Benefiting from the development of the paper industry, the alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA) industry has developed steadily

The average carbon number of alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA) is about 16-18. It is an oily viscous amber liquid at room temperature. It is insoluble in water, but highly soluble in organic solvents such as petroleum ether, acetone, and benzene. Alkenyl succinic anhydride is currently used in the production of lubricants, rust inhibitors, waterproofing agents, hardeners, desiccants, preservatives, etc. Among them, as a neutral sizing agent, it has the highest application demand in the papermaking field, accounting for about 80% of the demand. .

There are three main industrialization routes for alkenyl succinic anhydride initially, including dehydrogenation and separation of wax to form internal olefins for synthesis, wax cracking and isomerization to form internal olefins for synthesis, and hexene oligomerization to form high carbenes for synthesis. However, with the development of environmental protection in modern industry, alkenyl succinic anhydride raw materials are gradually developing towards green materials. The synthesis of ASA from oleic acid in vegetable oil extracts as raw materials has become the main development trend.

The alkenyl succinic anhydride products currently sold in the market mainly include OSA, ODSA, NSA, and DDSA concentrated types. Among them, HDSA and DDSA have high market demand, and they account for more than 70% of the market. In terms of application, the application demand of sizing agent for paper is high, which is the main application field of ASA. Currently, the application demand is high in corrugated paper, cultural paper, kraft cardboard, white cardboard and other fields.

According to the “Global Alkenyl Succinic Anhydride (ASA) Industry In-depth Market Research and Key Area Research Report 2021-2025” released by the Industrial Research Center shows that benefiting from the drive of the paper industry, the market demand for ASA as a sizing agent continues to rise, and the global ASA market output value reached US$230 million in 2020. Among them, China, as a rapidly developing emerging economy, has a rapidly growing ASA market, with an output value reaching US$41 million in 2020 and expected to reach US$48 million by 2025. With the rapid development of the ASA industry, global production continues to rise and is expected to reach 88,000 tons by 2025.

The ASA industry has high technical barriers and the current market concentration is high. It is mainly monopolized by a few foreign companies. Representative production companies in the world include Kemira Group, Bercen, American Ventrus, Milliken Chemical, and Mare Holding. , the production sites are mainly concentrated in China and Austria. In 2020, the top three companies in the global ASA market accounted for 62%. ASA technology is monopolized by foreign companies. Domestic companies produce ASA through independent research and development, but are limited by technology and supporting services and currently occupy a relatively small share of the domestic market.

Industrial analysts said that alkenyl succinic anhydride is an important specialty chemical used for paper sizing. ASA has the advantages of fast curing speed and is suitable for neutral sizing. With the transformation from acidic sizing to neutral sizing in the papermaking industry, ASA’s market share is increasing year by year, especially in the fields of high-end cultural paper and coated processed paper. , has great advantages over other sizing agents, but is limited by factors such as raw material sources and synthesis processes. The level of domestic products is relatively backward, and there is a large gap with foreign products.