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Modified lignosulfonates – new biotechnological products made from wood.

In February 2026, a pilot production run of modified lignosulfonates, new biotechnological products made from wood, took place at the production site of MFC Vyborg Les LLC.

The most important result of the pilot production is a new, higher level of product purification and the achieved new properties highly anticipated by manufacturers of a wide range of products across various industrial sectors.

There were 51 kilograms of 12 products prototypes produced in pilot batch. In some samples, the content of reducing substances (sugars) achieved to less than 0.5%, while the content of the main substance increased to 90%. For comparison, the currentl lignosulfonate has a reducing substances (sugar) content of 7.5% and a main substance content of 69%.

The samples obtained during pilot are send to customers and R&D organizations for testing in real technological conditions. The test results and feedback on targeted properties will be used in future pilot runs. After adjusting the parameters and scaling up of the technology the new products are going to be launched into industrial production.

Lignosulfonates produced by MFC Vyborg Les LLC are distinguished by their consistent quality, particularly in terms of the reducing substance content. The product has been proven well and has found loyal customers in many countries.

These products are highly demanded on the market and have wide application in various industries and technological processes, particularly in the production of ceramic tiles, concrete and dry construction mixes, in metal and oil industries, in plywood manufacturing, animal feed production, and many other sectors. The product is completely water-soluble powder that can be shipped worldwide, is securely packaged and retains its properties for a long time.

Fedor Grabar, Director of Development – Lignosulfonates, MFC Capital:

- Developing of global technology over the past decades have expanded the possibilities for refining and modification of lignosulfonates. This allows to improve product characteristics and achieve entirely new properties. Demand for such products is high and global producers are actively operating in the market.

As a big producer of lignosulfonates, we have a good opportunity to enter the market with a range of next-generation products - dispersing and binding agents, as well as other applications for agrochemicals, dyestuff and coatings, pharmaceuticals and etc. We collaborate with R&D institutions, such as NRC Kurchatov Institute, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Central Research Institute of Plywood. We are interested in expanding cooperation on new products to other industries and regions - India, China and other APAC countries.

Oleg Arminen, CEO of MFC Vyborg Les LLC:

– Containerboard manufacturers in our country are facing with difficult market situation - an oversupply and declining demand for liner board. Therefore, we need to diversify our product portfolio. Lignosulfonates are an organic and environmentally friendly product fully made from northern spruce wood. This is a promising business segment. New lignin-based products development gives us a strategic opportunity to enter a new level of technology, new product niches and markets. Lignosulfonates are produced by our mill since the 1980s and over the past decades we established technological chain, trained personnel and developed distribution channels. During pilot tests, we were able to achieve a such level of modified lignosulfonates quality that no one in the domestic pulp and paper industry had previously achieved. This is both a real achievement and the best gift from our team for the plant’s 100th anniversary, which will be celebrated in May.

FOR THE INFORMATION

MFC Vyborg Les LLC is located in the Vyborgsky District of the Leningrad Region, Russia. By leasing production facilities from VLK LLC, the company specializes in the production of paper and board as well as yeast and lignosulfonates.

A bit about the technology. In the process of paper and board production wood fiber - cellulose and hemicellulose is released out from lignin, which is a binding polymer that makes plant structure strong and accounts for up to half the mass of the raw material (wood). The most common pulping technology is sulfate that assumes the burning of lignin in special boilers to maintain the energy and chemical regeneration balance in production.

However, there are some pulp mills in the industry, including MFC Vyborg Les LLC, that still use a different pulping process - sulfite. This process allows lignin to be extracted from the sulfite liquor rather than burn it, then transforming it into a market product - lignosulfonates.

Lignosulfonates have been produced on an industrial scale at the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill since the late 1980s, after a large-scale modernization carried out with the participation of leading international companies – producers of technological equipment.

In 2003–2004, the drying section of the spent liquor processing plant was modernized. As a result, the production of both yeast and lignosulfonates was secured of the necessary capacity and automated. Investments of 25 million rubles were made and the effect was significant: powdered yeast production was tripled while production of lignosulfonates increased by more than four times.

Modernization of the spent liquor plant has ensured the very high quality of the produced lignosulfonates: according to some experts, the best in the country.

The standard to strive for was demonstrated to the company’s management back in the early 2000s at the plant of the world well known Norwegian corporation Borregaard, the leading expert on lignosulfonates. According to Borregaard specialists, there were already 20,000 types of modified lignosulfonates at that time. Among them were completely unique ones, with a price reaching $3,500 per kilogram.

In other words, a product that is primarily considered as by-product in the pulp and paper industry could be the main product in terms of profitability and demand.

However, we were able to resume in-depth work on lignosulfonate modification processes only in recent years.

In November 2024, a fourth fermenter was installed in the spent liquor processing plant. Lignosulfonate production increased by 10%, while the plant’s environmental impact was reduced. The equipment designed based on French analogs was developed by own construction office while fermenter itself was manufactured in Belarus.