Austria-headed international technology company Andritz AG (ANDRITZ) has announced that it has received an order to supply a dry fiberboard recycling line to Sonae Arauco’s mill in Mangualde, Portugal – the world's industrial-scale fiberboard recycling line.
Sonae Arauco is one of the world’s largest producers of wood-based panels. The novel line in Mangualde will recycle end-of-life fiberboards back into valuable fibers as new raw materials for fiberboard production.
It will be the first industrial-scale fiberboard recycling line in the world.
Recycling fiberboards is an important step towards a circular economy. It reduces the consumption of natural resources and energy. We know ANDRITZ as a strong supplier of solutions for the fiberboard industry and are convinced that they are the right partner for our innovative fiberboard recycling project, said Paulo Pinto De Sousa, Director at Sonae Arauco.
The dry fiberboard recycling line is based on continuous steam treatment with a special discharging system using the ANDRITZ Steam-Ex discharger, which minimizes steam consumption and maintenance requirements.
This allows the continuous processing of fiberboard material with very low steam consumption and high runability.
By combining our proven pressurized refining systems with ANDRITZ Steam-Ex, our pretreatment process based on steam explosion, we have developed an efficient solution for fiberboard recycling. We are proud that Sonae Arauco placed their trust in us to build the world’s first industrial-scale fiberboard recycling line, said Michael Frint, Technology Director at ANDRITZ.
According to ANDRITZ, this order confirms the company’s market position as the leading supplier of machines and systems for the fiberboard industry and its expertise in high-quality and resource-saving components.
The start-up of the fiberboard recycling line, the value of which has not been disclosed, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2025.
