MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant’s Additives business continues to step up support for the needs of China’s growth industries, with new top-class facilities to foster R&D and joint application technology developments at the One Clariant Campus (OCC), as per the company's press release.
Ahead of Chinaplas 2021, Clariant shares a taster of bio-based additives available to advance resource-efficient innovation in local market segments, highlights from its new sustainable solutions set for their regional debut.
The new Additives’ R&D Center will be integrated in the new Clariant Innovation Center China in Shanghai. It aims to bring faster lead times and more speed in development efforts for various application sectors including E&E, 5G, automotive, packaging, fibers & films, adhesives, coatings and inks. Supplementing Clariant’s additives’ production facilities in China, the R&D Center will offer customers unique, from-the-ground-up opportunities for joint development and application testing, at every step of the value chain. From polymerization to compounding and conversion, all the way to performance testing.
Located right in the main markets for Polyamide (PA), Polyester (PET) fibers, engineering thermoplastics & thermosets, and increasingly biopolymers, the new facility will feature a state-of-the-art plastics processing and testing laboratory equipped with related technologies such as for polycondensation, compounding, spinning, injection molding and foaming, and establish a broad range of relevant testing and analytical capabilities.
To support local manufacturers, Clariant has successfully introduced solutions from its AddWorks PKG series in China to further improve the inherent properties of polyolefins for the packaging of highly demanding new applications. This includes AddWorks PKG 113, designed for high speed Cast Polypropylene (CPP) and Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) resins providing excellent polymer melt protection and high film productivity, and AddWorks PKG 171 designed for vis-broken PP and for low discoloration PP applications. Both products will feature at Chinaplas 2021 alongside more new sustainable additive solutions for key market segments.
EcoCircle supports the transition from a one-way plastics value chain to a circular plastics economy by going beyond a simple product focus, looking at the entire value chain, and identifying the most sustainable and viable solutions. This includes the development of sustainable solutions for mechanical recycling and the use of certified renewable raw materials to produce high-performance additives. Qualifying products carry a designator based on their mass-balance or real renewable carbon content to help manufacturers identify products with key advantages. Among others, this includes Terra for products with a high renewable content, minumum 50% Renewable Carbon Index (RCI) based on mass balance certification or real renewable content; and VITA for products from natural origin with at least 98% RCI real renewable content.
New for the chinese market is the Exolit OP Terra range, renewable-based halogen-free flame retardants. A like-for-like drop in alternative to Clariant’s fossil based Exolit OP products, they achieve UL 94 V-0 rating with stable flame retardancy even after multiple recycling processes. Application areas include electronic and electrical equipment, and automotive components.
Licocare RBW VITA will also be presented to customers in China for the first time. Clariant’s fully sustainable, practically 100% renewable, non-food competing bio-additives solutions offer multiple processing and end-product enhancements to biopolymers, such as Polylactic Acid (PLA). And in doing so, Licocare RBW VITA opens up opportunities for brands to consider biopolymers as a viable, low carbon footprint alternative to fossil based-plastics. Clariant also introduces Licocare RBW 330 VITA, a new renewable-based solution that nucleates polyamides, reducing the cooling time and shrink/warp, yielding faster cycles, and leading to better molding costs.
As MRC reported earlier, in October 2020, Clariant announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.
The new facility will be primarily responsible for producing the Catofin catalyst for propane dehydrogenation, which is used in the production of olefins such as propylene. Thanks to its excellent reliability and productivity, Catofin delivers superior annual production output compared to alternative technologies, resulting in increased overall profitability for propylene producers, says the company. Construction at the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province was scheduled to commence in Q3 2020, and Clariant expects to be at full production capacity by 2022.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
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