Elevance JV ships specialty chemicals from Asian refinery

Wilmar International Limited, Asia’s leading agribusiness, and Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a high-growth specialty chemicals company, have begun shipping commercial products, including novel specialty chemicals, to customers from their first world-scale joint venture biorefinery, located in Gresik, Indonesia. The biorefinery is the first based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology. According to Elevance CEO K’Lynne Johnson, the company has now turned its attention from construction and startup to working with partners, such as Arkema and Stepan Company, to meet product demand and accelerate rapid deployment and commercialisation of their high-performance chemicals in end user applications. The commercial-scale manufacturing facility produces novel specialty chemicals, including multifunctional esters such as 9-decenoic methyl ester, a unique distribution of bio-based alpha and internal olefins including decene and a premium mixture of oleochemicals. It has a capacity of 180kMT (approximately 400 million pounds) with the ability to expand up to 360kMT (approximately 800 million pounds) of products. The high-value performance specialty chemicals, olefins and oleochemicals will be used in personal care products, detergents and cleaners, lubricants and additives, engineered polymers, and other specialty chemicals markets. www.elevance.com