Huntsman is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty hemicals. As the global leader in the MDI-based polyurethanes, Huntsman Polyurethanes is serving over 3,000 customers in more than 90 countries. Recently, Huntsman proposes a “4 Frees” strategy in producing eco-friendly specialty products and solutions in China to capture opportunities amid the nation’s greater efforts in environmental protection.
While it is common among chemicals producers to work to save energy and cut carbon emissions, Huntsman wants its portfolio in China to help make the societal development toward the target of “free of PM 2.5, free of toxic odor inside cars, free of formaldehyde in construction and furniture manufacturing and free of solvent in adhesives, coatings, elastomers and TPU”— the 4 Frees.
Polyurethane is one of the most versatile polymermaterials in the world. MDIbased polyurethane has the advantages of high strength,light weight, durable and easy processing.
Huntsman is ramping up investment to further facilitate its development in the Chinese market. It plans to soon open a plant in Tianjin to produce downstream products after it doubled capacity to produce methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, a raw material commonly used in producing polyurethanes applied in rigid insulation foams and adhesives, in its Caojing site in Shanghai to 480,000 tons a year in 2017.
Kenny Pan, vice president
for Asia Pacific at
Huntsman Polyurethanes
Huntsman inaugurated Shanghai Campus in the Minhang Economic & Technological Development Zone in 2016. The 40,000-square-meter Campus comprises Huntsman’s Asia Pacific Advanced Technology Center (ATC) which opened in 2008, “all in a bid to enhance our competitiveness in the Chinese market by speeding up developing eco-friendly products,” said Kenny Pan, vice president for Asia Pacific at Huntsman Polyurethanes.
The main raw material in Huntsman’s planned expansion is methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI,which outperforms traditional chemicals such as toluene diisocyanate, or TDI, in cutting carbon emissions and lesseningtoxic gas.
Huntsman’s Asia Pacific Advanced Technology Center in Shanghai
Huntsman aims to win by “going downstream” and developing specialty MDIbased chemical products and solutions.
“We will keep intensifying our production in China to capture the key market,” Pan said. “Not only because we can reap high profits and capture larger market share in China, but, more importantly, the key is to cooperate with value chain partners to develop green and energy efficient products and jointly provide healthy and safe product experience to our customers and end consumers.”
China has for years accounted for over 60 percent of global MDI demand growth.
But the demand in this region will go higher as it echoes deeply the nation’s greater environmental efforts, Pan said.
Over the past several years,Huntsman has been involved in a district central heating (DCH) project in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, providing insulation foam for hot water pipelines.
The city, previously clouded by thick smog, is seeing blue sky again as it saves over 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions per year by pumping steam from local coal-fired heating boilers to residents.
“Huntsman’s foam has been a key component to ensure heating in this project, as we’ve developed the water-blown PU system, a greener product with a lower environmental footprint. The Taiyuan DCH project has a total pipeline length of 38 km, targeting to supply central heating to 80 million sqm, and covering 36 percent of the required heating area. It helps materialize the efficient utilization of power plant exhaust, and the exhaust heat from the plant can be used to supply central heating to 2 million residents there (half of the total population) in winter,”Pan said.
It has also moved into China’s automobile and household market and is a major supplier for BMW. It opened an odor testing lab in its Advanced Technology Center located in Minhang District last year, the only such lab for Asia.
“Improved in-car air quality is particularly important in China, where consumers are more sensitive to odors than other markets and the most stringent industry standard has been implemented nationally,”Pan said.
Huntsman’s aims in China to contribute to a more sustainable,lower-carbon-footprint living environment form the core of its expansion plans here.
At the beginning of this century, Huntsman was the first foreign company to invest in China’s MDI projects. And China is Huntsman’s second largest national market after the United States.
“We aim to differentiate with specialty products in environmental solutions and support our clients to develop more sustainable approaches in different parts of the business and to reduce carbon footprints,” Pan said.
“The next step is to continue our efforts in ‘going downstream,’ especially to develop new roducts in line with our desire here for cleaner air and better health. We believe that environmental protection and sustainable development are not only the greatest challenges, but also the best opportunities,” Pan added.
