🏭 Making beer clear

Good morning. Today's edition covers a couple of chemical businesses never before seen in this newsletter.

From the condenser:

· SK Capital's essential oil acquisition

· Ashland's beer clarifier

· POTD: tennis racket strings

Investing in oils from juice waste

US-based private equity (PE) firm, SK Capital, has acquired Florida-based chemical company, Florachem, for an undisclosed sum.

Some context:

Florachem started out as a trading company who ventured into storage solutions. Then, in 2008, the company bought an essential oils processing facility in Mission, TX. Situated near a bunch of citrus juice producers (grapefruit, orange, and lemon), this facility extracts the aromatic compounds found in the oil glands present in wasted fruit peels. Florachem then expanded the site to produce cirtus-based cleaning agents for industrial applications.

Where we're at now:

Last summer Florachem announced plans to build a new manufacturing site in Lakeland, Florida. The company now offers a variety of citrus and pine solvents, cleaning products, rosin resins, dimer and trimer acids, and flavors and fragrances. As the bio-based markets continue to expand Florachem is naturally well-positioned to take advantage of the trend, and SK Capital's ownership ensures that they'll have plenty of access to cash.

Zooming out:

SK Capital is a private equity firm that specializes in the specialty materials, chemicals, and pharmaceutical sectors. They set up funds for investors, acquire businesses in these sectors, merge and restructure them, and then eventually sell for a profit. Sometimes that takes a while—they have been holding Ascend Performance Materials (probably their most well-known portfolio company) for over a decade.

Ashland is making beer clear

Delaware-based chemical company, Ashland, has released a new version of its polyvinyl polypyrrolidone (PVPP) beer stabilizer.

Beer haze 101:

Before you can make beer, you need to make wort. We make wort by steeping cracked grains (like barley) in hot water. The result is a liquid containing mostly sugars (for later fermentation) and various other compounds (like proteins and polyphenols). Some of those polyphenols can bind to multiple proteins and create relatively large insoluble molecules that scatter light—which is what makes beer hazy.

So, what's PVPP?

PVPP is a cross-linked version of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). PVP is made by the polymerization of n-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP). NVP is derived from γ-Butyrolactone (GBL). GBL is made by dehydrogenating 1,4-butanediol (BDO). BDO should sound familiar—it's a petrochemical derived from butane that is most well-known for its use in the production of Spandex.

Your takeaway:

Even the production of crystal clear Bud Light is tied to the production of petrochemicals. PVPP removes haze from beer by binding to polyphenols so that the proteins never get the chance. Be sure to tell someone about it later tonight when you crack open a cold one.

Some more headlines:

• PPG is reducing its CO2 emissions at one of its sites in Italy

• Chevron and a couple others might expand their CO2 sequestration project for the Gulf Coast

• Mitsui and CF Industries are planning some blue ammonia capacity for the US

• Evonik just opened its first zero-liquid-discharge catalyst plant in India

• ExxonMobil is divesting its upstream Romanian gas processor for about $1 billion

Product of The Day:

Today, we're breaking down tennis racket strings.

Believe it or not, a decent amount of professional tennis players still opt for tennis strings made of cow intestine. While those cow-based strings, called natural gut, are the "gold standard", they are expensive, lack durability, and require 3 cows to be sacrificed for each racket.

Most of the racket strings you'll find out there are made of a polyamide (maybe with some of DuPont's Kevlar mixed in), a liquid crystal polymer made by Kuraray, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or some combination of the three. Here's a handy graphic if you're into that sort of thing.

In case you're interested:

• Course: We think of chemical plants in terms of unit operations. To understand the industry you need to learn about those units.*

• Safety Moment: With winter coming, freezes at chemical plants are inevitable. Learn about how improper winterization can lead to process safety events.

• Tip: Whether you're in school or not, ramen is always good in a pinch—Immi is putting classic dorm-room-ramen to shame.*

• Guide: Take a look at this summary about the chemistry of bourbon.

The bottoms: