This is what a breakthrough looks like

Every day, we rely on materials that keep food fresh, water clean, and life moving. For decades, those materials have been rooted in fossil-based chemistry, embedded in packaging, and water treatment systems that quietly depend on fossil-based polymers. But dependence on fossil-based materials is not a future proof option. What we need now is a breakthrough – one that enables clean water, renewable and circular packaging without compromising on performance.

KemAlpha™ is a breakthrough technology platform that builds on alpha-glucans – a new class of renewable polymers made from plant-based sugars. Through enzymatic polymerization, we transform plant-based sugars into highly tunable materials that can be tailored for a growing range of applications.

Join us in engineering renewable polymers that meet the highest performance requirements across industries.

KemAlpha™ is a biobased, multifunctional technology platform that combines superior performance with sustainability.

Tailored and uniform

KemAlpha™ enables tailoring plant-based polymers to match performance needs such as structure, molecular weight, and functionality.

Enzymatic polymerization ensures consistent quality and a reproduceable backbone, which can be further modified with a variety of functional groups – expanding different application possibilities.

Superior performance

KemAlpha™ allows to match or exceed performance of fossil-based alternatives while at the same time providing significant sustainability benefits, breaking the trade-off between performance and sustainability.

Designed for sustainability

KemAlpha™ products have a over 50%* lower life-cycle carbon footprint compared to fossil alternatives.* These products are built from responsible produced plant-based sugars and certified for renewability and compostability. Biodegradability is intrinsic to the KemAlpha™ backbone and tailoring the structure allows to achieve end of life requirements across applications.

Optimized TCO across the lifecycle

Consumers today demand more sustainable products combined with robust performance. KemAlpha™ is a solution for this challenge with optimized total cost of ownership. This is achieved by a tailored performance with high purity and reliable supply minimizing the fossil reliance.

*Based on Kemira’s internal product carbon footprint calculations and externally verified upstream LCA data derived from an LCA study conducted by IFF.

KemAlpha™ is unlocking value across a growing range of application areas.

KemAlpha™ for water & wastewater treatment

Towards fossil free water treatment – one drop at a time

KemAlpha™ provides a sustainable alternative to at least match or exceed the performance of specific fossil-based polymers. Polymers built with KemAlpha™ combine consistent quality, safety and efficiency with biodegradability. KemAlpha™ provides exceptional performance in certain solid-liquid processes where other alternatives fail to perform e.g. industrial filtration. Demonstrated replacement of polyamine-based products at multiple industrial scale plants in Europe.

KemAlpha™ for barrier coatings

Plant-based barrier coatings to match your performance needs

KemAlpha™ provides best-in-class barrier performance compared to incumbents. Made from plant-based sugars, fully bio-based, tunable, and designed for recyclability and compostability, eliminating micro-plastic pollution. Reliable and stable – combining Kemira’s capabilities in fiber-based packaging to provide superior barrier coatings at large scale. Demonstrated coating machine runnability and barrier performance at large scale industrial pilot.

KemAlpha™ for fiber & fiber-based materials production

Boost your manufacturing process

KemAlpha™ enhances quality and process efficiency with renewable performance additives. KemAlpha™ can improve dewatering, fixation and support hydrophobic control in fiber production and paper and board making, contributing to savings, cleaner systems and stable machinery performance. KemAlpha™ has shown superior performance as an emulsification additive in sizing products. Performance demonstrated at multiples large scale industrial plants.

Powered by the sugar beet

Meet our hero source for alpha glucans: the humble sugar beet. Not to be confused with sugar cane, this biennial beet is predominantly produced in Europe and North America. It’s harvested for the sucrose it stores in its root, which is processed into sugar and co-products like molasses and beet pulp.

Despite our sweet teeth, what we at Kemira love about the sugar beet is the chemistry. Sugar beets provide a consistent, high-purity sucrose stream that hydrolyzes to glucose for precise enzymatic polymerization. They rapidly and efficiently convert carbon from the atmosphere into carbohydrates.*

Besides, sugar beets support diversified rotations on farms and deliver co‑products that complement, rather than compete with, food systems. The supply chain is often short and traceable. An ingenious innovation, isn’t it?

Questions you might have

Alpha glucan is a renewable polymer that can replace fossil-based incumbents in demanding industrial applications and lower the carbon footprint of your product without compromising on performance.

Alpha glucan is a renewable polymer made from plant-based sugars. Through enzymatic polymerization, we transform plant-based sugars into highly tunable materials that can be tailored for a growing range of applications.

In a world facing growing challenges such as water scarcity, climate change, and plastic pollution, alpha glucans offer a scalable pathway to replace fossil-based materials with sustainable and more circular alternatives. These materials can be tailored to deliver high performance across applications such as water treatment, paper-based packaging, and industrial processes.

KemAlpha ™ represents a new generation of sustainable, high‑performance renewable biopolymers built from plant-based sugars. Produced through advanced enzymatic processes, these engineered polysaccharides combine the strength and functionality of traditional fossil-based polymers with the environmental benefits of biobased chemistry. By enabling our customers to reduce their environmental footprint and meet increasingly stringent regulatory and sustainability requirements, the KemAlpha platform contributes to cleaner water, safer ecosystems, and a more sustainable future – demonstrating how chemistry can play a central role in solving society’s most pressing challenges.

KemAlpha is a new and unique technology platform with a highly customizable backbone. By adding functional groups, it creates a broad design space that enables the development of applications for many different markets. In recent years, Kemira has developed applications for its core and strategic adjacent markets, including water treatment, fiber and fiber-based materials, and industrial solutions.

Get involved now – our experts are at your service

A plant-based renewable polymer that can replace fossils in demanding industrial applications and lower the carbon footprint of your product. This used to sound too good to be true. Now, we can make it a reality. Kemira invites industry players to discover and co-innovate applications where the unique properties of KemAlpha™ can unlock the most significant value. Get in touch with our experts to shape the future with us.