Nouryon announced the opening of a new innovation center in Shanghai, a state-of-the-art facility that more than doubles the size of its previous location and significantly expands its technical capabilities in China and the Asia Pacific region. The center focuses on localized innovation, customer co-development and sustainable growth across high-demand industries including agriculture, electronics, construction and pharmaceuticals. A highlight for the personal care sector includes a dedicated customer experience center.

“The launch of our innovation center in Shanghai marks another important milestone in Nouryon’s future in China,” said Charlie Shaver, chairman and CEO of Nouryon.“It deepens our commitment to innovation and customer intimacy, while enhancing our ability to co-develop high-performance, market-tailored solutions. This center will play a critical role in supporting our customers’ growth across key industries and accelerating our strategic ambitions in China and the broader Asia-Pacific region.” Shaver added that the center, the 14th in the company’s global innovation network, enables rapid prototyping, performance testing, and the development of solutions tailored to Chinese industries. 

The innovation center features eight specialized laboratories, including new labs supporting several of Nouryon’s industry-leading products: Expancel thermoplastic microspheres for lightweight materials, Kromasil chromatography media for pharmaceutical purification, Levasil colloidal silica for catalyst technologies, and Bermocoll cellulose ethers for use in paints and coatings.

A dedicated customer experience center for Nouryon’s Personal Care business enables hands-on collaboration through workshops, live demonstrations and formulation development. The facility allows customers to evaluate product performance in real-world applications and accelerate the co-creation of market-ready solutions aligned with local consumer needs.

Each lab is equipped to address specific market needs:

• Personal care: Supports skin, sun, hair and color care formulations

• Cleaning: Delivers solutions for household, institutional and industrial applications

• Paint and coatings: Optimizes Bermocoll cellulose ethers for water-based coatings

• Agriculture: Enables studies for liquid and solid agrochemicals

• Natural resources: Supports electronics, batteries, natural fibers, fuels, mining and oilfield sectors

• Expancel: Focuses on lightweight thermoplastics and application-specificengineering

• Kromasil: Provides chromatography platforms for pharmaceutical purification

• Levasil: Supports catalyst applications for emission control and petrochemical markets

The center also supports Nouryon’s sustainability initiatives by accelerating the development of lower environmental impact solutions, such as low-VOC coatings, fully biobased chelates, biopolymer-based personal care ingredients and more sustainable microspheres.

Nouryon held an opening ceremony on Nov. 7 attended by company executives, customers, local government representatives and members of the Chinese media.

The company also announced plans to open an organic peroxides innovation center in Tianjin in 2026 to expand polymer application capabilities and enhance customer support in the region.

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