Producer
Kuraray Co. / Calgon Carbon
Japanese chemical firm; acquired Calgon Carbon (US) in 2018 for $1.1B; 20+ facilities across USA, Europe, Asia; specialty and commodity carbons
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Activated Carbon (Calgon Carbon)
30%Specialty Chemicals & Resins (Kuraray)
35%Fibers & Textiles
25%Medical & Life Sciences
10%
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Did you know2023
Kuraray's Calgon Carbon division produces the activated carbon used simultaneously in: municipal drinking water purification (removing taste/odor compounds, chloramines, and trace organics from public water supplies); military NBC protection (the activated carbon granules in military gas masks and CBRN-protective suits that absorb chemical warfare agents including sarin, VX, and mustard gas); and industrial air pollution control (removing volatile organic compounds from factory exhaust to comply with EPA regulations). The municipal water safety supply chain, the military readiness supply chain, and the industrial environmental compliance supply chain all depend on the same coal-based activated carbon granules from Calgon's Pittsburgh-area facilities. NATO militaries purchase Calgon Carbon AC to fill replacement canister filters for soldier gas masks — the same canisters used to protect against chemical weapons that the OPCW and Chemical Weapons Convention govern. The drinking water that civilians filter with AC-based water systems and the protection that soldiers wear against chemical weapons are both enabled by the same Pittsburgh coal derivative, now owned by a Japanese rayon company.
Calgon Carbon Corporation / Kuraray ↗Origin2023
Kuraray Co. was founded in 1926 in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan — the same Kurashiki that is famous for its preserved Edo-period merchant town and the Ohara Museum of Art. The company name is a portmanteau of "Kurashiki" and "rayon" (the synthetic fiber that Kuraray was founded to produce). Starting from rayon production in 1926, Kuraray developed successive waves of synthetic fiber and polymer innovation: Vinylon (polyvinyl alcohol fiber, 1950 — Japan's first synthetic fiber), Clarino synthetic leather (1965), Vectran liquid crystal polymer fiber (1990 — extremely high strength, used in space suits, cut-resistant gloves, and sailcloth), and EVAL EVOH barrier resin (the transparent barrier layer that extends food package shelf life by preventing oxygen transmission). Each product generation represented a transition from commodity fibers to specialty performance polymers. Kuraray's 2018 acquisition of Calgon Carbon Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; founded 1942 as Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical) for $1.1 billion added activated carbon — a fundamentally different material chemistry from Kuraray's polymer expertise — to the portfolio. A Japanese rayon company founded in 1926 to supply Japan's textile industry now controls the largest US activated carbon producer, connecting the 1926 Kurashiki fiber innovation legacy to American municipal water purification systems.
Kuraray Co., Ltd. ↗