The people behind the pulp

“My job is to help develop and improve our recycling and wastewater treatment plants. Put simply, we try to recover as many by-products as possible from the pulp cooking process and improve their quality. For instance, extractives such as turpentine, tall oil and methanol are separated as bioproducts, lignin is burned to provide a necessary energy supplement for the entire mill, and cooking chemicals are recycled to the cooking process. We also purify wastewater from the process before it is released back into the environment.

I have a doctorate in forest products specializing in pulp technology. After completing my studies at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, I stayed on doing research for a few years. But eventually the lab environment got a bit boring, and I wanted to challenge myself with practical work instead of just theory. So, I started working at Södra in 2021 and now I get to apply my knowledge and experience in a large-scale industry, which is very rewarding. I really enjoy getting all this experience and I feel like I belong here.

I’m really happy with my job and I want to continue working as a process engineer. I continuously gain new skills. The assignments are interesting, and I have friendly, helpful colleagues. We all have different skills that we can combine to better understand the whole process. Södra is also very good at putting employee safety first, which is very important to me.”

The people behind the pulp