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Kraft Lignin –Trends regarding industrial production and applications

Dr. Niklas Garoff, Stora Enso BiomaterialsFraunhofer Biopolymerkolloqium, Berlin, 23.01.2014

Contents

• Stora Enso in brief

• Biorefinery – a vehicle in the transformation of Stora Enso

• What is lignin?

• Industrial Production of kraft lignin

• Industrial Applications of kraft lignin

• Key messages

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Stora Enso in brief

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Stora Enso in brief

• Producer of printing papers, packaging board, pulp and timber products

• Approximately 28 000 employees in more than 35 countries worldwide

• Sales (2012) EUR 10.8 billion

• EBIT (2012) EUR 618 million

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Our Divisions

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Printing and Living Biomaterials Renewable Packaging

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You already know many of our products

June 22, 2015Presenter name 6

Biorefinery – a vehicle in the transformation of Stora Enso

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Significant Transformation Ahead at Stora Enso

• From a Product Driven to a Market Driven Company

• From a Pulp business that serves Paper and Board markets to one that also serves very different and multiple markets

• Acceleration of how we transform and complement sound technology capabilities to concrete profitable business ventures– Selective and efficient separation of main different main components of

non-food competing biomass

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What is lignin?

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What is lignin?

Irregular complex macromolecule found in trees and other plants (15-35% of biomass)Composed of three different monolignols:

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Biopolymerkolloquium10

p-coumarylalcohol

Coniferylalcohol

Sinapylalcohol

Ljungberg textbook Pulp and Paper Chemistry and Technology,Wood Chemistry and Wood Biotechnology, Monica Ek et al., 2007

One-year plantsSoftwood

Hardwood

Function of lignin in plants

1. Lignin glues cells together in woody tissues

2. Lignin gives stiffness to the plant

3. Lignin makes the cell wall hydrophobic

4. Lignin is a protection against microbial degradation

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Ljungberg textbook Pulp and Paper Chemistry and Technology, Wood Chemistry and Wood BiotechnologyMonica Ek et al., 2007

Lignin is not…

• Lignin is not an abundant resource– Less than 1 Mio ton lignosulfonate and decreasing– 50.000 ton kraft lignin

• Lignin is not a low cost raw material.– Extraction costs 200 – 1000+ EUR/ton depending on

extraction method and lignin quality

• Lignin is not a waste product– Most important fuel source for chemical pulping and

necessary for recovery of cooking chemicals

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Industrial production of lignin

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Amounts of dissolved and produced lignin 2011

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Lignin dissolved in pulping spent cooking liquors (black liquor) used as biofuel in recovery cycle during chemical pulping

Lignosulfonatesfrom

sulfite process

Kraft Lignin

Soda Lignin

OrganosolvLignin

Special Grade Lignin

1.000 kt/a

50 kt/a

10 kt/a

3 kt/a

< 1 kt/a

equals 0,1% of totallignin in the Kraft pulping

50 Million t/aDissolved

Produced

The LignoBoost process in a Kraft pulp mill

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Lignin forExternalapplications

pH 13-14

pH 9-10 pH 2-3

C 64 – 66 %O 26 – 27.5 %H 5.7 – 5.8 %N 0.1 %Na 0.1-0.3 %S 1 – 3 %

LHV: 25-26 MJ/kg

Stora Enso invests in Lignin extraction plant at Sunila Mill in Finland

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Industrial applications of lignin

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Applications for kraft lignin today and tomorrow

Today: Niche applications• Biofuels• Binder for animal food and agricultural

applications• Asphalt emulsifier• Rheology modifiers for oil industry

Tomorrow: Substitute for fossil-based materials with equivalent performance• Substituting phenols in adhesives and epoxies• Carbon products

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Factors affecting a lignin’s suitability in chemical applications

• Lignin reactivity– SW lignin more reactive than HW lignin

• Lignin purity– Ash content, carbohydrates, particles

• Hydrophillic (lignosulfonate) vs. hydrophobic (kraft lignin)

• Quality consistency– Operational excellence in lignin production

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Key messages

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Key messages

• Biorefining is much more than biofuels

• New products and business models based on biorefinery conceptsare developed at Stora Enso

• Lignin is neither an abundant nor a low-cost resource and definitely not a waste product

• Applications of lignin depend on its reactivity, purity and quality consistency

• Stora Enso becomes a producer of high-quality lignin

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