Our Commitment

Environmental Stewardship

Renewable Raw Materials

Green Chemistry

Greener Alternatives for Customers

Water Management Programs

Environmental Performance

A Greener Mindset

Green Chemistry

Chemistry is essential to life as we know it—and as we want it to be. The American Chemistry Council has established its essential₂ public education campaign to emphasize this theme.

Green chemistry, based on principles of environmental stewardship, benefits both the world we live in and our ability to operate as a business.

Hercules has been following several green pathways. For our pulp and paper customers, we are reformulating products to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), absorbable organically bound halogens (AOXs), and alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs). We also are working on process improvements—filtering, extraction, reformulations—to reduce the formation of byproducts and contaminants. Other approaches involve using natural or purer raw materials in our products, and helping mills to use greater quantities of recycled fiber and develop more products that can be recycled. We look for greener alternatives on an individual product-by-product basis, searching for the best way to help customers meet their needs.

Hercules has developed next generation products using newer and greener feedstocks.  Examples include the novel Advantage biodefoamer technology for pulp and paper mills, which uses oils made from plants instead of petroleum; contaminant control treatments that use enzymes instead of solvents; and biosolvents, made with  agri-oils. Using this kind of foam-control agent in paper mills has performance advantages for the environment and customers; and it is biodegradable, FDA-approved, and derived from a renewable resource. Another application for this technology is in paints and coatings, with Advantage AV-series defoamers formulated with renewable agri-oils to produce greener, high-performance products.

As Hercules finds alternative and natural sources of raw materials for polymers, oils, and other substances, each pound of renewable material replaces a pound of petroleum-based materials and takes it out of the manufacturing loop.    

• Both rosin and alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) paper sizing technologies are derived from renewable resources. AKD is made using raw materials from agricultural oils (soy, rapeseed, palm), waste from meat rendering, and fractionation of crude tall oil. Rosins are derived from crude tall oil, a byproduct waste stream from the pulping process. Tall oil is upgraded to create a sizing agent, which is sold to paper companies to make their products more water resistant.

• Hercules' contaminant-control product line uses renewable whey protein (a milk product) and modified cellulosics (from trees) to reduce or eliminate deposits that can form in the paper-making process. Traditionally, petroleum-based solvents and kerosene were used to control formation of these deposits.

Aqualon's water-soluble polymers are improving the performance of customers' products, consumer safety, and the environment. These key ingredients make water-based paints work.   Aqualon's products help to facilitate the reduction of VOCs without sacrificing quality.  This reduces manufacturing emissions and end users' exposure to paint fumes.

• Aquaflow NLS-205 is VOC-free and specifically designed to work with the formulation of new, cost-effective paint systems that satisfy a range of rheology demands.

• Hercules is developing and optimizing more products for use in low-VOC paints and coatings formulations through the use of specialty surfactants technology acquired in 2007.

• In energy markets, customers use Culminal cellulose ethers as a binder in making advanced ceramics for catalytic converters, helping to lower sulfur emissions.

• In the oil and gas technologies industry, new EcoDura products are designed to aid compliance with regulations specifying the use of PLONOR substances—those that “Pose Little or No Risk” to the environment. These are 20% active-polymer suspensions using only approved PLONOR substances, with applications in various oil-well servicing fluids, including drilling fluids, oil-well cement slurries, and completion/workover fluids.

• In aerial firefighting, fire retardants made with natural guar derivatives are dropped from airplanes or helicopters to combat wildfires. The guar is used as a thickener to reduce runoff and keep in place the fire retardant. The guar also acts as a fertilizer to help regrow vegetation.

All trademarks of Hercules Incorporated or its affiliates appear in italics. The exception is Responsible Care and essential₂, which are registered trademarks of the American Chemistry Council.