LANXESS and TotalEnergies to Cooperate on Sustainable Styrene
LANXESS, a specialty chemicals company, and TotalEnergies, a French energy group, have formed a partnership to supply biocircular styrene.
Total Energies' raw material, unlike conventional styrene, is based on tall oil, which is derived from a tree resin and is a byproduct of pulp production.
LANXESS uses styrene to make long-lasting ion exchange resins. These products are primarily used in the treatment of wastewater, chemical process flows, and the food industry.
The styrene's sustainable origin is certified in accordance with the ISCC PLUS standard ("International Sustainability and Carbon Certification"). The certified and non-certified materials are physically mixed in the mass balance approach, but are kept separately on a bookkeeping basis.
This method enables businesses to document and track sustainable materials throughout the complex manufacturing process, ensuring full traceability throughout the entire supply chain.
The ISCC PLUS styrene certification is an important requirement because LANXESS also offers its products in accordance with this certification standard and thus relies on the same transparency for its raw materials.
“Our customers are increasingly asking for sustainable solutions, and raw materials with a low carbon footprint are a key lever here. By partnering with TotalEnergies, we can further expand the respective offering for our customers,” says Marcel Beermann, Head of Global Procurement & Logistics at LANXESS.
“We are pleased to form this partnership with LANXESS, which demonstrates TotalEnergies’ ability to offer sustainable products to its customers, helping them reduce their carbon footprint.
This is a perfect illustration of the orientation taken by the Refining and Chemicals branch of Total Energies to develop lower carbon intensity products, in line with Total Energies’ Climate Ambition to get to Net Zero emissions by 2050, together with society,” declares Jean-François Renglet, Vice President Marketing Base Chemicals Division at Total Refining and Chemicals.
Aside from styrene, the specialty chemicals company already sources a variety of other sustainable alternatives to fossil raw materials. Another type of ion exchange resin is biocircular acrylonitrile. Preventol is also available in a variety of fatty acid mixtures based on sunflower oil.
Prepolymers under the Adiprene Green brand contain starch-based polyether polyols. The intermediate Trimethylpropane Scopeblue consists of about half sustainable N-butylaldehyde.
The composite Tepex Scopeblue is based on flax and polylactic acid. And the high-performance plastic Durethan Scopeblue uses biocircular cyclohexane and waste glass.
Goal: climate-neutral along the entire value chain
LANXESS announced its plan to make its upstream and downstream supply chains climate neutral by 2050 in August of last year (Scope 3). This includes emissions produced indirectly, most notably in purchased raw materials, but also in logistics and end products.
LANXESS had already set a target of being climate neutral by 2040 for direct emissions in production (Scope 1) and energy sources (Scope 2).
LANXESS' climate targets are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, according to the renowned Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
LANXESS has launched the Net Zero Value Chain Program in order to meet its Scope 3 targets. Increased sourcing of sustainable raw materials that are bio-based, originate from a recycling process, or are produced using renewable energy is one of the program's pillars. LANXESS is also working on "green" logistics and expanding its portfolio of climate-neutral products.
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