FEATURE

By Karen Parker, Editor-in-Chief, ASI

Partnership utilizing carbon-capture-based materials aims to meet growing consumer demand for lower environmental impact while driving innovation in the circular economy.

In response to growing environmental concerns and consumer demand for eco-friendly solutions, adhesive manufacturers continue to move toward more sustainable products. This transition involves the development of adhesives that are made from renewable, biodegradable, and non-toxic materials, reducing reliance on petroleum-based resources. A partnership between adhesive manufacturer, Henkel, and chemical and specialty materials company, Celanese, is enhancing Henkel’s sustainability initiatives with emulsion production using carbon capture-based materials. This collaboration builds on Celanese's carbon capture and utilization (CCU) project in Texas, which converts industrial CO₂ emissions into methanol, a key component in adhesive production. Henkel will use this CO₂-based methanol to produce water-based adhesives, offering customers in the packaging and consumer goods sectors more sustainable products.

Kevin Norfleet, global sustainability director, Acetyls, at Celanese talked to ASI about this new partnership and how the CCI process developed by Celanese can help adhesive formulators meet sustainability targets.

ASI: Tell us how this partnership with Henkel came about.

Kevin Norfleet: Celanese and Henkel have been partners for a long time. I think this was a really nice next step where both us and Henkel have a lot of ambitious sustainability goals. And so, we were excited to be able to deepen our partnership with them to bring our carbon capture and utilization technology into the adhesives space.

ASI: Can you walk me through the process that Celanese and Henkel use to create these sustainable formulations?

Norfleet: To start, we use something called mass balance, which essentially is implementing sustainability within assets that already exist versus trying to reinvent the wheel and build a lot of brand-new factories. From a sustainability perspective, to be able to really make what we're doing as impactful and beneficial as possible to carbon footprint, it's important that we preserve the things that we do well. One of those things is being able to operate at scale because ultimately scale brings efficiency. So, that's really kind of the starting point of the collaboration is using mass balance to say, we're not trying to invent a bunch of new chemicals and new chemistries and have a whole bunch of new products that have to be requalified. Let's start at the very, very beginning of the value chain of how we make these chemistries, and instead of starting with a fossil fuel, let's start with a CO₂ molecule and CO₂ waste. Then, using this mass balance concept, we can continue to make the same chemistries, the same molecules, but we're building those molecules from a different starting point. It leverages the scale and the efficiency that has been developed over many, many decades. It also means that this isn't actually an exercise where you have to go and develop a whole bunch of new chemistry. And in particular, leveraging where vinyl acetate-based chemistry — which is a major building block within a lot of adhesives formulations — is a really great molecule for sustainability, and specifically for being able to utilize CO₂ emissions.

ASI: Can you elaborate on the specific CCU technology you used at the Clear Lake site and explain how it differs from other carbon capture methods?

Norfleet: As consumers, most of the time when we hear the term carbon capture in the news, they’re talking about carbon capture and sequestration. Carbon capture and sequestration is where you're taking CO₂ emissions and essentially sticking it into the ground with the idea that it's permanently stored in the ground and never coming out. And that's not what Celanese is doing. What we're doing is carbon capture and utilization, which is very different, and instead uses that CO₂, actually taking that CO₂ waste and turning it into something productive. Let's do chemistry with it.

ASI: And contribute to a circular economy.

Norfleet: Absolutely. It's essentially a form of recycling that's not the form of recycling people typically think about. But that's absolutely what we're doing, we're taking CO₂ waste and we're creating an extra loop with that CO₂ molecule to turn it into something else.

ASI: What are the challenges you faced in developing and implementing this CCU technology?

Norfleet: As of right now, there really aren’t a lot of people doing carbon capture and utilization at scale. With that, one of the challenges is just getting people to recognize that CCU is an option, is a pathway. Typically, people are used to thinking about recycled content in a pretty narrow way: let's recycle plastics. And that's a great thing, and we should definitely do that, but there are other types of recycling, and CCU is a great example of where we can take CO₂ and loop it around. We really need to ensure that folks recognize that the opportunity exists and from a standpoint of downstream customers — customers of the adhesive industry — that there's also an ability to recognize and utilize similar types of claims when you're using non-conventional forms of recycling because oftentimes these forms make a lot more sense.

ASI: How much CO₂ do you expect to capture and convert annually through this initiative?

Norfleet: Our larger CCU project is a part of a joint venture with Mitsui & Company, called Fairway Methanol, and is located at our Clear Lake, Texas, plant. We expect to capture about 180,000 tons a year of CO₂ emissions and turn it into about 130,000 tons of methanol; methanol being the building block that we then use to make acetic acid and vinyl acetate, and the vinyl acetate ultimately being the component chemistry within a lot of adhesives formulations. Broadly, one of our hopes with this technology and this project is that this is just the beginning. Ultimately, our goal is to continue to scale this technology to get to where we can start looking at doing a second project and eventually add more throughout the future.

ASI: How does the cost of producing CCU-based adhesives compare to traditional methods?

Norfleet: When you talk about sustainability, I think cost is sometimes that dirty word that people don't like to talk about. One of the things that we think is really interesting about CCU and particularly the way we do it, is that it can be a very economically competitive option. Going back to the earlier example about plastics, more and more in the world, when packaging companies need to get post-consumer recycled plastic, increasingly they understand that they have to pay a premium. And so there are premiums that exist for these things. When it comes to vinyl acetate-based chemistry and adhesive chemistry, the cost of sustainability can be competitive and attractive. We understand that we need to compete, but we do think CCU is a very interesting and attractive pathway, even in that landscape.

ASI: What advice do you have for other companies interested in using this technology in their formulations?

Norfleet: First off, I would say reach out. Initiate the conversation. Don't be afraid, don't feel like it's not for you, or it's not something that is accessible. And ultimately, a lot of this comes down to understanding the options so that people can help their customers understand the options. We're always happy to talk about how it works, about what it means at a product level.