Kemira invests to add capacity in water treatment chemicals to serve the growing Asia-Pacific market

Kemira is increasing production capacity of water treatment chemicals in Yanzhou, China. These investments are another step forward in the execution of Kemira’s growth strategy and serve the growing water treatment demand in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Kemira has started to build a new sodium hypochlorite production unit at Yanzhou site. It is expected to start commercial production in January 2022. Sodium hypochlorite is an effective disinfectant that is used in the water treatment processes in the pulp and paper industry and process industry as well as in municipal water treatment. The product is also a key component in certain paper industry deposit control technologies, securing paper and board machine runnability.

Kemira is also finalizing the pre-engineering phase for an investment to increase the production of polyaluminum chloride (PAC) at Yanzhou. PAC is used as a coagulant in raw water and wastewater treatment processes and additionally as a fixative in the paper and board industry. The new unit is expected to be operational in March 2022. These investments enable Kemira to effectively serve the increasing water treatment demand in the growing APAC markets for both Kemira’s business segments, Pulp & Paper and Industry & Water.

Both PAC and sodium hypochlorite are manufactured in the new production units utilizing industrial side streams and recycled by-products as key raw materials. The production of PAC uses hydrochloric acid that is an organic by-product of Kemira’s own AKD wax production located in the same chemical park in Yanzhou. The key raw material for sodium hypochlorite, caustic soda, comes from the side stream of a customer’s manufacturing process.