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Natural advantage Oleon
NATURAL ADVANTAGE
Oleon is a global leader in the development and manufacture of base oleochemicals and their derivatives. Philip Yorke talked to Dirk Mertens, the company’s global lubricant business manager about its ambitious global investment programmes and growth in the lubricants market sector.
Oleon was founded in Antwerp in 1835 and was one of the first companies in the world to engage in the chemistry of natural fats on an industrial scale. Early success with the production of candles and soaps led to the company to diversify into the production of edible oils, margarines and vegetable oils. In 1957, PetroFina in association with Ashland (USA) established Oleochim in Ertvelde in Belgium with its head office in Brussels. This enabled PetroFina to branch out from its traditional field of petrochemistry into oleochemistry. However, when PetroFina finally decided to step out of the oleochemistry side of its business in 2000 the management bought out the company, setting on a path to further diversification and significant global growth.
Today Oleon operates two distinct divisions: Base Oleochemicals, which produces such products as fatty acids, glycerine, mono-propylene glycol and technical oils; and Oleochemical Derivatives which manufactures products like esters, speciality chemicals and vegetable oils. The company operates two major production sites in Belgium, one in Norway, one in Germany as well as one in France and another in Malaysia. Oleon is a global leader in its field and employs over 800 people worldwide. In 2011 the Oleon Group recorded sales of more than €700 million.
Innovative, high performance products driving sales
Innovation has always been a priority at Oleon and this is underscored by its ongoing investments in its five state-of-the-art R&D sites worldwide. There are two located in Belgium, with one in Germany and
another in Malaysia. This is in addition to its research headquarters based in Venette in France where it also develops new, innovative production technologies based upon renewable resources.
Oleon divides its R&D activities into five areas of operation. The first is customer support, where it helps customers with their R&D challenges by offering them the right molecule or by analysing a problem and proposing the optimal solution. The second is Process R&D where considerable effort is dedicated to continuously improving its own production processes. The third is Application R&D where its labs test newly developed or existing molecules in circumstances that mimic market conditions. The fourth area is Formulation R&D where its teams of formulatory chemists provide advice to customers involved in different market segments and the fifth sector is what the company calls Blue Sky R&D. This concerns fundamental projects that look into the chemical building blocks of the future and the optimisation of renewable resources.
The chemistry of fats and oils and their derivatives is Oleon’s dedicated technological competence. The company’s high-tech products are made from renewable raw materials that combine high performance with readily biodegradability. Today, Oleon offers a vast range of functional, sustainable products that are tailor-made for a diverse range of manufacturing industries. These range from agro-chemicals to automotive and food additives, and from personal care to special lubricants and solvents.
Investing in a greener future
Oleon continues to invest heavily in new plants and technology and a recent example of the scale of its investment programme was revealed in June 2012 when it inaugurated its new bio-propylene glycol production facility in Ertvelde, Belgium. This advanced technology plant represents an investment of more than €8.2 million and takes advantage of unlimited available resources. With this investment in green chemistry, Oleon is strengthening its long-term position at Ertvelde, establishing it as the leading oleochemicals factory in Europe. This state-of-the-art unit converts glycerine into bio-propylene glycol using the very latest technology.
Mr Mertens said, “We continue to invest in new technology and to extend our value chain and product ranges. We are seeing growth in all our application areas, from personal care and food additives to agrochemicals and lubricants. Our recent investments in our Malaysian plant have doubled its capacity from 17,000 tonnes to 35,000 tonnes in 2012. This is designed to serve our Asian Pacific and US markets. We are number one in Europe today and a major global player with over 600,000 tonnes of oleochemicals produced every year. More than 120,00 tonnes of this is being produced as ester derivatives.
“We have also recently opened a new sales office in Shanghai in China. This will support our efforts to serve this market even better and develop our capabilities to China mainland. China is ready to use biodegradable lubricants and hydraulic oils and as this is still a young market for biodegradable oils, we see the window of opportunity for growth. We are also in the process of opening an office in Brazil which should be operational in the coming months.
“Our sales of biodegradable lubricants, hydraulic oils, two-stroke base oils and additives are all seeing strong growth and offer many benefits over petroleum-based alternatives, including technical advantages and obviously green credentials. We try to stay as close as possible to our customers to support them if they have new projects, so we are involved with them from the cradle to the market. Our goal is to be more innovative and more customer orientated and it has taken us over two years to build a team which can deliver the R&D that really makes a difference for our customers competitive edge.”
In all our application areas the focus for the development of new formulations is: higher activity of active ingredients, improved biodegradability of the formulations and raw material sustainability. Supplying products that offer the highest possible levels of performance in a wide variety of application areas is just part of the product promise of Oleon’s sustainable and biodegradable formulations. n
For further details of Oleon’s highperformance, biodegradable products and services contact us at info@oleon.com
About Us
Chimet is a leader in precious metals recovery and refining, as well as in manufacturing precious metal catalysts. Our service in catalysts involves a full loop service going from the production of fresh catalysts to the metal recovery from the spent catalysts. The recovered precious metal is again transformed into fresh catalyst. Catalysts portfolio
Chimet produces supported catalysts based on precious metals (Pd, Pt, Rh, Ru) used in many applications like the hydrogenation of organic intermediates, purification of terephthalic acid, synthesis of hydrogen peroxide, and volatile organic compounds abatement (VOC). The most common catalysts are supported on activated carbon, and oxidic supports (i.e., AI203, SiO2, CaCO3, BaSO4).
Chimet is one of the main supplier of precious metal catalysts for the hydrogenation of fatty acids. In particular, a varieties of palladium on carbon catalysts are available with good performance in terms of activity and selectivity.
