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Tag: Valmet

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STEAMDRY at Valmet’s customer event

STEAMDRY took part in Valmet’s customer event, held on 9–11 June in Jyväskylä, Finland.

The Customer Event is a popular recurring industry networking event organized by Valmet for paper producers. The event brought together industry professionals to exchange insights, discuss current developments, and explore innovative technologies shaping the future of papermaking.

During the event, STEAMDRY was presented by Kalle-Matti Romppainen, Development Manager, Board and Paper Machines Technology Unit at Valmet. Valmet is the work package leader of Work Package 11 – Up-scaling strategy of the developed solution within the STEAMDRY project. The presentation highlighted recent project developments and ongoing work towards more energy-efficient and low-carbon drying technologies for the paper industry.

A key focus of the presentation was the STEAMDRY Pilot Plant, where the VTT SAMPO pilot machine has been transformed into a fully operational Superheated Steam Drying (SSD) line. The pilot facility enables the testing and validation of SSD technology under realistic industrial conditions and provides valuable insights into drying performance, heat recovery opportunities, energy efficiency, and product quality.

The presentation also highlighted STEAMDRY’s work on industrial dryer retrofit concepts. Within the project, three SSD configurations—convective SSD, conductive SSD, and a combined convective-conductive SSD concept—have been evaluated on a representative European packaging board machine. These concepts have been assessed against key performance indicators, including energy savings, investment requirements, payback time, runnability, product quality, and retrofit feasibility.

Particular attention was given to the combined convective-conductive SSD concept, which has emerged as a promising candidate for a first industrial retrofit. By combining high-intensity superheated steam drying with the reuse of existing dryer infrastructure, the concept offers a practical pathway for increasing drying capacity while reducing specific energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.

The event provided an opportunity for the project to reach its target audience and potential future adopters of the technology, and to engage directly in discussions and questions around the practical application of superheated steam drying in industry.

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Rebuilding the SteamDry pilot line: from air to superheated steam at VTT

 

The SteamDry consortium has reached a major technical milestone with the rebuild of the Sampo pilot line at VTT in Jyväskylä, converting it from conventional air drying to superheated steam drying (SSD). The upgraded pilot will be the central testbed for demonstrating how SSD can drastically reduce energy use and eliminate direct CO₂ emissions in drying of paper, board, tissue and other web‑like materials.​​

The Sampo pilot line, originally built as a custom foam‑forming machine, now forms the backbone of SteamDry piloting activities. It provides a unique platform for high‑speed trials, wide basis‑weight ranges and tailored experiments with new process concepts, raw materials and chemistries. By rebuilding this existing asset instead of constructing a fully new line, the project accelerates scale‑up while making efficient use of existing infrastructure.​

The rebuild has required a comprehensive engineering and safety workflow, starting with a HAZOP study to systematically identify and mitigate risks in operating the new steam‑based pilot line. Key tasks include process and machine design, selection of new components, and extensive ductwork, sealing and piping design to handle superheated steam conditions; the project is replacing gas burners with electrically heated steam systems, installing new dryers and steam piping, redesigning condensate handling, and upgrading instrumentation and automation to support advanced control and data collection.

Commissioning is planned to start in January 2026, followed by the first SSD trials in February. The spring 2026 campaign will focus on running up and fine‑tuning the process with VTT’s own pilot webs, while autumn 2026 will see trials with press‑dried rolls produced at Valmet’s pilot line in Jyväskylä, allowing partners to test realistic industrial grades under SSD conditions.​

The pilot line is closely linked to laboratory‑scale SSD ovens at both VTT and Wageningen University & Research, which support material screening and detailed temperature‑profile measurements. Together, the lab ovens and the rebuilt Sampo line provide a coherent experimental environment for validating models, optimising drying strategies and generating data for the project’s digital twin and industrial concept development.​​

With the Sampo rebuild now underway, SteamDry is entering a new phase in which modelling results, concept studies and materials research can be tested at pilot scale under realistic operating conditions. The upcoming trials will play a key role in derisking SSD technology, informing industrial retrofits and new‑build concepts, and supporting future investment decisions across the pulp, paper and related process industries.​​

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SteamDry joined Valmet’s “Beyond Circularity” ecosystem closing event in Helsinki

On Thursday 22 January 2026, SteamDry joined Valmet’s “Beyond Circularity: Closing the Circle Together” closing event in Helsinki, Finland, where ecosystem partners gathered to share results from four years of joint circularity and green transition projects. For SteamDry, as part of the Beyond Circularity ecosystem, this was a unique stage to show how superheated steam drying supports electrified, low‑emission paper and board production as part of Valmet’s Beyond Circularity program.​​

Beyond Circularity is Valmet’s multi‑year R&D and ecosystem program aimed at transforming waste and emissions into valuable resources, accelerating the green transition across process industries. The ecosystem brings together hundreds of partners in co‑research and co‑innovation projects, ranging from new recycling concepts and biorefining to resource‑efficient, automated and digitalized industrial processes.​

Together, participants joined SteamDry and the wider ecosystem in celebrating the achievements of Beyond Circularity and planning the next wave of collaboration.