6 INDUSTRY NEWS


Sappi experiments with sugar extraction in South Africa


Pulp Paper & Logistics


News in brief


● Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Mikael Damberg, was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate Metsä Board’s new folding boxboard line at Husum in April. Following a €170 million


investment, the Husum mill is now an integrated site concentrating on paperboard and pulp manufacturing. The programme included the BM1 400,000 ton/ year folding boxboard machine supplied by Valmet as well as enhancements to the pulp mill and the mill site’s own port. “The Husum mill site has the best


production of biorenewable chemicals, is to be set up at Sappi’s Ngodwana Mill in South Africa in a collaborative project with Valmet. It will extract hemicellulose


A


sugars and lignin from Sappi’s existing dissolving pulp line. The sugars could be used for higher- value organic acids, glycols and sugar alcohols which are used in many everyday products. Andrea Rossi, group head


of technology at Sappi, said that the demonstration plant will accelerate its move into new business fields based on renewable raw materials. Using feedstock from an adjacent dissolving wood pulp plant, the demonstration line is a


July/August 2016


second-generation sugar extraction plant that will be used to experiment with the


precursor for Sappi to consider construction of commercial plants at its dissolving wood pulp mills, and will also be used to improve the dissolving wood pulp manufacturing process. The investment in biochemicals


follows on the earlier investments in biocomposites, nanocellulose as well as Sappi’s expansion of lignosulphonate capacity. “The demonstration plant will make it possible to study the next generation dissolving pulping process and test new ideas at mill scale,” Rossi said. “The main features which we hope to demonstrate include increasing production output, higher dissolving pulp quality, lower operating cost and a new optimised hydrolysate revenue stream. The products from the demonstration plant will assist in the development of various


beneficiation options for the different dissolving wood pulp lines operated by Sappi.” Louis Kruyshaar, leader of the new Sappi Biotech division, added: “New revenue opportunities include possibilities to extract biobased materials from the cooking plant pre- hydrolysate stream (such as hemicellulose sugars and lignin) for beneficiation to higher value biochemicals. These applications respond to the global demand for renewable materials with a lower carbon footprint. The products under development will expand Sappi’s renewable biomaterials offering which include nanocellulose, biocomposites and lignosulphonate. This technology will also further enhance Sappi’s global competitiveness and cost leadership and strengthen its production base in South Africa.”


available technology, people with extensive know-how and access to an ideal location by the sea where the mill has its own port. These important success factors will also support our customers in their businesses,” said Mika Joukio, chief executive of Metsä Board.


● Stora Enso has agreed to divest its Kabel coated mechanical paper mill in Germany to Hagen-Kabel Pulp & Paper GmbH, which is owned by a German-based investor group, for €23 million. “Kabel Mill has an excellent


reputation and an established customer base in the grades it produces. We believe that Kabel Mill will be able to further develop its business under the new ownership,” said Kati ter Horst, executive vice president of Stora Enso’s Paper division. Based on 2015 figures, the


divestment is expected to reduce Stora Enso’s annual sales by about €300 million and reduce its paper production capacity by around 485,000 tonnes. Profitability will be unaffected, it said.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36