Eastman Chemical Company is an American chemical products manufacturer based in Kingsport, Tennessee. Founded in 1920, it was formerly a subsidiary of Kodak until 1994. The company is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibers for everyday purposes. It operates 36 manufacturing sites worldwide and employs approximately 14,000 people. In 2023, Eastman had sales revenue of approximately $9.21 billion.

Business segments

Eastman manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers, and plastics. It provides coatings, adhesives and specialty plastics products, is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers, and produces copolyesters for packaging.

The company's products and operations are managed and reported in four operating segments: Additives & Functional Products, Advanced Materials, Chemical Intermediates, and Fibers. The adhesives were patented in 1956.

Independent company (1994–present)

In 1994, the Eastman Chemical Company was spun off from Eastman Kodak and became an independent corporation. In early 2005, Eastman broke ground on the first world-scale manufacturing facility using IntegRex, a technology that reduces the number of intermediate process steps in producing PET resin. This technology is now owned by DAK Americas.

Since 2000, Eastman, and its many subsidiaries have paid more than $82 million in EPA fines. In July 2012, Eastman completed its acquisition of Solutia Inc., a manufacturer of performance materials and specialty chemicals, for $4.8 billion. In December 2014, Eastman Chemical Company completed its acquisition of Taminco Corporation for $2.8 billion.

On the morning of October 4, 2017, an explosion occurred at Eastman's Kingsport Plant around the coal gasification building. In April 2018, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation determined the cause to be a valve blockage due to slurry or debris intrusion.

Recycling

In 2019, Eastman began commercial-scale chemical recycling for a broad set of waste plastics that would otherwise be placed in a landfill or incinerated. Eastman Advanced Circular Recycling technologies complement mechanical recycling by processing a wide spectrum of waste plastics that traditional recycling methods cannot, including polyesters, polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene. These waste plastics are derived from a variety of sources, including single-use plastics, textiles, and cuttings from discarded carpet.

Eastman claims that its recycling technologies - carbon renewal technology and polyester renewal technology - provide a true circular solution of infinite recycling for materials, allowing them to be reused repeatedly. Eastman began commercial operation of carbon renewal technology in October 2019 at the company's largest manufacturing facility in Kingsport, Tennessee. In 2020, Eastman will use carbon renewal technology to recycle millions of pounds of polyester carpet that would otherwise have been placed in a landfill.

In January 2021, Eastman announced plans to build a methanolysis plant that will convert polyester waste into durable products. The company expects to spend approximately $250 million to build the facility. When completed by the end of 2022, the methanolysis plant will use over 100,000 metric tons of plastic waste that cannot be recycled by current mechanical methods to produce premium, high-quality specialty plastics made with recycled content.

In January 2022, Eastman announced it would invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France that would use Eastman's polyester renewal technology to recycle up to 160,000 tons annually of plastic waste. The plant is expected to be operational by 2025.

Manufacturing sites

Eastman Chemical Company operates 36 manufacturing sites in 12 countries:

  • Dresden, Germany
  • Leuna, Germany Eastman was awarded the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The award recognizes technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use.

In 2013, the EPA designated a 3-km radius circle around the Eastman facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, as non-attainment for the 2010 1-hour sulfur dioxide (SO2) primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The State of Tennessee continues to monitor ambient sulfur dioxide levels within the non-attainment area.

Through 2015, Eastman improved energy intensity by approximately 8% compared to a 2008 baseline. The company established a goal to improve energy intensity 20% by 2020. In 2014 and early 2016, Eastman converted two boilers at its Kingsport, Tennessee, site from coal to natural gas combustion. Three additional boilers will be converted by 2018 for a total of five. The Kingsport boiler conversion project is the most significant air pollution control project in the history of Eastman and will diversify the Kingsport facility's energy mix from 90% coal to 50% coal and 50% natural gas. Eastman also converted a coal-fired boiler at its Indian Orchard facility in Springfield, Massachusetts, to natural gas in 2015.

References

  • Environmental Release Report
  • Company Annual Report
  • Tennessee Eastman Company/Eastman Chemical Company in The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture