Empower to carry out maintenance operations at the new Stora Enso biorefinery in Kotka

Stora Enso and Empower have signed a new multi-year service contract on maintenance operations at the new biorefinery to be built at the Sunila pulp mill in Kotka. The biorefinery will start production in early 2015.

Through the Sunila investment, Stora Enso will start new lignin operations at the biorefinery. The pro-cess of extracting lignin from black liquor and burning it will replace some 90 per cent of natural gas at the mill and reduce the mill's carbon dioxide emissions. The project, which is significant for the en-tire Group, will also turn Stora Enso into a company which manufactures renewable materials. Lignin can be utilised, for example, in the construction and automotive industries because it offers a sus-tainable alternative to replace phenols used in plywood and wood panel glues and polyols used in foams. 

“This is a natural continuum to the successful many-year cooperation between Stora Enso and Em-power at Sunila mills. We have been extremely satisfied with Empower's activities at Sunila. The lig-nin extraction plant has a challenging process and also poses specific challenges for maintenance. I'm certain that Empower as a maintenance company is able to rise up to this demanding challenge,” says Olli-Pekka Reunanen, director of the Stora Enso Sunila mill.

“We are more than pleased to continue our cooperation and take care of maintenance operations at this globally unique facility. It allows us to expand our maintenance expertise towards evolving bi-oproduction methods of the future,” says Jari Simola, Director of Empower Oy's Industrial O&M Services.

Empower has also been responsible for maintenance operations at the Stora Enso Sunila pulp mill since 2011.

Further information:

Jari Simola, Empower Oy, Director, Industry Division, Operation & Maintenance Services,
mobile: +358 44 425 2452, email: jari.simola@empower.fi

Olli-Pekka Reunanen, Stora Enso Oyj, Sunila Mill Director, mobile: +358 40 556 4612,
e-mail: olli-pekka.reunanen@storaenso.com

About Empower:

Empower is a multinational service company which helps keep the wheels of society running and improves the competitiveness of customers. Empower Group builds, installs, maintains and repairs electricity and telecom networks, maintains power plants and factories and delivers ICT solutions and information man-agement services. Empower provides services in more than a hundred locations in Finland, Sweden, Nor-way, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Turnover in 2013 was €325 million, and the company has more than 2,900 employees. www.empower.eu

About Stora Enso:
Stora Enso is the global rethinker of the paper, biomaterials, wood products and packaging industry. We always rethink the old and expand to the new to offer our customers innovative solutions based on renewa-ble materials. Stora Enso employs some 29 000 people worldwide, and our sales in 2013 amounted to EUR 10.6 billion. Stora Enso shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki (STEAV, STERV) and Stockholm (STE A, STE R). In addition, the shares are traded in the USA as ADRs (SEOAY) in the International OTCQX over-the-counter market.