Sappi Limited will bolster its biorefining expertise through the acquisition of the Xylex® and Versalac® technologies owned by Plaxica Limited. The transaction will result in Sappi acquiring the sugar clean up technologies which includes the patents, knowhow, equipment and key technical staff of Plaxica.
Since 2013, Sappi has advanced its efforts to expand its biorefining expertise. Part of the strategy is to extract and clean-up C5 hemicellulose sugars from our Pre-Hydrolysis Kraft (PHK) liquors for further value add to higher value products.
The technology acquisition follows Sappi’s successful commissioning of a demonstration extraction unit at its Ngodwana Mill in South Africa during April 2017 to extract a sugar rich prehydrolysate stream from the PHK pulping process. The next step towards the production of clean sugars involves the clean-up of the PHK liquor or hydrolysate to separate the xylose-rich sugars from the lignin.
