Kuura textile fibre from paper-grade pulp

Only 52% of today’s production of man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) is considered environmentally sustainable. The demand for MMCFs (and for textile fibres in general) will remain strong in the future. Due to these two factors, it is clear that there is an urgent need for improved production processes. Metsä Group is developing its own production process for the production of MMCF that would meet the said future demands. Metsä Group’s MMCF is called Kuura. Specifically, the concept of Metsä Group is different in that Metsä Group uses, as its starting material, only paper-grade pulp, whereas the state-of-the-art is dissolving pulp. Moreover, Metsä Group’s concept relies on integrating the MMCF production to the mill producing pulp. By doing this, the MMCF production can use i) never-dried pulp instead of dried pulp, and ii) excess renewable energy generated by the bioproduct mill. This project is a collaboration with ITOCHU Textile Company, Japan.