NEWS
IMCD opens four more labs
IN BRIEF
Biocatalysis alliance Olon has formed a partnership to combine its industrial-scale fermentation with Zymvol’ s computational enzyme design. The two claim to be creating“ an end-to-end pathway from enzyme discovery to ton-scale production”, thus addressing the costs, time and scale-up challenges that have restricted the industrial adoption of biocatalysis.
IMCD has in short order opened a newly integrated headquarters and technical centre for food, beauty and home care applications in Malaysia, beauty and personal care applications laboratories in South Korea and California, and a construction laboratory in Indonesia. These all form part of a network of 80 + technical centres worldwide.
The revamped site at Kuala Lumpur brings together all of IMCD Malaysia’ s headquarters and laboratory facilities under one roof. The firms said that it“ combines technical capability, application development and customer engagement spaces” and brings together hitherto dispersed technical and commercial teams.
Features include the Beauty & Personal Care Laboratory, supporting formulation development for skin, sun and hair care, toiletries and colour cosmetics, and the Beauty Studio, which can develop prototypes based on 20 chassis formulations. The Home Care I & I Laboratory, meanwhile, supports the testing and formulation of laundry, dishwashing, surface care, vehicle care, air care and pet care products.
The opening of the lab in Seoul( pictured) follows on from the acquisition of Dong Yang FT in October 2025. The company said that the lab is designed“ to support close
collaboration with customers, from formulation development and technical troubleshooting through to early-stage innovation” in areas including skin, sun and hair care, colour cosmetics and toiletries.
Key equipment at the site includes mixing and homogenising systems, plus analytical and stability testing instruments. The Beauty Studio adjacent to it will act as a practical product development accelerator, helping customers to move from idea to prototype using pre-developed chassis formulations with different textures and sensorial profiles.
Similarly, the new US facility at Brea, is designed as a hub for co-creation, featuring an expanded laboratory and areas dedicated to development meetings and formulation workshops. IMCD said that the lab will enable its own teams, customers and principals“ to explore concepts together and turn ideas into market-ready prototypes with greater speed and efficiency”.
The construction facility at Jakarta, meanwhile, is said to bring construction expertise together with the company’ s established coatings laboratory,“ creating a single hub where its technical and commercial experts, customers and principals can collaborate more closely on formulation development, testing and technical problem-solving”.
Surfactants from CO 2 German surfactants specialist Zschimmer & Schwarz has signed a joint development agreement with start-up Viridi, seeking to accelerate the scale-up and market adoption of Viridi’ s technology for the production of sustainable surfactants based on
CO 2
. This follows extensive trials that identified multiple potential applications and use cases.
Eastman in Korean alliance Under a new memorandum of understanding, Eastman will use Kolmar Korea’ s end-to-end manufacturing capabilities and global reach to market its Esmeri cellulose ester technology, with other ingredients potentially to follow. This includes the latest addition to the range, Esmeri CC1N10, a readily biodegradable micropowder for colour cosmetics.
Hydrite expands Hydrite has bought an 11-hectate property at Laurens, South Carolina, to develop into a new facility that should come online in 2028. This will become the hub of Hydrite’ s Southeastern US operations, including the Enterprise Specialty Products, which the company acquired in September 2025. It will make products for the water treatment, coatings, adhesives, inks and construction markets.
MAR / APR 2026 SPECCHEMONLINE. COM
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