Customers can trust our R&D to make them more competitive. Our R&D operations have continuously launched successful new products on the market and more promising products are in the pipeline. This work is performed in close cooperation with our business operations.
Our R&D departments have a total permanent full-time staff of around 150, and 2.3 percent of the business unit’s profits are reinvested in R&D. About 20 percent of development efforts are devoted to new breakthrough concepts. The new R&D center at Bohus is the main site for pulp and paper product and process development operations, with smaller departments in Düren, Germany and Suzhou, China.
At the research center, actual conditions in pulp and paper mills can be simulated on a laboratory scale. The combination of research outcomes, experience from inspections and remote control of chemical processes at customer sites enables us to build its expertise—creating a valuable resource for the paper industry.
The R&D center is primarily focused on bleaching and paper chemicals, but a significant part of its operations involve developing separation products for the chromatographic purification of active substances used for producing pharmaceuticals, such as insulin. Substantial R&D work is also carried out at Expancel in Stockvik, Sweden, as well as at other Specialty Chemicals units.
Read more about our approach to innovation below.