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Kemira launches biomass balanced wet strength resins for the paper industry

Kemira has expanded its renewable products portfolio by launching two new ISCC PLUS certified biomass balanced polymers for the papermaking industry, wet strength resins and polyamines. The wet strength resins reportedly are ISCC-certified PAE-based chemistries (polyamideamine epichlorohydrin), derived from renewable feedstocks.

Kemira notes in a press statement that biomass balanced products are a genuine drop-in solution with immediate sustainability benefits: they provide a technically equivalent alternative for the conventional fossil-based products, and don’t require changes to the customers’ processes nor to Kemira’s own production process.

“This is a concrete step forward in our strategy to build the leading renewable solutions portfolio to support sustainability transformation and transition to a more circular economy. With the biomass balance approach, we can immediately and effectively reduce the use of fossil-based raw materials. For our customers, these products provide a way to take climate action and contribute to the shift away from fossil carbon, advancing their targets for renewable raw materials,” says Antti Matula, senior vice-president of global product lines and business development, pulp and paper.

In 2021, Kemira started full-scale production of biomass balanced polyacrylamide, a polymer used in various industries, such as municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, papermaking, and mining. The now-launched biomass balanced wet strength resins and polyamines are produced at Kemira’s manufacturing site in Estella, Spain, where Kemira is set to phase out the production of conventional fossil-based wet strength resins and polyamines.

All of Kemira’s polymer manufacturing sites in Europe are now certified by ISCC. Kemira also plans to certify more sites during 2024, building capabilities to produce a range of other products according to the biomass balance principle.

In the biomass balance approach, fossil-based raw materials such as oil and gas are replaced by renewable resources at the beginning of the production value chain. A corresponding amount of renewable raw materials is attributed to the products sold as biomass balanced. Kemira’s biomass balanced products reportedly contain at minimum 50 percent renewable carbon, through either partial or full mass balance attribution.