Pine chemicals
Pine is the pine tree, and chemical is the chemstry. Pine chemicals are useful materials such as rosin, tall oil and turpentine which are derived from pine trees. People have used rosin for many purposes since ancient times. For example, rosin was used as a waterproofing agent in the Old Testament story of Noah's ark, while the ancient Greeks used it for lighting and in religious ceremonies.
Unlike coal and oil, pine chemicals are inexhaustible resources that can be naturally replenished simply by planting more pine trees. Since ancient times, people have used pine trees as an industrial resource, and products derived from pine trees have been used for a wide variety of different purposes.
Rosin can be yielded from pine trees in three ways. The first involves separating rosin (tall oil rosin) and fatty acids from the crude tall oil formed as a by-product when manufacturing kraft pulp from pine tree as material. The second involves tapping pine trees to obtain oleoresin which is distilled to remove the turpentine and leave the rosin (gum rosin) behind. The third involves using a solvent to extract oleoresin from shredded pine tree stumps and then distilling it to remove the solvent and obtain rosin (wood rosin).
The first of these methods is the one most commonly used in industry today, and Harima Chemicals, Inc. is the only manufacturer in Japan to have set up a distillation plant for this purpose. The rosin and fatty acids produced by this plant are turned into a variety of derivatives which are used in products that exploit the properties of these materials.
Rosin is used as a raw material for paper sizing agents, emulsifiers for synthetic rubber, synthetic resins for use in paints and printing inks, adhesives and electronic materials, and is even used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. It thus plays a key role in a wide range of biochemical industries. At Harima Chemicals, Inc., the biomass by-products left over after tall oil refining are used as biofuel to produce steam which we use to generate electricity. This allows us to cut down on our use of natural resources.