Features Equipment & Systems
Domtar buys first commercial LignoBoost plant for Plymouth

Metso will supply the world’s first commercial installation of LignoBoost technology to Domtar’s Plymouth, N.C., pulp mill. The LignoBoost process separates and collects lignin from pulping liquor.

This order is an important breakthrough for Metso’s patented LignoBoost technology. The technology has been operating at a demonstration plant in Sweden for several years, but this is its first commercial-scale application at a pulp mill. The value of the order is not disclosed.

For the Plymouth mill, separation of a portion of the mill’s total lignin production reduces load on the recovery boiler and allows an increase in pulp production capacity. The lignin recovered will be used for internal and external applications.

According to Domtar’s web site, the Plymouth mill has two pulp lines with total capacity of 444,000 tonnes per year of cellulose fibres and fluff pulp.

“This project is a potential game changer for the pulp and paper industry because it will allow pulp mills to have a new more profitable value stream from a product that was traditionally burned in a recovery boiler,” says Gene Christiansen, general manager – business development innovations at Metso’s Power Business Line for North America in Charlotte, NC.

The LignoBoost plant will be in commercial operation in early 2013.

Domtar Corporation is the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and is also a manufacturer of paper grade, fluff and specialty pulp.