Faced with growing competition for its main raw material, the chemical maker Ingevity is closing its pine chemical plant in DeRidder, Louisiana, in the first half of 2024. The site uses crude tall oil (CTO), a byproduct of pulp and paper production, to make adhesives and other commodities. The closure and related cuts will save Ingevity around $70 million and about 300 employees will lose their jobs. CTO is rich in fatty acids that Ingevity and other companies have been separating and upgrading for over a century. But biobased feedstocks like CTO are in increasing demand as a raw material for transportation fuels as companies move away from petroleum to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive is creating demand for biofuels in the EU. As a result, US pulp and paper mills are exporting more CTO to Europe as they used to.