News and Announcements
Leaf Resources buys chemicals outfit Essential Queensland
- Published January 16, 2021 12:00AM UTC
- Publisher Wholesale Investor
- Categories Company Updates
Late last year, in a scrip-based acquisition, ASX-listed small cap Leaf Resources snapped up the pine chemicals company – Essential Queensland. This deal was off the radar over the summer break.
The chemicals outfit has designed a method to produce rosin and terpenes from pine, which are commonly used in products such as perfumes, cosmetics, printing inks, and more. As EQ’s extraction process removes chemicals from pine, the resultant waste wood chip has the potential to become a new strategic biomass supply for the GlycellTM process.
This month, Essential Queensland–which produces rosin at its Apple Tree Creek Plant in Bundaberg, Queensland, is targeting its first sales.
Leaf Resources tapped the market to fund its growth for about $3 million in fresh capital, handled by Sequoia Corporate Finance. The funding will be used to finance its re-compliance with ASX listing rules to start trading on the bourse again.
Leaf Resources is commercialising it’s proprietary Glycell™ process, which enables the production of renewable chemicals and bioplastics from plant biomass to economically replace petroleum based chemicals.
The Glycell™ process uses a biodegradable, waste reagent, glycerol, in a simple process to break down plant biomass into lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose at low temperature and pressure. The cellulose is then converted to cellulosic sugars through enzymatic hydrolysis and the lignin, hemicellulose and glycerol become valuable co-products.