liquids and as an additive in down-hole
mud drilling. The company is also known
for its downstream derivatives and specialty materials based on these core products, such as its K-FLEX phthalate-free
line of plasticizers and coalescents and
Kalama line of aroma chemicals.
Kalama Chemical’s portfolio of benzoic acid products is FDA-approved
and GRAS-classified. The Rotterdam
operation is also certified to a number
of important quality standards, including ISO-9001, ISO-14001, HACCP
and FamiQS.
Elevance’s Gresik Success
Advances Natchez
Biorefinery
Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a high-growth specialty chemicals company, announced that it has authorized the next
significant stage of its second world-scale
biorefinery in Natchez, Mississippi, in order to expand production of its Inherent
renewable building blocks in 2016. The
decision is based on the successful start-up and operation of Elevance’s first
world-scale joint venture biorefinery in
Asia, as well as robust customer activity
and demand forecasts for the company’s
specialty and intermediate chemicals.
“Our current customer forecasts for
Inherent renewable building blocks call
for demand to exceed Gresik’s capacity,”
said Elevance CEO K’Lynne Johnson.
“With commercial production underway
at Gresik, customer activity continues to
increase in each of our market platforms.
By building biorefineries in multiple ge-
ographies, we are able to meet customer
demand for better-performing, cost-com-
petitive renewable alternatives to petro-
chemicals across multiple industries. We
will also be providing our customers the
added security of two world-scale com-
mercial plants with diversified feedstock
supply chains.”
Elevance is the only specialty chemi-
cals company that will have two world-
scale biorefineries in operation by 2016.
The Natchez project will be the second
biorefinery based on Elevance’s propri-
etary metathesis technology. Elevance an-
nounced commercial shipments from the
company’s first biorefinery, a 180,000 MT
joint venture with Wilmar International
Limited located in Gresik, Indonesia, ear-
lier this year.
The Natchez biorefinery will initially
operate using canola or soybean oil; the
Gresik biorefinery is now operating on
palm oil. Both plants are capable of run-
ning on multiple renewable oil feedstocks,
including jatropha or algal oils when they
become commercially available.
“We have been very pleased with the
operation of the Gresik facility,” said vice
president of Manufacturing John Harvey.
“Production at Gresik has hit all targets,
including the ability to operate at de-
sign rates, and demonstrating the ability
to shut down and restart without issues
while delivering excellent product qual-
ity. Our operations in Natchez will com-
plement our joint venture with Wilmar
International in Asia and expand our
global capabilities.”
Harvey said, “We have invested ap-
proximately $30 million in the Natchez
site, and made several significant im-
provements that were required for to-
day’s announcement.”
The high-value performance specialty
chemicals, olefins and oleochemicals
produced at the company’s biorefineries
will be used in personal care products,
detergents and cleaners, lubricants and
additives, engineered polymers, and other
specialty chemicals markets.
The biorefineries produce Inherent
renewable building blocks, including
renewable C10+ olefins and high-val-
ue, di-functional specialty chemicals
with superior functional attributes,
that were previously unavailable com-
mercially until now. These molecules
combine the functional attributes of
an olefin, typical of petrochemicals,
and a monofunctional ester or acid,
typical of bio-based oleochemicals,
into a single molecule. Inherent spe-
cialty chemicals enable detergents to
be more concentrated and clean better
in cold water; improved solvency for
better hard surface cleaners; lubricant
base oils with improved stability and
fuel economy; and unique monomers
for bio-based polymers and engineered
plastics, including long chain polyam-
ides, polyurethanes and polyesters.
Sun Chemical
Launches New
Customer-Focused
Website
Sun Chemical launched a new customer-
focused global website at www.sunchem-
ical.com that improves functionality and
makes it easier for customers to find solu-
tions – including products and services –
that meet their needs.
The new site features improved search
capability, allowing customers to search
for solutions that are designed to work
in various market segments and for many
customer applications.
Clariant Opens New
Innovation Center in
Frankfurt
Clariant recently opened its new
€100 million Clariant Innovation
Center (CIC) in Frankfurt, Germany.
The company’s new global hub for
Research and Development is based
at the “Industriepark Höchst.” It will
be the home of Clariant’s competence
centers in chemical research and process technology as well as application
laboratories for several Business Units
and state-of-the art analytical laboratories . The CIC will also house the
departments for Intellectual Property
Management and New Business
Development. As the corporation’s
global hub, the CIC will ensure the
coordination of Clariant’s world-wide
R&D network, which includes centers
across Europe, North America, Brazil,
Japan, India and China.
Located at Clariant’s largest manufacturing site, the CIC will benefit
from the excellent infrastructure as
well as industrial and academic links
offered by the Rhein-Main region. The
new facility covers a total surface area
of 36,000 square meters and will house
approximately 500 employees from
R&D and supporting business and
administrative functions. The modern, open-plan building was designed
by Düsseldorf architects Hentrich-Petschnigg & Partner. It features a
mix of open workspaces, offices and
laboratories to foster the exchange of
ideas among employees as well as with
