Four decades of renew­able resources

Evonik’s Active Oxygens busi­ness line has been sourc­ing biobased acetic acid for its peracetic acid produc­tion in Europe since 1983.

On May 4, 1983, a tank car left the produc­tion site of Lenz­ing AG in Lenz­ing, Austria, bound for Evonik’s facil­ity in Weißen­stein, just over 200 kilo­me­ters away.

The cargo: biobased acetic acid. Acetic acid is a main ingre­di­ent in peracetic acid, a versa­tile indus­trial substance produced and sold by Evonik’s Active Oxygens busi­ness line for a vari­ety of chem­i­cal and disin­fec­tion applications.

The other main ingre­di­ent in peracetic acid is hydro­gen perox­ide — also produced and sold by Evonik Active Oxygens. In fact, the Weißen­stein plant is where the first indus­trial produc­tion of hydro­gen perox­ide began in 1908; even today, the elec­trol­y­sis-based tech­nol­ogy is called “the Weißen­stein process.”

But on May 4, 1983, a differ­ent history was in the making. For that partic­u­lar tank car was filled with LENZ­ING™ Acetic Acid biobased, produced for the first time by Lenz­ing Group entirely from renew­able raw mate­ri­als. And Evonik was the first customer for this biore­fin­ery prod­uct. It was the begin­ning of a decades-long part­ner­ship between Evonik and Lenz­ing for the supply of this key ingre­di­ent, which contin­ues to this day.

What is biobased acetic acid?

Acetic acid, also called ethanoic acid, is an organic compound that is best known as the main compo­nent in vine­gar. It is also a natural compo­nent of hard­wood. As Lenz­ing Group uses wood as a renew­able raw mate­r­ial in its produc­tion of specialty fibers, LENZ­ING™ Acetic Acid biobased results as a biore­fin­ery prod­uct from extract­ing pulp. The carbon foot­print of this prod­uct is more than 85% lower than that of fossil-based acetic acid.

In fact, LENZ­ING™ Acetic Acid biobased is of such high qual­ity that it is USDA certi­fied as a food-grade prod­uct. The wood Lenz­ing purchases as a raw mate­r­ial is certi­fied accord­ing to recog­nized sustain­abil­ity crite­ria, such as the FSC® and PEFC stan­dards. And more than half of comes from Austrian forests, with another portion coming from other Euro­pean countries. 

Team­ing up to advance sustain­able industry

Evonik and Lenz­ing knew they were onto some­thing when the first biobased acetic acid was deliv­ered in 1983. Over the last 40 years, the part­ner­ship has taken on an effi­cient circu­lar­ity: Evonik uses LENZ­ING™ Acetic Acid biobased to produce peracetic acid, and Lenz­ing uses Evonik’s peracetic acid for their lyocell production.

Peracetic acid is not only a power­ful oxidiz­ing agent that can kill bacte­ria, fungi, and viruses at low concen­tra­tions and at low temper­a­tures. It also only leaves acetic acid as a by-prod­uct when consumed. Residues of peracetic acid quickly decom­pose into water, oxygen, and acetic acid. The use of peracetic acid in manu­fac­tur­ing processes is there­fore an effi­cient and more envi­ron­men­tally compat­i­ble option than other indus­trial chemicals.

What is more, Evonik Active Oxygens is pursu­ing a concrete road map toward climate neutral­ity at all its produc­tion sites — includ­ing Weißen­stein — by 2040. The Weißen­stein site is already well on its way: Evonik Peroxid GmbH has been sourc­ing the great major­ity of its elec­tric­ity from renew­able resources since 2021.

The syner­gies go beyond prod­ucts. Lenzing’s site is also one of the loca­tions of Evonik Fibres GmbH, where its poly­imide chem­istry is produced. Based on this chem­istry, Evonik Fibres special­izes in high-temper­a­ture resis­tant powders, fibers, and membranes for a vari­ety of envi­ron­men­tal appli­ca­tions — from hot gas filtra­tion to the biogas sepa­ra­tion neces­sary to produce biofu­els. In fact, the inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies offered by Evonik Fibres GmbH have been partic­u­larly awarded for the CO₂-saving poten­tial in their application.

Exper­tise is a shared resource, too: New employ­ees at Evonik Fibres GmbH and Evonik Peroxid GmbH attend train­ing sessions at Lenz­ing AG as part of their compre­hen­sive appren­tice­ship programs.

Evonik Peroxid’s Manag­ing Direc­tor, Dr. Josef Miklautsch, visited Lenz­ing together with Evonik repre­sen­ta­tives on May 4, 2023 — exactly 40 years after the first deliv­ery of biobased acetic acid — to honor the part­ners’ long collab­o­ra­tion for sustain­able indus­try. “Prior­i­tiz­ing sustain­able processes and utiliz­ing renew­able raw mate­ri­als simply makes good busi­ness sense,” he said. “Four decades years of success­ful collab­o­ra­tion have shown that. And although effi­ciency and supply secu­rity may have been the deci­sive factors in 1983, today, we are even more keenly aware that resources are finite. That is why we are focused on inte­grat­ing sustain­abil­ity along our entire value chain.”

“For 40 years, biobased acetic acid has been one of Lenzing’s key prod­ucts for the biore­fin­ery segment and is highly demanded and trusted by customers across indus­try sectors,” said Elis­a­beth Stanger, Senior Direc­tor of Biore­fin­ery & Co-Prod­ucts for the Lenz­ing Group.