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Responsible Chemistry Meets Essential Needs

IMPROVING LIVES AROUND THE WORLD WHILE MINIMIZING OUR IMPACT ON THE PLANET.

Demonstrating progress against our goal requires us to measure our products’ impacts and how they contribute to the UN SDGs. We do this through EVOLVE 2030, our product sustainability assessment methodology. This methodology considers greenhouse gas emissions, landfill waste, and fluorinated organic chemical emission intensities during manufacture as well as life cycle climate impact, social impact, and risks to human health and the environment. During 2023, we further evolved this methodology to incorporate product circularity for the first time.

Our 2023 Actions

  • Completed circularity method development and piloting for EVOLVE 2030 2.0
  • Started third-party assurance of EVOLVE 2030 2.0 and product-application combination (PAC) evaluations by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), which was completed in January 2024
  • Contributed to the conversation of Green Chemistry and Sound Chemical Management by presenting at US Environmental Protection Agency organized Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) workshop
  • Supported two Tennessee State University environmental engineering classes in teaching risk assessment
  • Continued to expand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workshops for schools from 2021–2022 Phase 1 demonstration of concept

2030 CRC Goals Snapshot

Sustainability RESOURCES

Multi-colored umbrella over people walking in the rain
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Opteon™ Sustainable, High-Performance Products with Low GWP
The performance today demands. The future tomorrow deserves.
Highway spanning over a waterway
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Aspiring to Be the Most Sustainable TiO₂ Enterprise
Ti-Pure™ titanium dioxide is a different kind of TiO₂ producer.
Large Hydrogen tanks and windmills
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Responsible Chemistry Ushers in the Hydrogen Economy
With Nafion™ ion exchange membranes making the most of renewable sources of energy, we can energize electric and fuel cell cars, trucks, and trains—all at the same time.
View Video Transcripts
In 2020, the world reduced its demand for fossil fuels for the first time in human history, but to keep that going, we must decarbonize energy production.

That seems daunting, but by using renewable energy to create hydrogen, we can create an energy system without emissions.

Responsible chemistry is essential to our changing world, and continued chemical innovations, such as Nafion™ membranes and dispersions, will usher in the next normal – the birth of the hydrogen-powered society.

Building that society depends on the chemical properties of Nafion™, which efficiently converts heat from the sun and power from the wind into clean hydrogen—instantly.

With Nafion™ membranes, we can convert excess renewable energy into the power that electrolyzes water, converting it into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen is a near-perfect fuel, providing clean power and emitting only pure water vapor. Because of that, hydrogen can all but eliminate the emissions from energy-intensive industrial processes.
It can serve as a feedstock for industry, energize fuel cell powered vehicles, and even heat homes and buildings.

It’s time to let the future in. And Nafion™ membranes and dispersions are here to do just that— and help bring about the next normal.

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Case Studies

mock rendering of a car with energy cells in the floor

Helping to Electrify Transportation

Chemours is helping to drive the energy transition and electrification of transportation through the power of our fluorine-based chemistry. The electrification of the transportation sector is projected to increase the demand for lithium-ion batteries by five to ten times in the next decade. To shorten the production times of electric vehicle (EV) battery components, the removal of solvents from electrode manufacturing is currently being explored by all major original equipment and battery manufacturers globally. Teflon™ PTFE Fluoropolymers, used in the development of solvent-free battery electrode manufacturing, can enable more cost-effective and energy-efficient vehicles. This manufacturing process eliminates the need to use a hazardous solvent and significantly reduces the physical manufacturing footprint required to create the same level of electrode output. The net result is a less expensive battery that can lead to more EV adoption.

hydrogen storage tanks

A Cleaner Path to Green Hydrogen

Nafion™ proton exchange membrane technology is a critical component in water electrolyzers for hydrogen production, flow batteries for power storage, and fuel cells to generate electricity in transport and stationary applications—all of which contribute to the clean energy transition. During 2023, we announced a $200 million investment to increase capacity and advance technology for Nafion™ at our manufacturing facility in Villers-Saint-Paul, France. This investment builds on the existing efforts in the U.S. to have a reliable supply chain and robust capacity to enable the hydrogen economy.

Hand picking up grains of plastic

Furthering the Circular Economy

With the aim to reduce reliance on virgin materials and contribute to the circular economy, the Chemours Nafion™ technology team in 2023 undertook a feasibility study to determine whether it was possible to isolate, recover, purify, and recycle Nafion™ polymers from used chlor-alkali (CA) membranes. Using post-industrial CA membranes collected from customers, a multistep process resulted in recycled Nafion™ dispersion with levels of contaminants at values lower than the purity and performance specifications for standard Nafion™ dispersions.

Partnering for Progress

Sharing Green Chemistry Practices 

Chemours works to advance sustainable development by strengthening cooperation among government authorities, industry, and trade stakeholders that foster innovation, promote high standards of protection for human health and the environment, facilitate economic development, and promote social progress. An example is our participation in APEC, an intergovernmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In 2023, this participation included the APEC Green Chemistry and Sound Chemicals Management Workshop. This hands-on workshop provides experiential learning of efficient chemical risk assessment practices that support the effective sound management of chemicals efforts across various organizations and countries to further harmonization of practices.