As day 6 started, we packed up and said goodbye to Amsterdam as we drove off to Deventer, NL to tour Nouryon! We began by learning a little bit about the history of the company, then dove into some more technical details. Nouryon is a chemical manufacturing company and is the world’s leading supplier of organic peroxides and metal alkyls for the polymer industry. These two compounds initiate the polymerization process when added to raw bio- and fossil-based feedstocks, forming polymers such as PVC, polyethylene, and polystyrene. Additionally, organic peroxides are used to cross link polymers such as rubber to make them stronger and more flexible.
Although organic peroxides and metal alkyls are very useful and important chemicals in polymer production, they’re also highly unstable and hazardous. Organic peroxides require a lot of energy to catch fire, but only they have caught they’re highly flammable and decompose rapidly and violently. Metal alkyls are pyrophoric, meaning that they will ignite upon exposure to air and are also highly reactive to water. Once they begin reacting, these “runaway reactions” are very difficult to stop.
Because of this, the Nouryon representatives who spoke with us made it very clear that their top priorities are safety and sustainability. We learned about the differences in chemical safety precautions between the US and Europe, mainly being that Europe doesn’t do risk assessments and will instead ban chemicals that are deemed too dangerous regardless of the intended use. Before today, I didn’t know the difference between hazard and risk, but I now know that what turns hazards into risks is exposure. As a specialty chemical company, Nouryon produces chemicals in both small and large quantities. Therefore, a highly dangerous chemical in small, controlled quantities is just about as risky as a large amount of a safer chemical because there is less exposure to the dangerous chemical due to the small dose. Nouryon conducts their own risk assessments for hazardous chemicals to know for sure whether they can be used safely and under what conditions.
At Nouryon, we saw their unique Total Containment Chamber in their Research and Safety Center. The chamber’s intended use is to run experiments on the highly combustible chemicals that Nouryon produces. We also saw their biodegradability lab, which gave me insights into how they ensure their chemicals will not have a detrimental impact on the environment. In this lab, researchers combine chemicals with bacteria sampled from local bodies of water and monitor the pressure from the oxygen produced as well as the growth of the bacteria over a 60-day period. In the ecotoxicology lab, the volatility of the chemicals was tested on algae and daphnia, and the results were based on whether the specimens died or if their reproduction was affected. Occasionally, they also conduct tests on fish embryos to see if their development changes.
Later, we made our way to Rotterdam on a 2.5 hour long bus ride, checked in to our hotel, and grabbed a delicious dinner at Urban Tapri!
Notes on Sustainability
Animal testing cannot be considered sustainable because it requires living organisms to be kept confined, and can result in the death of these organisms. Some may say that the “greater good” justifies the exploitation of these animals, but I believe that there should be better methods to test the volatility of these compounds.
Tot snel!