Biochemicals are tomorrow's products

Text: Tuovi Similä
Photos: Herman, Eija Hirvonen

The chemicals in wood are UPM's potential future products. The biochemical programme launched a year ago searches for and studies chemicals which can replace oil-based products.

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Wood is a real chemical factory, the full potential of which is still undoubtedly yet to be discovered. UPM is interested in products whose production can be integrated into the manufacture of pulp and paper.

Highly processed fine chemicals are thus not for UPM, as "the leap from paper to pills is too great." Nevertheless, "Various possibilities of the chemical industry are being studied very extensively. The biomass coming to the mill site provides such a vast array of options that the company cannot focus simply on one area," Jernström says. This is why the biochemical programme in Jernström's view is the "window of opportunities" from which the most attractive research topics will be selected.

Eeva Jernström,
Research Director, R&D Centre in Lappeenranta Finland

"The opportunities for biochemicals are so broad
that this area needs to be looked at in depth and properly."

A long way from idea to product

The biochemical programme is a group-wide endeavour and, in addition, each business area has its own targeted programme. Jernström and her team are involved in all of these. The programme currently employs some 20 people at UPM. Important cooperation partners are the Lappeenranta University of Technology's Centre for Separation Technology and Forestcluster Ltd's FuBio programme.

A long-term approach is needed, as Jernström estimates the period from the generation of an idea to a new product which has turnover and a customer base is five to eight years. "This is why collaboration between research and business is absolutely crucially important. Something that is technologically feasible may not necessarily yield anything. Or if the manufacturing process proves too expensive, alternatives must be found," Jernström points out.

For researchers, switching from paper and pulp to chemicals has been demanding, but in Jernström's opinion they have succeeded well in embracing the change. "Training levels are not a problem, mindset is what needs to be changed now. In a way, everything that has been done before must be reset," she says.

UPM's biochemical
programme is a window of opportunities from which the most attractive research
topics will be selected.

There are presently some research topics in Jernström's "window of opportunities" which will find their way upon completion into current business operations. "This meets customer wishes regarding, among other things, improved product recyclability," she says. Some of the research topics, on the other hand, are those which in time may generate entirely new business operations.

"We are still novices, but I expect that once we have made headway, there will be only more attractive targets along the way," Jernström says.