Valmet will bring to the party its LignoBoost® proprietary technology for the extraction of purified lignin from black liquor produced by pulp mills and Biochemtex will bring its Moghi® proprietary technology for the conversion of lignin into biofuels and bio-chemicals.

“Valmet’s industrially proven LignoBoost technology for lignin extraction plays an important role in this project. We are continuously developing new sustainable technologies for increasing the value of lignin. Combining LignoBoost and Moghi technologies is one of the very promising solutions we are looking into when developing biochemical technologies,” says Rickard Andersson, Vice President for Valmet’s Biotech and Environmental Systems.

“For us this partnership is an additional opportunity to provide the market with second generation bio-chemicals. We are already working with our own and Beta Renewables technologies. The cooperation with Valmet will allow to increase the feedstock available to produce bioPX, a key raw material for the production of PET made 100% from renewable sources.

Existing pilot plant facilities, and the dedicated demo plant under construction in Italy, combined with the skills and know-how in both organizations, will provide a solid base to deliver fast and positive outcome for this exciting opportunity,” says Giovanni Bolcheni, Biochemtex CEO.

The collaborative partnership is this expected to provide to the bio-chemicals industry a consistent lignin stream to be used as a sustainable feedstock for the production of bio-PET and thereby to create a high value market for lignin.