When, in 2011, the venerable German chemicals company Süd-Chemie became part of Clariant, it took a lot of foresight to predict that one of its oldest products, bentonite, would soon count among Clariant’s most modern ones. It’s a natural raw material, being mined and produced around the world, in the proximity to the customer, for over a century. The highly adsorbent clay, also called bleaching earth, is…