Beyond Circularity

Valmet's Beyond Circularity is an R&D program in which Valmet and its ecosystem come together to innovate, renew and enable their customer industries in the shift to carbon neutrality and to facilitate the green transition.

The Beyond Circularity Program aims to develop process technologies, automation and services to create value by utilizing renewable and recycled materials, industrial sidestream rejects and waste. Circularity is at the core of the program and its ecosystem, and its targets are closely connected to Valmet’s Technology vision 2030 and Climate Program – Forward to a carbon neutral future.

The program is implemented through seven streams: program management, recycling technologies; bio-refining/value adding to waste; resource-efficient industries; automated and digitalized industry and services; service life cycle concepts; emerging new process concepts; and disruptive business.

A new green transition ecosystem is being built as part of this program. Working together within the ecosystem will create value and business for the participants, expand competences to new areas, and encourage the best national and international partners to join. The core of the ecosystem is Valmet’s unique triangular approach of technology, automation and services, enriched by the partners’ interdisciplinary expertise. The ecosystem is expected to have more than 100 partners by 2025. ​

Valmet plans to invest EUR 40 million in the Beyond Circularity Program between 2022 and 2025. The program is partly funded by Business Finland and is part of the “Veturi” initiative, which invites international companies to solve some of society’s most pressing challenges through increased research, development and innovation.

Recycling technologies

The Recycling technologies stream focuses on recycling technology development across several areas. These areas include processes for recycling preindustrial and post-consumer textile waste; new solutions for chemical recycling of plastics to enable circularity in petrochemical industry; development of resource efficient continuous panelboard recycling process; and creating readiness to integrate and offer together with partners carbon negative solutions for biorefining and energy industry.

Read more about the Recycling stream. 

Read more about related Valmet's solutions:

• Technology, automation and services for sustainable textile production

Bio-refining / Value adding to waste

In the Bio-refining / Value adding to waste stream, bio-materials and waste are turned into products of value. One of the aims is to develop a new biomass pyrolysis solution to turn local sustainable feedstocks into global renewable transportation fuels and biochemicals. This stream also explores energy efficient continuous process to produce micro fibrillated cellulose for different applications and novel process solutions to turn ash waste and lignin into new products.

Read more about the co-research project GreenAro

Read more about related Valmet's solutions

• Lignin extraction with LignoBoost®

Resource efficient industries

The Resource efficient industries stream focuses on utilization of low energy heat lost from industrial processes through extended energy integration; research into new technologies to find more energy efficient solutions; closing of material loops in industrial processes to enhance material efficiency; using materials with high energy content as energy storage in industry as a part of smart electricity networks; and developing new, sustainable solutions for machine components.

Automated, digitalized industry and services​
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In the stream Automated, digitalized industry and services, the aim is to enable major leaps towards autonomous mills and safe processes, creating a thriving network with partners for developing energy saving and emission reducing services, and innovating novel process measurements for insight into the new processes developed within this Beyond circularity initiative.

• Read more about the co-research project CEBIPRO – New analysis technologies for circular economy biorefineries.
• Read more about Valmet's automation solutions 

Service lifecycle concepts​
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Within the Service lifecycle concepts stream, research is conducted on life cycle modelling for the technologies developed in the Beyond Circularity program. Another focus area is development of lifecycle services concepts, taking into account critical indicators such as technical age, emissions, energy consumption, and water use.

Read more about Valmet's full services offering for every stage in the lifecycle​.
 

Janne Pynnönen

Vice President, R&D

Valmet​

Virpi Puhakka 

Director, Ecosystem

Valmet​

Viivi Villa-Nuottajärvi 

Director, Internal Beyond Circularity program

Valmet​

Kari Koskela

Valmet Veturi lead

kari.koskela(at)businessfinland.fi

Business Finland

Business Finland partnership funding

Ecosystem projects, which have received funding from Business Finland and EU:

Recycling stream

• Co-innovation project HiPer – Fiber based composite materials to generate a completely new product portfolio based on lightweight, sustainable composite materials. These new materials will be suitable for several industrial sectors, such as construction, automotive, transportation, furniture, and packaging. Read more in project’s web page. Watch also the new video from the HiPer-project.
• Co-innovation project UrbanMill to develop an industrial chemical recycling concept for plastic waste. Read more in VTT’s release.
• Co-research project Sustafit – Sustainable fit-for-purpose nonwovens. The project will outline segment specific sustainability strategies around the use of sustainable and recycled fibres, and their processing into non-woven products. Understanding on the jointly identified knowledge gaps we be built, and sustainable fibres attractiveness for non-woven application by developing their hydrophobicity and antimicrobial performance will be boosted. Read more in project's web page. 

Biorefining / value-adding to waste stream

• Co-innovation project ReMatCh - Recycled material challenge
• Co-innovation project Non-wood raw materials 
• Co-research project GreenAro will develop sustainable production routes from renewable raw materials to aromatics needed in high volume for the production of products such as glues, paints and plastics. Read the article about the project.
• EU project REDYSIGN – Resource-efficient processes for the production and circularization of innovative recyclable-by-design fresh meat smart packaging from wood. Read more on the project page.  

Resource efficient industries stream

• Co-innovation project Resilient bronze 
• Co-research project POWER Beyond – Process optimization with friction- and vibrationless technologies for energy efficiency and circularity. Aalto’s project page.
• Co-innovation project CARAMEL – Circular processes and sustainable applications for novel hard metal coatings and structures

Automated, digitalized industry and services stream

• Co-innovation project USWA – Ultra scalable wireless access
• Co-innovation project Biond4.0 – Data-driven control for bioprocesses
• Co-research project CEBIPRO – New analysis technologies for circular economy biorefineries. Read more about the project. 
• Co-research project SEEDForest COACH creates steps towards human-focused, technologically enabled intelligent industrial work of the future. Read more in project's web page.
• Co-innovation project BETTER
• Co-innovation project CTAC 2.0 - Cybersceurity assurance

Emerging new process concepts and disruptive business stream

• Co-research project: CO2 capture