Materials
The plastics industry is
beginning to use carbon dioxide – now widely considered as a pollutant – as a precursor for making a new generation of materials.
Plastics from CO2 E
ver since it was given a central role in climate change, carbon dioxide has been the bad guy. A myriad of schemes
exist to remove – or sequester – it from the atmosphere. Then, there is the question of what to do with it. One idea, which is growing in importance, is to feed it back into the manufacturing industry – where it can be used as the precursor for fuel or even raw materials.
Several plastics companies have already begun to use carbon dioxide as a raw material to make a new generation of plastics – especially polyurethanes. US-based Novomer, for example, recently commercialised a process that converts carbon dioxide into polypropylene carbonate (PPC) polyols for use in polyurethane formulations in adhesives, coatings, sealants, elastomers and rigid and flexible foams. It is initially offering two products – 1,000 and 2,000 molecular weight grades.
The material, called Converge,
replaces conventional petroleum- based polyether, polyester, and polycarbonate polyols. It is based on the co-polymerisation of carbon dioxide and epoxides, and the resulting products contain more than 40% by weight of CO2
.
Incorporating the new polyols into existing formulations produces foams with higher tensile and tear strength, and increased load bearing capacity, according to Novomer.
“This is a significant milestone in the commercial development of this breakthrough technology,” said Peter Shepard, chief business officer for Novomer. “Our scale-up and product launch validates the robustness of our manufacturing technology and the strong interest we’ve received from a wide range of applications in the polyurethanes market.”
So far, the materials have been used commercially in coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomer applications.
The company has also confirmed two European distributors: Quimidroga will act in Spain, Portugal and Turkey, while Reschem Italia will distribute the materials in Italy.
Polyol production Meanwhile, Bayer MaterialScience is to invest €15 million building a production line at its Dormagen site in Germany, which will use
Fig. 1. Mattresses are the most likely products to come out of Bayer’s ‘Dream Factory’ project.
24
www.engineerlive.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39