ExpandFibre is an ambitious R&D collaboration launched in 2020 by two Finnish companies Fortum and Metsä Group. ExpandFibre was one of the first leading company or “Veturi” projects – a public funding scheme initiated by Business Finland to boost the Finnish R&D landscape. With wood pulp from the forest industry and straw from agriculture as the preliminary feedstocks, ExpandFibre envisioned to accelerate the development of sustainable bioproducts by upgrading pulp fibres, hemicellulose and lignin into new bioproducts. Co-funded by Business Finland and the leading companies themselves, this 4-year programme officially ended in August 2024 giving way to the next phase in the ExpandFibre journey – a transition phase coordinated by Metsä Group. Spinverse team has been proudly supporting this vibrant programme and ecosystem every step of the way.
From Metsä Group, the participating business units in ExpandFibre were Metsä Spring Oy, Metsä Fibre Oy and Metsä Board Oyj. From Fortum, the biorefinery programme Bio2X (Fortum Power & Heat) and Fortum Recycling and Waste were the active partners in ExpandFibre. In addition, a multitude of small and large companies, research organisations, universities and other partners from all over the world joined the ExpandFibre innovation ecosystem throughout the lifetime of the programme. Coordination of the entire programme and ecosystem was expertly carried out by the Programme Managers Katariina Kemppainen, SVP, Group R&D from Metsä Spring, and Matti Sonck, Development Manager from Bio2X, Fortum.
Insights on the outcomes: major impact on R&D funding and promising concepts for new bioproducts
Perhaps the most important outcome of ExpandFibre was that as a whole, over 140M€ R&D funding was steered towards initiatives developing sustainable bioproducts during 2020-2024. These included R&D projects by the five participating Veturi companies, as well as over 30 ecosystem projects. As an example, the ExpandFibre ecosystem produced over 30 original patent applications and nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. In addition, more than 10 professorships in the theme areas of ExpandFibre were newly established.
The ExpandFibre ecosystem produced a multitude of bioproducts that are highly promising and well on their way towards the markets in the upcoming years. These include for example biocomposites, biobased packaging films, air filtration materials, as well as foldable packaging products, just to name a few. During ExpandFibre, Metsä Group advanced both their Muoto™, moulded fibre product and Kuura™, wood-based textile fibre, at their dedicated industrial pilot plants in Äänekoski, Finland. Fortum also made great advances in their R&D portfolio during ExpandFibre. These were in their straw-based textile fibre, development of sulphur-free lignin-based biomaterials, valorization of 2nd generation sugars into functional raw materials and scaling-up of material efficient straw fractional technology by Chempolis.
Communication as a key enabler of collaboration: Spinverse supported with various activities
One fundamental aspect of an extensive ecosystem is bringing together like-minded actors from all over the world to share ideas, explore together and complement the expertise and competences of one another. ExpandFibre brought together a total of 103 organisations from over 10 different countries, ranging from Finland, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Canada all the way to Thailand and South Korea.
Continuous communication is an integral part of a well-functioning ecosystem where members are scattered in different countries. In all, the ExpandFibre ecosystem organised nearly 20 seminars or webinars of which some were only organised remotely, as the programme was launched at the peak of the covid times when face-to-face events were not possible. The final public seminar of ExpandFibre organized on Aug 19th, 2024, attracted 100 participants on-site at the Metsä Group headquarters in Espoo, with additional 50-100 participants also joining online.
ExpandFibre team, from left to right: Matti Sonck (Fortum), Kaisu Leppänen, Maarit Liimatta, Andreas Lindberg (Spinverse) and Katariina Kemppainen (Metsä Spring). Missing from photo: Eerika Ala-Kantti (Spinverse).
Project Manager Andreas Lindberg from Spinverse led the Spinverse team supporting the ExpandFibre Ecosystem. Spinverse took care of supporting the Programme Managers in the daily management of the ecosystem, coordinating all the events and communications of ExpandFibre as well as supporting in all preparations for the meetings of the two governing bodies of ExpandFibre - Programme and Ecosystem Steering Groups.
Katariina Kemppainen from Metsä Spring has been the Programme Manager of ExpandFibre from the very start and is looking back the four years of extensive work with pride. She comments on the collaboration with Spinverse: “I have very much enjoyed our close-knit cooperation in managing ExpandFibre programmes & ecosystem with Andreas and others from Spinverse. It has truly been a joint effort, and we have benefitted greatly from the competence and expertise of Spinverse in hosting innovation ecosystems and managing large programmes.”
Next steps
Even though the programme has now officially ended, the ExpandFibre ecosystem is not going anywhere. The contacts and collaboration between the ecosystem members is highly likely to continue during the ExpandFibre Transition Phase coordinated by Metsä Group – and hopefully beyond – to continue the commitment towards accelerating the development of sustainable bioproducts.
More information: www.expandfibre.com