Stora Enso Launches New Accelerator

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Green Chemicals Blog reported that Stora Enso has launched an accelerator program. Stora Enso is partnering with Vertical and Aalto University in their accelerator and they join a host of other companies trying to accelerate or incubate new chemical technology. The United States Department of Energy has also announced the award winners for a recent $27 million for circular plastics economy research. Stora Enso is also one of the industry partners working with the DOE and University of Wisconsin, Madison on making polyesters from biomass.

Who is Stora Enso?

Stora Enso is a Finnish company that is focused on transforming trees into products such as pulp, pine chemicals, and forest products. Their Q3 earnings have improved due to the high demand on paper and cardboard (shipping packages) and the demand for lumber is also strong right now. Stora Enso is representative of a whole swath of chemical companies that rely on forests to produce their products with counterparts being Ingevity, Kraton, Georgia Pacific, and West Fraser to name a few.

Chemicals from Trees?

Chemists have been extracting chemicals from forests since before oil refinement became widespread. Forests produce two of the most abundant biopolymers on the planet: cellulose and lignin. Humans have been using cellulose for centuries to make paper and pulp mills have been separating cellulose from lignin since…