The unit has two main objectives: to accelerate commercialization of new and unique biomaterials into current markets and to create business opportunities in new adjacent markets for both new and existing Kemira products.

Sampo Lahtinen, vice president, R&D & Technology EMEA, will lead the unit as the senior vice president, reporting to the CEO & president Jari Rosendal.

“Building long-term growth and commercializing new unique innovations successfully in the chemical industry requires extended commitment and resilience,” Lahtinen said. “This new Growth Accelerator unit will have sufficient focus, dedication and mandate in order to accelerate commercialization of our transformational products and expansion to new markets.”

The unit will support Kemira’s Pulp & Paper and Industry & Water businesses. The company plans to resource the unit during the second half of 2022 and for it to be in full operating mode starting January 2023.

Kemira said it is targeting long-term growth through a sustainability transformation, becoming the leading provider of sustainable chemical solutions. It has set a goal of growing revenue from its biobased products to more than €500 million by 2030.

Separately, Kemira also announced this month that it is collaborating with Veolia Wasser Deutschland to assess new technology for recovering phosphorus from sewage sludge. ViviMag has been developed by Wetsus, the European center of excellence for sustainable water technology, and Technical University Delft, in cooperation with Kemira, several other private companies and municipal water companies.

Kemira and Veolia will conduct the first industrial pilot trial of the technology during the second half of 2022 at the Schönebeck wastewater treatment plant in Germany.

“This collaboration is a major step in realizing our strategy to deliver high-quality, sustainable and circular solutions for removing and recovering phosphorus to our customers,” said Jean-Christophe Ades, senior marketing manager, municipal market for Kemira Industry & Water EMEA.

Regarded as a major environmental challenge, phosphorus in wastewater causes overfertilization of surface waters if not removed properly. At the same time, phosphorus is a key nutrient necessary for agricultural purposes, as well as for many different industrial applications. In 2020, the European Commission again confirmed phosphorus as one of the substances on the EU Critical Raw Materials List.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist