Nouryon opens new innovation centre in Shanghai
Specialty chemicals leader Nouryon has announced the opening of its newest innovation centre in Shanghai, China. It adds that the centre more than doubles the space of the company’s previous facility in Shanghai and significantly enhances its technical capabilities with investments in testing and analytical equipment focused on high-growth sectors like agriculture, electronics, construction and pharmaceuticals. And specific to the personal care sector, a highlight of the new facility includes a customer experience center.
“The launch of our innovation centre in Shanghai marks another important milestone in Nouryon’s future in China,” said Charlie Shaver, chairman/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 – currently the 14th in the company’s global innovation network – supports rapid prototyping, performance testing and the development of solutions tailored to Chinese industries.
It features eight specialised laboratories including new labs dedicated to Expancel thermoplastic microspheres for lightweight plastic materials, Kromasil chromatography media for pharmaceutical purification, Levasil colloidal silica for catalyst technologies, and Bermocoll cellulose ethers for use in paints and coatings.
A key highlight of the facility is a customer experience center for Nouryon’s Personal Care business, offering hands-on customer collaboration through workshops, live demonstrations and formulation development.
Each lab is equipped to address specific market needs:
- Personal Care: Supports advanced cosmetic formulation for skin, sun, hair and color care.
- Cleaning: Delivers solutions for household, institutional and industrial applications.
- Paints and Coatings: Focuses on optimising Bermocoll for water-based paints and coatings.
- Agriculture: Enables formulation studies for liquid and solid agrochemicals.
- Natural Resources: Supports sectors like batteries, electronics, natural fibers, oilfield, fuels and lubricants and mining.
- Expancel: Specialises in lightweight thermoplastics and application-specific co-engineering.
- Kromasil: Introduces chromatography platforms for pharmaceutical purification.
- Levasil: Is a catalyst application hub for emission control and petrochemical industries.
Nouryon also recently announced that in 2026, the company will open an organic peroxides innovation centre in Tianjin to provide specialised polymer application capabilities for faster product development and enhanced customer support.
