Research and development
Valmet’s mission is to convert renewable resources into sustainable results, and to make industrial processes reliable and efficient. The aim of our research and development work is to create new technologies, products and services that address customer needs and help respond to some of the most important global megatrends: enhancing the efficiency of raw materials, water and energy, promoting the use of renewable raw materials and reducing emissions.
500+
R&D professionals
1,400
protected inventions
34
R&D centers
EUR 123
million R&D expenses
Valmet’s unique product and services offering is based on leading technology and the continuous development of new solutions to improve our customers’ performance. Valmet launches around 100 new products onto the market every year. These products are often created in close cooperation with our customers or our network of leading universities and research institutes around the world.
The integration of sustainability topics in our R&D operations is ensured through the sustainability criteria that are an integral part of our innovation process. The criteria ensure that an innovation increases resource efficiency, reduces emissions and improves safety. They also help ensure the innovation’s compliance with product and process safety legislation. Finally, they guarantee that sustainability benefits are integrated in the final product or solution to be launched.
Our R&D focus areas
Toward carbon neutral production processes
Most of Valmet’s value chain’s carbon footprint comes from the use phase of its technologies. Valmet’s target is to enable 100 percent carbon neutral production for all its pulp and paper customers by 2030 by developing new process technologies, and by improving the energy efficiency of its current offering by 20 percent.
We have progressed well with this target, and today our technologies already enable carbon neutral board, tissue and paper production for customers with access to fossil-free energy sources. For energy customers, we have already long enabled carbon neutral heat and power production with our biomass-based energy solutions. Furthermore, many of our customers’ chemical pulp mills using our technologies are bioenergy self-sufficient, promoting carbon neutral pulp production.
Explore our solutions for reducing CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts!
Enabling circular economy
Through our technology, automation and services offering, we have a key role in enabling our customers to apply a circular economy in their operations. With our solutions, customers can use and recover energy, water and chemicals more efficiently or minimize waste by using production side-streams from other applications, processes or even industries. Our energy technologies enable the conversion of waste to energy, and our comprehensive services and automation help customers to utilize these technologies for decades.
Improving efficiency with digitalization
More autonomous and optimized operations are key to improving operational performance in terms of productivity and environmental efficiency. This can be achieved with advanced automation and Industrial Internet solutions.
Many companies are working to increase the autonomy of their mill or plant operations. We continuously work to help our customers to move towards more autonomous and optimized operations, starting from intelligent and connected process technology to process and mill-wide optimization.
Resource efficiency - more with less
In our R&D work, we focus on developing process technology, automation and services that improve raw material, energy, water and chemical efficiency.
Our paper making technologies such as the OptiConcept M modular board and paper production line and Advantage NTT tissue production line allow significant savings in energy, water and raw material consumption. In pulp production, raw material and energy efficiency, combined with circularity, play an important role in more sustainable pulp production and allow to get more from less.
Explore our offering for reducing CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts.
From fossil to renewable materials
Own pilot facilities
Valmet’s pilot facilities carry out both internal R&D and customer projects. Our pilot facilities enable us to decrease the time to market and reduce risks in commercializing new technologies. We offer our customers the opportunity to utilize Valmet’s pilot facilities to test new furnish or fuel, or to optimize their processes from the energy, raw material and water consumption perspective.
Our research and development work is complemented by a close cooperation with a network of world-leading research facilities and universities e.g. Aalto University, Jyväskylä University, Tampere Univeristy, Åbo Akademi and VTT in Finland, Chalmers, KTH, Uppsala University, Umeå University, Mitt Universitet and Innventia in Sweden, SINTEF in Norway, Universidade Federal de Viçosa and Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil, and Asian Institue of Technology AIT in Thailand.
Read more about our piloting opportunities >
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