One of the world’s largest pulp and paper producers, Oji Holdings, has taken a 20% stake in the Finnish biotech company Nordic Bioproducts Group, with the Japanese giant moving into higher‑value cellulose materials by using fibre otherwise destined for lower-value paper products. Wood Central understands the partnership will see Oji help the start‑up scale up its AaltoCell® technology.
For Nordic Bioproducts Group, which grew out of research at Aalto University, the investment marks a major step in taking its patented cellulose‑processing platform beyond Europe and into global markets: “This partnership is about creating new value from renewable forest resources,” said Olli Kähkönen, CEO and co‑founder of Nordic Bioproducts Group, who spoke about the partnership yesterday.
Kähkönen said AaltoCell® enables companies to convert forest biomass that once mainly went into paper into high-margin cellulose ingredients for pharmaceuticals and other demanding applications. “We can do it with a significantly lighter environmental footprint,” he added.
Wood Central understands that the new partnership will initially focus on microcrystalline cellulose, a US$1.33 billion market expected to double by 2035, as demand rises for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food, and personal care applications. At the same time, manufacturers of these products are increasingly looking for higher‑purity, sustainably produced cellulose ingredients, which the AaltoCell® technology is well equipped to deliver.
AaltoCell® was developed to meet this shift by offering a cleaner, more efficient route to high‑quality cellulose. Independent life‑cycle assessments conducted by the start-up show substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water consumption, and chemical inputs compared with conventional production.
And both Oji and the Nordic Bioproducts Group see AaltoCell® as a platform technology that can be adapted to produce a wide range of cellulose‑derived materials, rather than a single-use product.
According to Hiroyuki Isono, CEO of Oji Holdings, the new partnership aligns with Oji’s push toward more sustainable, higher‑value materials. “We see strong potential in technologies that enable existing forest resources and industrial sites to produce higher‑value materials in a more sustainable way,” Isono said.
He added that Nordic Bioproducts Group’s technology and Finnish production base “provide a credible platform for this development, supporting our vision to move towards more sustainable products made from forest‑based biomass.” Isono said Oji is “pleased to support its industrial scale‑up.”
New Finnish facility keys AaltoCell® into Finland’s €12 billion forest supply chain
Nordic Bioproducts Group has spent the past several years turning research into reality. In 2024, the company opened a commercial‑scale production facility in Lappeenranta, Finland, designed for continuous processing and advanced process development. The site is EXCiPACT®‑certified for pharmaceutical‑grade manufacturing, positioning the company to supply high‑quality MCC for regulated applications with its location strategically located next to Finland’s €12 billion forest‑based economy.
“This partnership marks an important milestone for Nordic Bioproducts Group,” Kähkönen said, who added that Oji’s involvement will help the company “strengthen our industrial capabilities, accelerate development of specialty next‑generation cellulose materials, and bring AaltoCell® technology to global markets from a strong base in Finland.”
The new partnership comes as Wood Central previously reported that the “golden age” of paper‑based products was over, with global forest producers using state‑of‑the‑art tech and material science to create higher‑value, longer‑lasting forest products. In 2024, Wood Central reported that Metsä Group and Stora Enso, two of the world’s largest forest product manufacturers, have “completely abandoned printing paper,” with both heavily investing in textiles, biofuels, and engineered wood products.
“Industry is now integrating cellulose from wood into cement, used in concrete structures,” according to Duncan Mayes, founder and principal of Helsinki‑based Lignutech Oy, who spoke to Wood Central’s Jason Ross in 2024. “It enables the speed of curing of the concrete structure to be increased and even 3D printed, and at the same time enhances the strength of the concrete. And similar functionality has been found with lignin — it may also reduce the amount of corrosion‑susceptible steel needed to reinforce the concrete.”
- To learn why one-third of new green chemistry patents are now tied to forests and trees, click here for Wood Central’s exclusive coverage of Professor John Warner, the co-founder of Green Chemistry, visit to Australia in November 2025.
