Global specialty chemicals manufacturer Nouryon recently announced the opening of its newest innovation center in Shanghai, China, a facility designed to strengthen the company’s commitment to localized innovation, customer co-development and sustainable growth in China and across the Asia Pacific region. The center 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 center in Shanghai marks another important milestone in Nouryon’s future in China,” said Charlie Shaver, chairman and 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 14^th in the company’s global innovation network – supports rapid prototyping, performance testing and the development of solutions tailored to Chinese industries. 

The innovation center enhances Nouryon’s capabilities in China and features eight specialized laboratories including new labs dedicated to its industry-leading products: 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. Nouryon will be able to showcase product performance in real-world applications and accelerate the co-creation of market-ready solutions aligned with local consumer needs.

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 optimizing 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: Specializes 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.

The center also supports Nouryon’s sustainability goals by accelerating the development of eco-friendly solutions, including low volatile organic-compound coatings, fully biobased chelates, biopolymer-based personal care products and more sustainable microspheres.

To mark the inauguration, Nouryon hosted an opening ceremony on Nov. 7 at the innovation center in Shanghai, which was attended by company executives, customers, local government representatives and members of the Chinese media.

Nouryon also recently announced that in 2026, the company will open an organic peroxides innovation center in Tianjin to provide specialized polymer application capabilities for faster product development and enhanced customer support.