Global specialty chemicals leader Nouryon will introduce its Expancel® 081 microspheres grade at the Pulp and Beyond 2026 event in Helsinki, Finland, from April 15—16, 2026. An innovative bulking agent, Expancel 081 addresses two of the biggest cost and sustainability drivers in paperboard production – fiber use and energy consumption. Specifically, Expancel 081 microspheres uniquely address the rising pressure faced by paperboard mills to increase the use of recycled fiber or fillers without losing key sheet properties like stiffness, bulk and thickness, and keep energy use in check.
Adding up to one percent of Expancel 081 to paperboard can deliver a 15% to 25% increase in bulk and thickness, giving manufacturers a practical way to meet performance targets without raising base weight. The new grade also helps maintain consistent properties when using higher levels of recycled fiber and can improve line efficiency by enabling smoother operation.
“Expancel 081 is designed for paperboard mills that need to do more with less—less fiber, less energy and less variability,” said Sylvia Winkel Pettersson, vice president for Consumer Goods and Packaging at Nouryon. “By building bulk from inside the sheet, this new grade helps customers reduce board weight, stabilize quality when using recycled fiber and unlock meaningful cost and energy savings without sacrificing board performance or increasing the risk of delamination.”
Within Nouryon’s Consumer and Life Sciences segment, these packaging solutions are part of the company’s Home and Personal Care business unit that sells critical ingredients to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of consumer essentials.
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For more information about Expancel solutions for paperboard, visit this page or contact your local Nouryon sales representative.
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