Swedish speciality chemicals company Perstorp (Perstorp; www.perstorp.com) has launched renewable alternatives for trimethylolpropane (TMP) and neopentyl glycol (NPG), adding to its bio-based pentaerythritol (penta). Perstorp said it is now the only company in the world to offer all three essential polyols in both traditional and renewable forms. “The time is right to add two new renewable polyols. The market demand for bio-based material is rapidly increasing due to a strong focus on sustainable chemistry and renewable raw materials,” said Anna Berggren, Perstorp’s global market segment manager for resins.

Sales of the new products, “Evyron”, a partly renewable TMP, and “Neeture”, a partly renewable NPG, will start on 1 January 2018. They complement “Voxtar”, Perstorp’s renewable penta that was launched in 2010. The polyols are all certified under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system, ensuring traceability of the bio-based raw material back to its country of origin.

They are based on a certified mass balance concept, which Perstorp explained was about mixing fossil and renewable materials in the same existing systems, but keeping track of their quantities and allocating them to specific products. That way, it said, the quality and performance of the molecules are exactly the same.

The expanded portfolio is part of Perstorp’s ambition to become “finite material neutral” by 2030. The company is currently devoting 80% of its R&D resources to finding new sustainable solutions and is also switching all its Swedish plants to use only renewable electricity in 2018.