Sappi Limited will build a pilot-scale plant for low-cost Cellulose NanoFibrils (nanocellulose) production at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands. The pilot plant is expected to be operational within nine months, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

Commenting on the decision, Andrea Rossi, Group Head Technology, Sappi Limited, explained that the pilot plant will help with Sappi's move into new adjacent business fields based on renewable raw materials. Sappi's strategy includes seeking growth opportunities by producing innovative performance materials from renewable resources. The raw material for the pilot plant would be supplied from any of Sappi's Saiccor, Ngodwana and Cloquet dissolving wood pulp plants. The pilot plant is the precursor for Sappi to consider the construction of a commercial CNF plant.

He goes on to say "the pilot plant will test the manufacturing of dry re-dispersible Cellulose NanoFibrils (CNF) using the proprietary technology developed by Sappi and Edinburgh Napier University. The location of the pilot plant at Brightlands Chemelot Campus provides Sappi with easy access to multiple partners with whom Sappi will seek to co-develop products that will incorporate CNF across a large variety of product applications to optimise performance and to create unique characteristics for these products.

The CNF produced by Sappi will have unique morphology, specifically modified for either hydrophobic or hydrophilic applications. Products produced using Sappi's CNF will be optimally suitable for conversion in lighter and stronger fibre-reinforced composites and plastics, in food and pharmaceutical applications, and in rheology modifiers as well as in barrier and other paper and coating applications.

Sappi will build a pilot-scale plant for low-cost Cellulose NanoFibrils production in the Netherlands

 

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