Welcome back! Today we visited Nouryon, a Netherlands based chemical production company. The headquarters are based in Deventer, which is about a two hour drive from Amsterdam, so we started our day off with a nice bus ride through the countryside.

Upon arrival we were given two presentations from Nouryon employees, in which we were told absolutely zero pictures are allowed on premises, so I don’t have many visual aids for this blog. The first one presentation was from a woman who is actually a Pitt alumni, and she gave us an overview of the company.

So what actually does Nouryon do? Well, they make the chemicals that make the products that we use. Their chemicals are everywhere, from shampoo to paint to the food we eat and the packages it’s stored in. They also do R&D into how to create new uses for chemicals to solve various problems presented to them by their customers.

Nouryon makes over 5 billion euros a year in revenue with over 8000 employees across 60 manufacturing plants worldwide. They claim to have a focus on sustainability, with a goal of being completely carbon neutral by 2050 as an entire company. As it is, only 5 of their plants are carbon neutral, and all 5 of those are in Brazil and they manufacture pulp.

The second presentation went a little more in depth into sustainability methods, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed with what I heard. It seemed, to me, they have no real concrete plan to achieve the goals they’ve set. It also seemed as if they used their goals more as buzzwords to win over clients instead of being things that they actually value.

I walked into this company with a pre-conceived mostly negative notion of a chemical plant and what it does, and unfortunately the presentations did little to assuage me. While I recognize the importance of the products they produce, I also recognize the fact that they are a corporation who prioritize profit above all else, which is particularly concerning when working with chemicals.

After the presentations, we were given a lovely lunch before being split up into three groups for some lab tours. We were given lab coats and goggles and sent on our way. My group started out in the chemical chromatography lab where I have to say most of it went right over my head. And I say this as an engineering student who has taken two semesters of chemistry. The scientist showing us around was friendly and tried to explain, but I think I only grasped the very basics of what they were doing in that lab, which was using chromatography to identify possible chemicals within a sample.

The second lab we toured was the “laundry lab,” which is actually almost exactly what it sounds like. In that lab, they focus of laundry detergent and dish washing detergents exclusively. A scientist from that lab showed us around and explained things in a way that was easy to understand, and I found myself engaged in the discussion even though the different chemicals in dish washing detergents have never been anything of interest to me.

Finally, we toured the safety lab. This tour was the most fun because it involved some controlled explosions. they showed us the flammable and explosive properties of the chemicals they work with through blast protection glass in controlled environments, and it was really fun to see. They also showed us the giant pressure chamber they have, complete with a huge vault door and everything.

That marked the end of our time at Nouryon, and we took one group photo I’ll share here:

After another two hour bus ride back to the hotel, we had about an hour to get ready for dinner. Dinner was actually a networking event with about eight Pitt alumni who currently work and live in the Netherlands, and it was a lot of fun to hear their stories. I worry that I was a little too awkward and standoffish, but I suppose the only way to get better at things like that is to practice.

After dinner my friends and I went to a food truck festival and watched a live mariachi band, and it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we visit a couple museums and I’m very excited, see you then!