Several paper and pulp producers are pursuing the production of chemicals as a supplement to their main businesses of paper and pulp products. A driving force behind this seems to be societal sustainability concerns and reducing the reliance on fossil fuels as a source of chemicals. Paper and pulp companies that show chemicals for sale on their websites are:
Mercer International sells tall oil, turpentine, and sandalwood, an essential oil. Click here for more information.
Norske Skog (in partnership with the CIRCA Group) uses wood wastes to produce levoglucosenone, a ketone. Click here for more information.
Sappi derives from wood specialty chemicals such as furfural, nanocellulose, lignin, oil, and xylose. Click here for more information.
Stora Enso sells wood-based tall oil, turpentine, and xylose sugars that can be used in fragrances, flavors, lubricants, resins, and industrial and household cleaners and solvents. Click here for more information.
Suzano offers micro fibrillated,
nanocrystalline, and water-soluble cellulose.
The company also sells bio-composites and bio-oil. Click here for more information.
West Fraser offers two chemical products with the trade names propel and amallin. Propel is a bio-composite incorporating cellulose fibers. Amallin is a biopolymer that can replace fossil-fuel based polyols. Click here for more information.
Due to the sustainability of biomass, such as wood from trees, much chemical research and development activities have been going on for a long time with the goal of relying less on fossil fuels as a source of chemicals and more on biomass.
That the seven paper and pulp companies listed above are ratcheting
up their websites with chemicals for sale from biomass seems to me to be a good
omen for possible success in less reliance on fossil fuels for chemicals.
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