine’s forest products industry that sees it expanding by 40% by 2025 with investment in biobased manufacturing, and a production tax credit for biobased products is currently pending before the Maine Legislature.

As we look to our friends in Finland for inspiration, Biobased Maine is working to see popular consumer products—like batteries—someday made from sustainably harvested Maine trees. READ MORE

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