Palsgaard’s new pellet line expands capacity to produce its plant-based additives

The line will also serve to expand the company’s capacity for producing its Einar brand of plant-based polymer additives, named after the company’s founder, Einar Viggo Schou. These additives are rapidly emerging as highly effective and sustainable alternatives to conventional fossil-based additives.

“We are seeing a fast-growing demand among consumers, brand owners, packaging designers and plastics manufacturers for more natural materials to reduce fossil depletion and waste,” says Ulrik Aunskjær, Global Industry Director Non-Food Business Development, Polymer Additives for Palsgaard. “Our expanded production capacity meets these requirements by boosting the availability of food-grade plant-based surfactants and modifiers for polymer manufacturers and compounders.”

It also addresses the needs of compounders and processors who may wish to add specific Einar products to polymers directly rather than as part of a more complex masterbatch formulation. This applies in particular to the company’s Einar anti-static additives for food and other packaging applications, where the availability of pelletised products enables a clean and straightforward process.

Palsgaard’s Einar plant-based anti-fog and anti-static additives are available in several grades, tailored to film, injection moulding, foam and coating processes for a wide range of different polymers, varying from polyolefins and PVC to PET and engineering plastics. Moreover, the Einar^® portfolio also includes slip additives, ageing modifiers, mould release agents, and dispersing aids. All products have full FDA and EU food-contact approvals.

In addition to the new pellet line, Palsgaard is investing in an advanced spray cooling tower that will raise the company’s spray capacity by at least 30,000 tonnes. The tower is scheduled for commissioning in early 2023 and will be supported by multiple new reaction, distillation, and esterification plants – all set to double the production capacity at the manufacturer’s Danish facility in Juelsminde by 2024. In total, Palsgaard expects to invest 750 million Danish Kroner (100 million €) in the expanded capacities which, in line with the company’s commitment to sustainability, will not compromise Palsgaard’s carbon-neutral status.

Ulrik Aunskjær added: “We have a number of new initiatives, including establishing a solar park and a biogas facility, which will provide the necessary power and waste management infrastructure to enable the new production capacity to also be carbon neutral. This aspect was a very important consideration in the planning process for the new investment.”

Palsgaard, with headquarters in Juelsminde, Denmark, is owned by the Schou Foundation and has 588 employees across 17 countries. The company operates plants, sales offices, and warehouses across four continents. All of their six production sites in Denmark, the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, China, and Malaysia are carbon-neutral.

www.palsgaard.com