Chemical Industry
Canadian Wood Pulp Company Opens Pilot Plant in Eastern Germany
Mercer International has inaugurated its state-of-the-art Lignin Center at its mill in the town of Rosenthal am Rennsteig.
Sep 26, 2023
The Canadian firm’s new facility has a daily capacity of 1000 kilograms of high-quality lignin, or wood polymer. It’s the first plant of its kind in Germany, the company says.
The opening of the facility in late August was attended by Bodo Ramelow, the state premier of Thuringia, the regional state in which Rosenthal am Rennsteig is located.
“Bioeconomy is a key success factor for the Thuringian economy,” Ramelow said at that event. “The Mercer Lignin Center shows that we are on a very good path here to strengthen the location and set an example beyond the region. This also applies to the cooperative approach with the research institutions and industrial partners, which I expressly welcome.”
Lignin is a valuable source of aromatic building blocks, or phenylpropanoids, normally obtained from petroleum. They are used to make a variety of materials and products such as plastics, medicines or paints.
