Business News
Metso acquires the LignoBoost AB
Wednesday 28. May 2008 - Metso and STFI-Packforsk AB have signed a purchase agreement regarding the shares of Lignoboost AB, a Swedish research company. The transaction includes all the intellectual property rights as well as the LignoBoost brand and its related know-how.
Personnel or facilities are not included in the transaction. In addition Metso and STFI-Packforsk have signed a research and development agreement related to LignoBoost technology. Both agreements come into force with immediate effect. The value of the transaction will not be disclosed. The acquired company will become part of Metso Power, a part of Metso Paper business area.
The acquisition supports Metsos profitable growth strategy and opens an interesting biofuel business opportunity within pulping processes.
“We see great value in getting a process with such high future expectations. It complements our present solutions offering in an excellent way. LignoBoost has the best chances of being further commercialized for industrial applications in a global company such as Metso”, says Lennart Ohlsson, President of Metso Power.
LignoBoost represents a technology that extracts lignin, a component of natural wood, from the chemicals used in the pulping process. The extracted lignin can be used as biofuel, replacing coal and oil, i.e. in pulp mill’s power generation or in lime kilns. LignoBoost gives Metsos customers the possibility to increase the capacity of a pulp mill and turn pulp mills into significant energy suppliers. At the same the extracted lignin is also of interest for other process industries as a raw material for plastics, coal fibers and chemicals.
The LignoBoost technology has proven its technical maturity over several years of research and laboratory testing as well as during operation in an industrial-size demonstration plant integrated into the pulping process of Nordic Paper – Bäckhammar, Kristinehamn, Sweden. The demonstration plant will remain in the possession of STFI-Packforsk.
Until the transaction Lignoboost AB was a subsidiary of STFI-Packforsk AB, which is one of the world’s leading R&D companies in the fields of pulp, paper, graphic media and packaging. Including subsidiaries the annual turnover of STFI-Packforsk AB amounts to about EUR 33 million. Lignoboost AB was established in 2006, as a result of seven years of work within STFI-Packforsk research programmes, with the business purpose to market and commercialize the technology by selling licenses to the pulping industry.