Valmet and Linde Bring Electric CO2 Capture to Pulp Mills

Pulp and paper mills in the U.S. and Canada emit roughly 144 million metric tonnes of CO2 every year, yet the sector has been almost entirely left out of the global CCS buildout. A new partnership between Valmet and Linde aims to change that, bringing electrically driven, steam-free carbon capture directly into mill operations and opening a new industrial frontier for decarbonization in North America.

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Why Has Pulp and Paper Been Left Out of CCS?

The U.S. and Canada alone account for approximately 144 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year from pulp and paper operations, according to data from SLB Capturi. Despite that scale, the industry has seen almost no large-scale carbon capture deployment.

The reason comes down to energy. Most commercial CCS technologies rely heavily on steam to regenerate the solvents or sorbents used in the capture process. Many mills do not produce enough excess heat to support that demand. Adding a steam-intensive capture system on top of an already energy-intensive operation raises costs and complexity fast.

That gap is exactly what the new Valmet-Linde collaboration targets. The partnership, announced May 25, 2026, integrates Linde's HISORP® CC CO2 capture technology with Valmet's deep process expertise in pulp and paper production, producing a system built specifically for mills.

How Does Steam-Free Capture Actually Work?

Linde's HISORP® CC is an adsorption-based system. It combines pressure swing adsorption with cryogenic separation and compression to pull CO2 out of flue gas streams. The key difference from conventional amine capture is how it regenerates: electricity, not steam.

Traditional amine-based capture systems heat a liquid solvent to release the captured CO2, requiring large volumes of steam and adding a significant thermal load to the facility. HISORP® CC runs on electrical energy instead, allowing mills to power the full capture cycle with renewable electricity.

The system achieves CO2 capture rates of over 99 percent. It targets low to medium CO2 concentration sources, which matches the profile of recovery boiler flue gas in a typical pulp mill. Linde has already deployed HISORP® CC at ADNOC's Hail and Ghasha offshore project in the UAE, where it targets 1.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year.

Valmet brings the critical integration layer. Flue gas from recovery boilers requires pretreatment and conditioning before entering any capture unit. Valmet's expertise in flue gas conditioning and mill-wide process integration is what makes deployment technically viable at the facility level.

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What Does This Mean for North American Mills?

Canada ranks among the world's top four pulp producers, per the FAO Forestry Database. The country's mills are concentrated in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario, many of them located in regions with access to low-carbon electricity grids. Large-volume biogenic emitters plus affordable clean power is exactly what makes an electric capture solution attractive at North American scale.

Alberta already has an active pilot running. In December 2025, Mercer International and Svante Technologies launched a six-month carbon capture demonstration unit at the Mercer Peace River pulp mill in northern Alberta. The pilot tests Svante's solid sorbent technology on biogenic CO2 from the mill's recovery boiler flue gas, with results expected to guide future commercial-scale planning.

The Mercer-Svante pilot and the new Valmet-Linde offering represent different technical approaches to the same problem. Together they signal that CCS in pulp and paper is moving from concept to investable category.

CCS Moving Into New Industrial Territory

For most of the past decade, large-scale carbon capture was concentrated in natural gas processing, ethanol production, and power generation. These were the easier cases: higher CO2 concentrations, existing infrastructure, clearer project economics. Pulp and paper is harder.

Project / Partnership	Location	Technology	Status
Valmet + Linde (HISORP® CC)	Global / North America focus	Electric adsorption, no steam required	Partnership announced May 2026
Mercer Peace River + Svante Technologies	Peace River, Alberta, Canada	Solid sorbent, recovery boiler flue gas	Six-month pilot launched Dec. 2025
CO280 + Aker Carbon Capture	Gulf Coast, U.S.	Modular amine capture, CDR credits	Test campaign completed 2024
CO280 + Microsoft / JPMorgan Chase	U.S. Gulf Coast	Biogenic CCS, permanent underground storage	Multi-year offtake agreements signed

Captured biogenic CO2, stored permanently underground, generates carbon dioxide removal credits rather than simple offsets. That distinction is increasingly valuable to corporate buyers seeking durable, high-integrity climate solutions. The U.S. and Canada emit approximately 144 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year from pulp and paper. Even partial capture across that base would represent a meaningful contribution to industrial carbon removal at a national scale.

A Sector Ready for Its Moment

Several forces are converging right now. Carbon capture markets are maturing and increasingly rewarding biogenic removal specifically. Mills in Canada and the U.S. have access to renewable electricity grids that make an electric capture solution economically attractive. And large-scale buyers, from Microsoft to JPMorgan Chase, are actively seeking high-quality CDR at industrial volumes.

The Valmet-Linde partnership adds a technically differentiated option to that landscape. A steam-free system removes one of the biggest barriers to mill adoption. North American pulp and paper operations emit approximately 144 million metric tonnes of CO2 annually, per SLB Capturi. Technologies built to run on clean electricity without disrupting mill operations are what the next phase of industrial carbon capture looks like.

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