January 20, 2011
Don’t let the name fool you. Arizona Chemical Ltd. is a global company with more than 1,000 employees spread throughout six countries. As a leading refiner of crude tall oil (CTO), a coproduct of the wood pulping process, the company has another impressive statistic. The biorenewable content of most of Arizona Chemical’s products achieves nearly 75 percent, a number that, according to the company, has been third-party verified by ASTM D6866 testing standards. “We are not just a chemical manufacturer based on forest products,” says Kees Verhaar, president and CEO. “We are uniquely positioned to deliver low-carbon, highly sustainable solutions to the marketplace.”
Arizona Chemical has manufacturing facilities in Netherlands, the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and the U.S. that make a wide array of products. The company produces biolubricants that range from monomer acids used in hydraulic oils and metalworking fluids, and isotearic acids for industrial gear oil and two stroke oils, to distilled tall oil for surfactants in metal working fluids and fatty acid esters as lubricant greases. The majority of the products are pine based, and nearly all reach greater greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions than the equivalent products on the market, according to the company. “Our business is based on a renewable and elegant idea,” Verhaar says, “but we must continually challenge ourselves to improve our sustainability.”
To meet that challenge, the company uses pitch fuel, a byproduct of the CTO made through distillation, as an energy source. When distilled, the company notes, CTO yields 30 to 50 percent pitch fuel, which can be used for industrial energy and heating processes. The company produces its version of the fuel, called Sylvablend, which Arizona Chemical says generates 70 percent lower GHGs than similar fuels.
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The company’s work with CTO, pitch fuel and a number of biobased chemicals isn’t slowing down either. In Savannah, Ga., and Almere, Netherlands, the company has technology centers with more than 50 scientists working on pine chemistry. It should come as no surprise that the company is a global force in the pine chemical production sector. It was begun in 1930 in Camp Verde, Ariz., by a paper company, and in 1936 began processing tall oil and turpentine at plants located in Florida and Louisiana. By 1946, the company had developed a distillation technology adapted from fractionation of crude petroleum streams. In 1956, the company created a hydration reaction technology and others like desulfurization for alpha-pinene that would make pine oil with a “more pleasing odor,” according to the company. Today, Arizona Chemical produces everything from chemical intermediates to rubber for tires.
—Luke Geiver
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