SharpCell Oy, a Finnish family-owned producer of airlaid producers, and Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials and chemical company, are working together help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology in Celanese binders.

This collaboration is allowing SharpCell Oy to create lower carbon footprint nonwoven materials for the production of everyday articles such as tabletops, wipes, and hygiene products with ingredients manufactured with carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions captured from industrial processes using CCU technology.

“Celanese can uniquely turn CO₂ emissions into a range of chemistries, and we are excited to add airlaid nonwovens to the list of products benefiting from CCU,” says Kevin Norfleet, senior director, global sustainability at Celanese. “We are delighted to work with SharpCell to both increase circular content and further reduce the carbon footprint of everyday essential products.”

Celanese uses CCU-based chemical building blocks at its Clear Lake, TX, facility for vinyl acetate ethylene binders, an integral component in the production of binder-bonded airlaid nonwovens. The resulting nonwoven products offer a lower product carbon footprint (PCF) than conventional nonwoven products and contribute to more sustainable fiber-based products without compromising product quality. CCU and conventional fossil-fuel based feedstocks are commingled but separately accounted for using a process called mass-balance accounting.

Using CCU binder technology in SharpCell’s airlaid nonwovens is projected to utilize over 400 metric tons of captured CO₂ annually. According to the US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, this is comparable to the emissions from burning approximately 45,000 gallons of gasoline.

“Integrating Celanese’s CCU-based binders into our airlaid production is yet another strong commitment to more sustainable product solutions that we offer to our customers,” says Pekka Pollari, CEO at SharpCell. “We’re honored to be the first airlaid manufacturer to implement Celanese’s innovations and see it as a significant step forward in our pursuit of a more sustainable industry.”

For more information about ECO-CC and Celanese’s sustainability initiatives, visit www.celanese.com. For more information about SharpCell’s sustainability initiatives, visit www.sharpcell.fi/sustainability.