SOUTH AFRICA (News Release) -- In 2016 Sappi and Valmet agreed on a joint development project to deliver a demonstration plant to Sappi Ngodwana Mill in South Africa in order to explore and optimize the extraction of biorenewable chemicals. The demonstration plant was officially opened on April 5, 2017.

"The plant continues Sappi's strategic move into the biomaterials and bio-energy business fields to extract more value from the production processes and in response to the global demand for renewable materials with a lower carbon footprint," commented Andrea Rossi, Group Head Technology from Sappi.

"The development of solutions to replace fossil materials with renewable ones and to produce new high-value end products is one of Valmet's research and development focus areas. This project is a concrete example of new opportunities. By working together, we have been able to combine Valmet's leading technology knowledge with Sappi's process and market insight," said Bertel Karlstedt, Business Line President, Pulp and Energy from Valmet.

The plant is close to industrial size and makes it possible to study the next generation dissolving cooking process and test new ideas in mill scale.