Producer
Kureha Corporation
Japanese specialty chemicals; produces bead-shaped activated carbon (BAC) for high-performance water treatment; Iwaki Japan facility
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Bead Activated Carbon (BAC)
25%PVDF (KF Polymer)
35%Specialty Polymers & Chemicals
25%Other Products
15%
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Did you know2023
Kureha's Iwaki, Fukushima facility simultaneously produces PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) as the electrode binder for lithium-ion battery cathodes (the EV and energy storage supply chain) AND bead-shaped activated carbon (BAC) for high-performance vapor-phase and liquid-phase purification (the industrial solvent recovery and water purification supply chain). Kureha's KF PVDF is used by battery manufacturers worldwide to bind cathode active materials (NMC, LFP) to current collectors in EV batteries and grid energy storage systems. The same Kureha Iwaki facility also makes spherical BAC that enables solvent recovery in pharmaceutical manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication, and industrial chemical processing — applications where granular AC's irregular shape is inadequate and spherical beads provide better flow characteristics. The EV battery supply chain and the pharmaceutical manufacturing purity supply chain both have upstream dependencies on a single specialty chemical facility in Fukushima Prefecture that survived a nuclear disaster in 2011 and continues to supply irreplaceable specialty materials to both sectors.
Kureha Corporation ↗Origin2023
Kureha Corporation is headquartered in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture — a city in northeastern Japan that is approximately 45km south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. When the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Kureha's Iwaki facility was damaged by the earthquake and the tsunami affected surrounding infrastructure. The recovery of Kureha's PVDF and specialty carbon production from the 2011 disaster was important for global supply chains because Kureha's products — particularly its PVDF (sold as "KF Polymer") and bead-shaped activated carbon (BAC) — have few equivalent substitutes. Kureha was founded in 1944 as a chemical company in the Iwaki coal chemical cluster: the Joban coalfield in Fukushima Prefecture was one of Japan's main coal production regions, and Kureha grew from coal-chemistry applications. As the coalfields closed in the postwar era, Kureha pivoted to specialty polymer chemistry, developing BAC from its carbon chemistry heritage and PVDF as a fluoropolymer specialty. A 1944 Fukushima coal chemistry company is now a critical node in both the global lithium battery supply chain (PVDF binder) and the high-performance water purification supply chain (BAC filtration).
Kureha Corporation ↗