The Catalyst Review October 2019 - 13

SPECIAL FEATURE
Albemarle Corporation is a specialty chemical company with a diversified product portfolio including bromine and bromine
derivatives, lithium and lithium compounds (used also as organometallics initiators), polyolefin catalysts and components as well
as and co-catalysts and surface treatment chemistry. Albemarle polymerization catalyst division has several production sites and
joint ventures around the world. In Japan, Nippon Aluminum Alkyls is a 50/50 joint venture with Mitsui Chemicals, which produces
aluminum alkyls. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Organometallic Chemicals Company is the aluminum alkyl JV with Sabic. In Baton Rouge (LA),
Albemarle has its main R&D Process Development Center, with High Throughput Experimentation (HTE) facility and polymer lab (Kalt
2018). In 2018, Albemarle sold its polyolefin (ZN and SSC) business to Grace for $416 million. With the divestment of the polyolefin
catalyst business, Albemarle is now more focused on the refining catalyst sector while maintaining its premier organometallics
business (Digital Refining 2017).
Lanxess was formed in 2005 as a spin-off of Bayer's specialty chemicals and some plastics/rubber business. Now Lanxess is a leading
specialty chemicals company with sales of €7.2 billion in 2018, it has about 15,400 employees in 33 countries and is represented
at 60 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical
intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and advanced plastics. Lanxess completed in April 2017 the acquisition of Chemtura,
leader in the specialty chemicals field including additives for lubricant and flame-retardants, urethanes systems and organometallics,
widely used as polymerization initiators and activator co-catalysts in combination with ZN and metallocenes catalysts (Hydrocarbon
Processing 2017). Lanxess, as part of its company business strategy, at the end of 2018 sold its 50% stake in the rubber global leader
Arlanxeo to Saudi Aramco (Alsharif 2018) remaining more focused on its other current core business.
References
AkzoNobel. (2018). "AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals Introduces Safer Organic Peroxide System to the US PVC Market."
https://www.akzonobel.com/en/for-media/media-releases-and-features/akzonobel-specialty-chemicals-introduces-safer-organic
Ali S. (2018a). "Polymer Catalyst Technologies for Engineering Plastics and Rubbers: Part 1." The Catalyst Review, 31(5): 6-12.
Ali S. (2018b). "Polymer Catalyst Technologies for Engineering Plastics and Rubbers: Part 2." The Catalyst Review, 31(9): 7-13.
Alsharif A. (2018) "Saudi Aramco Buys Remaining 50 Percent of Rubber Joint Venture from Lanxess." Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/uslanxess-m-a-saudi-aramco/saudi-aramco-buys-remaining-50-percent-of-rubber-joint-venture-from-lanxess-idUSKCN1OU0JY
Arkema. (2019). "Luperox Products." https://www.luperox.com/en/product-ranges/
Arlanxeo. (2019). "Tire and Specialty Rubbers." http://arlanxeo.com/products-applications/tire-speciality-rubbers/
CROW - Chemical Retrieval on the Web. (2019). "Polymer Science." http://polymerdatabase.com/index.html
Digital Refining. (2017). "Grace to Acquire Polyolefin Catalysts Business from Albemarle."
https://www.digitalrefining.com/news/1004850,Grace_to_acquire_polyolefin_catalysts_business_from_Albemarle.html
Grand View Research. (2017). "Organic Peroxide Market Analysis by Product (Diacetyl Peroxide, Ketone Peroxide, Benzoyl Peroxide), by
Application (Polymers, Textiles, Personal care, Detergent), And Segment Forecasts, 2018-2025."
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-peroxide-market
Hydrocarbon Processing. (2017). "Lanxess successfully completes acquisition of Chemtura."
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/04/lanxess-successfully-completes-acquisition-of-chemtura
Kalt F. (2018). "Catalyst Business: Different Business Models Under Scrutiny: Part 1." The Catalyst Review, 31(12): 10-13.
Lanxess. (2013). "Lanxess Opens Asia's Most Modern Butyl Rubber Plant in Singapore." Press Release: June 04, 2013.
MarketsandMarkets. (2017). "Organic Peroxide Market worth 1,069.1 Million USD by 2022."
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/organic-peroxides.asp
Noel AM. (2018). "Akzo Nobel Sells Chemicals Unit to Carlyle for $12.5 Billion." Bloomberg, March 27, 2018.
PlasticsEurope (2019) "Plastics - The Facts 2018."
https://www.plasticseurope.org/application/files/6315/4510/9658/Plastics_the_facts_2018_AF_web.pdf
PSLC - Polymer Science Learning Center. (2019). "How Polymers Work." https://pslc.ws/macrog/radical.htm
TCGR - The Catalyst Group Resources. (2018). "Intelligence Report: Business Shifts in the Global Catalytic Process Industries: 2017-2023."
http://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/intelligence-report-business-shifts-global-catalytic-process-industries-2017-2023/
About the Author

Salvatore Ali, PhD is an independent consultant whose long-career spanned most aspects of polyolefins industry.
He is providing advisory services to the petrochemical industry on polyolefins catalysts, technologies and polymer
products with focus on technology markets, technology commercialization, acquisitions and IP and know-how
management. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Ali has served as VP Technology Projects and Licensing ME/CA in
LyondellBasell (2005-10), VP Catalyst Coordination in Basell Polyolefins (2001-04), VP PP/PE Technology Licensing
and Catalyst BU in Montell (1997-2000), VP and GM of Technipol Technology Company of Montedison Group (1995-96), and GM
of the Functional Chemicals BU of Himont Inc. Dr. Ali has a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan and
a Masters in International Business Management at IMD, Lausanne. He has over 40 publications in referred scientific journals and
books and is on the Board of Advisers of The Catalyst Review. He can be reached at sase.ali@alice.it.
The Catalyst Review

October 2019

https://www.akzonobel.com/en/for-media/media-releases-and-features/akzonobel-specialty-chemicals-introduces-safer-organic https://www.reuters.com/article/uslanxess-m-a-saudi-aramco/saudi-aramco-buys-remaining-50-percent-of-rubber-joint-venture-from-lanxess-idUSKCN1OU0JY https://www.reuters.com/article/uslanxess-m-a-saudi-aramco/saudi-aramco-buys-remaining-50-percent-of-rubber-joint-venture-from-lanxess-idUSKCN1OU0JY https://www.luperox.com/en/product-ranges/ http://arlanxeo.com/products-applications/tire-speciality-rubbers/ http://polymerdatabase.com/index.html https://www.digitalrefining.com/news/1004850#.XaiDm3dFzIU https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-peroxide-market https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/04/lanxess-successfully-completes-acquisition-of-chemtura https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/organic-peroxides.asp https://www.plasticseurope.org/application/files/6315/4510/9658/Plastics_the_facts_2018_AF_web.pdf https://pslc.ws/macrog/radical.htm http://www.catalystgrp.com/multiclient_studies/intelligence-report-business-shifts-global-catalytic-process-industries-2017-2023/

The Catalyst Review October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review October 2019