Today, we made our last stop before arriving in Rotterdam. We were lucky enough to be able to visit the headquarters of Nouryon, a global chemical company. We began learning about the history of the company, as well as a broad scope of what it is that they do. The company started in 1893 when Noury and Van der Lande were milling grains to become flour and oil. They discovered that the flour could be bleached to make a white bread, which was more desirable than the typical brown/grey bread. This led them to create a research lab. The company is the world’s leading supplier of organic peroxides, curing agents, reactor additives, and metal alkyls. It is a $5 billion company in over 80 different countries. They manufacture over 3000 products that contain thousands of different chemical substances that have one or more hazard classifications, and one of their jobs is to test the different substances to find potential hazards based on EU regulations, and to determine substitutions that are moire sustainable or less harmful.
One of the things that they have been doing more recently is polymer recycling. This is the process of repurposing older polymers and modifying them to serve another purpose. There are two types of polymer recycling: chemical and mechanical. Chemical splits the polymer chains while mechanical preserves the molecular structures. Both of these are necessary, despite chemical recycling requiring more energy, as it is worth it since it is such a clean process that produces a product comparable to virgin plastics.
One of their sustainability initiatives is their biodegradation lab, which is where they work on testing the chemicals to make sure they are safe for humans and the environment. If something does seem to be off, the entire process has to start over. However, this part of it is not exactly sustainable as it requires an entire new set of animals to be tested on. Additionally, 33% of their revenue is from eco-premium solutions, and 74% of their R&D product pipeline is working towards sustainability.
After the company visit, we ventured off on a 2 and a half hour bus ride to Rotterdam, where we will be for the next week. Just from a first impression, this city is very different from Amsterdam, and in the coming days we will get to explore more!