Today, we left Amsterdam. At around 9:00 AM, we checked out of our hotel in Amsterdam and boarded a bus for Deventer, about an hour and a half East. There, we toured Nouryon, a specialty chemical company that has roots dating to the early 19th century, when an earlier form of the company had a mill that produced bleached flour. Nowadays, Nouryon mainly produces natural peroxides and metal alkyls, which are used in the production of polymers, however, they make products for all sorts of markets, ranging from agriculture, personal care (shampoo, conditioner, etc.), paints and coatings, and more. Our visit was at their Deventer research and development lab, during which we saw presentations by their experts in polymer manufacturing, ecological toxicology, and mechanical recycling. We also toured their biodegradation lab, ecological toxicity lab, and physical safety labs.

I won’t go into too much detail because they were all very thorough and covered A LOT. I’ll do my best to summarize without altering their message. Both natural peroxides and metal alkyls are essentially to polymer production, but due to their extreme reactivity (which is actually their desired quality), they are extremely dangerous to store, transport, and work with. For this reason, Nouryon conducts tests in their safety lab in order to determine proper storage and usage conditions, to find out what happens when these conditions aren’t met, and to create safety guidelines for their products and for the industry. As we found within the lab, this often involves runaway reactions and explosive decompositions, which is why Nouryon’s culture of safety is so important.

Then, in terms of environmental toxicology, there are many motivations for Nouryon’s research and many attributes they choose to investigate. The most basic motivations are legislative compliance, but Nouryon also goes above and beyond to protect their employees and to gain a market advantage—especially in sectors like home and personal goods, where our purchasing decisions actually shape industry practices. The greatest takeaway we were told to remember from the presentation was that hazard and risk are not equivalent. Risk is hazard combined with exposure. Because of this understanding of risk, Nouryon not only conducts extensive research into the dangerous properties of the chemicals they use and produce, but they analyze how their employees, consumers, and the environment are exposed to these chemicals and determine the best practices for handling the chemicals. This may come in the form of PPE requirements, phasing out dangerous chemicals, or recommending legislation to regulate chemicals. The biodegradation lab and ecological toxicology labs perform tests to gather this data.

At first, this information didn’t seem like a big deal to me—isn’t it a company’s responsibility to perform this sort of work? However, I began to think about Pittsburgh’s steel industry and the United States’ national crisis with DDT. The fact that Nouryon is doing this work to future proof their products is really a huge step forward in terms of industry practice. Beyond doing their due diligence, they share their findings with scientists across the globe and work with legislators at all levels. This collaboration to create a global scientific community dedicated to sustainability is how we will overcome challenges such as climate change.

After our visit we drove to Rotterdam and ended our day—since we weren’t allowed to take pictures within Nouryon’s premises, the one picture I have from today is the view out our hotel window in Rotterdam—enjoy 🙂