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MOSCOW (MRC) -- UPM (Helsinki, Finland)
says it has agreed to buy the entire annual lignin production of Domtar Paper
Co.’s plant at Plymouth Mill, North Carolina, starting in January 2021, said Chemweek.
The
20,000-metric tons/year of lignin will enable UPM to increase its existing
supplies and expand its role in the growing lignin business and different
application segments, it says. Part of the additional lignin supply will be used
to complement UPM’s BioPiva products brand.
The agreement with Domtar
“enables us to expand our lignin business in the growing biochemicals market
before the start-up of our biorefinery in Leuna, Germany,” says Juuso Konttinen,
vice president/biochemicals at UPM. Demand for sustainable lignin solutions has
been increasing steadily, according to the company.
Lignin products can
be used as a renewable alternative to fossil-based products in a growing range
of applications, including lignin-based phenolic resins.
UPM is building
a EUR550-million (USD652 million) biochemicals refinery in Leuna, Germany, to
produce up to 220,000 metric tons/year of biobased monoethylene glycol,
monopropylene glycol, and industrial sugars as well as renewable functional
fillers and lignin, using sustainably sourced hardwood as feedstock. The
biorefinery is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2022.
As mRC
informed
earlier, Neste, a leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable
aviation fuel and a forerunner as a provider of renewable and circular solutions
for the petrochemical industry, and LG Chem, South Korea’s largest diversified
petrochemicals company and a leading manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for
energy solutions, have announced their aim to build a strategic long-term
partnership to develop and grow the biopolymers and biochemicals market
globally, and more specifically, in the LG Chem’s home market
Korea.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and
polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten
months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and
linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time,
PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in
January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports
plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of
exclusively of PP random copolymer increased. |
