Kemira ships first biomass-balanced polyacrylamide

Kemira has started full-scale production of its newly developed polyacrylamide polymer based on biobased feedstock. The first commercial volumes are shipped to one of the wastewater treatment plants of the Helsinki Region Environmental Services for trials.

The polymer is water-soluble and offers the same technical specifications as its conventional equivalent, the company stated. As well as water treatment and other water-intensive sectors, it can be used in the energy industry, and potentially also in particularly demanding papermaking applications.

“The development of completely new and sustainable polymer chemistry doesn't happen overnight and is costly and time consuming. Especially for our technically demanding customer applications, so far, it was challenging to find comparable biobased alternatives,” said Sampo Lahtinen, VP of R&D and technology in the EMEA region.

Kemira makes the new polymers at sites in Italy and the UK according to the principles of biomass balance, in which most fossil-based raw materials are replaced by International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)-Plus certified biobased and renewable mass-balanced feedstocks.