THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - IFEAT

OVERVIEW OF THE CHINESE GUM TURPENTINE AND TURPENTINEDERIVATIVES INDUSTRYINTRODUCTIONEnping ZhengFujian Green Pine Co., LtdHuiyao Industrial Park, Jianyang Fujian 354200, Chinachristina.zheng@greenpine.ccAs you know, terpene-based aroma chemicals play a significant role in the flavour and fragranceindustry. In previous IFEAT conferences there have been many papers on different aspects of theturpentine sector. Today I am pleased to take this opportunity to share my general understanding ofwhat China has experienced in this industry over the past few decades.My presentation provides an update on both global turpentine resources and the Chinese gumturpentine (GT industry). This will be followed by a review of the general turpentine derivativeindustry, the development of the GT derivatives industry in China, together with the challenges facedby the industry. Finally I look to the future and draw some conclusions.GLOBAL GUM TURPENTINE RESOURCES UPDATEToday turpentine supply comes from two major sources. One is obtained by the recovery effort of thekraft process during pulping pine trees - the first phase of the papermaking process. The end productis named crude sulfate turpentine (CST), the by-product from pulping mills, mainly produced in NorthAmerica.The other is obtained by tapping living tree to accumulate pine gum resin, which then is processed intogum rosin (GR) and gum turpentine (GT) with an approximate ratio of five to one. GT is the so-calledby-product of gum rosin production. One thing in common for the two sources is the nature of being a“by-product”. It means this industry is heavily affected by the “main-product”.Sources• Crude sulfate turpentine (CST)• Gum turpentine (GT)91