Pulp Non-Fiction: Mercer International Finds Allure, Redemption in the Advanced Bioeconomy

June 18, 2025

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Black liquor, they called her. Thick, volatile, carbon-rich. The kind you burn without thinking, just to feel the heat. Most mills did. Most couldn’t help themselves.

But Mercer… Mercer looked closer. They saw through the smoke. Saw value, not waste. Sequestration. Substitution. Redemption. They didn’t reach for the match.

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As Mercer CEO Juan Carlos Bueno explains, Mercer’s “main strategy that we have on on the energy side is to generate less energy so that we can actually use that raw material instead of burning it for energy to extract additional value from them”. This marks a significant shift from simply being a net energy exporter, which Mercer already is, selling 40% of the 400 megawatts it produces to the grid. Instead, the focus is on a more profound “pulp separation” – isolating high-value components from byproducts previously earmarked for combustion.

We’ve seen this elsewhere, Raizen spoke to us of how they were generating power and heat out of by anaerobically digesting vinasse, allowing them to use more sugarcane bagasse to make cellulosic ethanol or other products.

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In Mercer’s case, the key is black liquor, a byproduct of pulp production, which contains valuable components like lignin and hemicellulose. Mercer is actively extracting lignin from black liquor at a pilot plant in Rosenthal, Germany, producing one ton per day of lignin. The goal is to scale this to 40,000 tons of lignin per year commercially within three years.

The use of lignin to “replace fossil based products”

The opportunity is not just technical — it’s economic. The global market for lignin-derived products is projected to exceed $6 billion by 2030, with rising demand in automotive, packaging, construction, and specialty chemicals. While current supply chains still rely on petroleum-based phenols, carbon black, and bitumen, a scalable supply of low-cost, bio-based lignin could rewrite the rules. Mercer’s 40,000-ton target may be modest in that landscape, but it opens the door to higher-value niches where price premiums and ESG mandates align.

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For Mercer, this includes substituting phenols in resins used in the wood product industry, transforming them into “green based glues”. Other potential applications being explored include anodes for lithium batteries, carbon black for tires, bitumen for asphalt, and vanillin for food.

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From a sustainability perspective, lignin allows for a product that has been sequestered (carbon stored) to remain in a building for decades, rather than being released into the atmosphere when burned for energy. This is seen as a “win win”.

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Mercer is pursuing a significant carbon capture project at its Peace River mill in Alberta, Canada. This mill is uniquely positioned due to its location “almost on top of” large physiological formations ideal for carbon sequestration, minimizing transport distances. The project aims to extract 500,000 tons of CO2 using a membrane-based technology developed in partnership with Svante. This initiative has “incredible potential for revenue and profit,” with the Juan Carlos Bueno telling us that CO2 could become the “number one profit contributor on top of pulp” for the mill, fundamentally transforming it into a “biorefinery”.

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They are converting the lime kiln at their largest pulp mill in Germany from natural gas to biomass (pellets produced internally), which will be a “very significant contributor to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” helping them achieve almost halfway to their 50% Scope 1 GHG reduction target by 2030. This project is supported by a 50% grant from the government.

Mercer’s investment in mass timber (like CLT and glulam) is another key area. While not directly about energy efficiency, it’s about expanding higher-value offerings and replacing fossil-based and carbon-heavy materials in construction, thus supporting low-carbon transitions and driving long-term growth potential. Mercer holds approximately 30% of North America’s installed CLT capacity. This contributes to storing carbon in long-lived products and displaces emissions from traditional materials.

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Sustainability is not just a separate initiative but is woven into the core business strategy to create lasting enterprise value.

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For Mercer, achieving triple bottom-line goals — delivering significant environmental benefits (decarbonization, circularity), fostering societal well-being through sustainable solutions, and driving substantial financial returns — is not an alternative to ESG, but rather the strategic realization of its inherent value. READ MORE

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Svante and Mercer International Advance Carbon Capture Project at Alberta Pulp Mill (Svante/Business Wire)
Mercer’s decarbonisation strategy: Biomass, carbon capture and innovation (Bioenergy Insight)

Excerpt from Svants/Business Wire: Svante Technologies Inc. (Svante), a leader in carbon capture and removal technology, today announced that its joint carbon capture and storage project with Mercer International Inc. (Mercer) has advanced to the Front-end Engineering and Design Phase 2 (FEL-2). Also known as Pre-FEED, this phase involves engineering, cost estimation, and risk analysis to evaluate the project's commercial viability. Mercer is a global producer of sustainably sourced forest products, including pulp, lumber, mass timber, biomass-based green energy, and bioextractives.

The carbon capture project targets biogenic CO2 emissions from Mercer’s Peace River pulp mill, where the biomass (fibre) is sourced from sustainably managed forests. Advancing to the Pre-FEED stage will support further development of the integrated design, cost estimates, and risk assessments—key steps toward a final investment decision and potential implementation. This milestone reflects the growing momentum for carbon capture solutions within Canada’s pulp and paper sector.

Matt Stevenson, Chief Revenue Officer at Svante, said the advancement to Pre-FEED demonstrates the company’s momentum in the pulp and paper sector. “We are thrilled to advance this project with Mercer at their Peace River mill to the pre-FEED stage. This will demonstrate the viability of our technology for the pulp and paper industry in Western Canada, enabling carbon removal at scale by working in tandem with nature and highlighting our commitment to providing sustainable solutions for an industrial future.”

Svante’s second-generation carbon capture technology is engineered for commercial-scale deployment in industrial environments such as pulp mills—settings where integration must be cost-effective, modular, and resilient to operational variability. As decarbonization efforts intensify across heavy industry, this project offers a timely opportunity to demonstrate how advanced capture systems can be applied within existing infrastructure.

At the core of Svante’s solution is its structured sorbent filter system, which uses solid materials coated with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—nanomaterials specifically designed to selectively capture CO₂ molecules. These filters represent a meaningful evolution over earlier carbon capture systems, offering reduced energy requirements and broader industrial applicability.

Key Technical Features

Utilizing a novel carbon capture technology for commercial deployment, Svante's second-generation capture technology maximizes low-grade waste heat from pulp mills, reducing energy consumption and increasing cost-effectiveness. Svante’s technology also provides:

Robust Particulate Handling: Structured adsorbent filters are highly resistant to particulate fouling, ensuring consistent performance in challenging pulp mill environments.
Environmentally Responsible Design: Materials are free from toxic emissions and degradation byproducts. The company’s sorbent-based filters are designed to be recyclable, minimizing environmental impact.
Rapid Response to Operational Fluctuations: Svante's rapid capture process adapts quickly to intermittent operations, eliminating the need for onsite liquid solvent storage and makeup.
Compact and Modular Design: Minimizes capture plant vertical footprint and visual impact, offering significant benefits for site integration.

Additional Project Highlights

Leveraging Clean Power Production from the Mercer Peace River Mill: The project’s energy requirements will be met by low-carbon electricity generated onsite, with recovered waste heat further increasing the net CO₂ emissions avoided.
Sustainably Sourced Fibre: The mill sources its fibre from sustainably managed forests certified to SFI.
Permanent and Safe CO2 Storage Within Alberta’s Abundant Sequestration Resource: Alberta has proven, abundant geologic reservoirs—formations capable of securely storing CO₂—supported by a government-enabled regulatory framework that includes robust permitting processes and liability management tools.

Bill Adams, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mercer, said, "The collaboration with Svante reflects Mercer's drive to pursue climate innovation opportunities that align with our business goals. Examining carbon capture in a commercial mill setting gives us a valuable opportunity to assess its long-term potential—both for our own operations and for advancing decarbonization pathways across the industry.”

The project represents a meaningful step toward enabling industrial carbon capture in Canada’s pulp and paper sector, advancing practical climate solutions from concept to potential deployment.

About Svante

Svante is a purpose-driven, leading carbon capture and removal solutions provider. The Vancouver, Canada-based company manufactures nanoengineered filters and modular rotary contactor machines that capture and remove CO2 from industrial emissions and the air in an environmentally responsible manner. Svante is on TIME & Statista’s Top Greentech Companies of 2025, the 2025 Global Cleantech 100, the XPRIZE Foundation’s XB100 – World’s Top 100 Deep Tech Companies, and was ranked second among private companies in the Corporate Knights’ Future 50 Fastest Growing Sustainable Companies.

For more information, visit www.svanteinc.com and follow Svante on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/svantesolutions. READ MORE