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Vertec
BioSolvents has announced that its project entitled: Biosolvents
for Coatings, Resins and Biobased Materials, won a major two year
grant from the DOE. The primary focus of this work is the
replacement of petroleum based solvents with renewable resource
based biosolvents for widespread applications in the coatings
industry.
Vertec
BioSolvents has developed and commercialized new proprietary
blends of biosolvents that provide superior price performance for
several specialty coatings applications. The recently introduced
ELSOL™ blend overcomes the odor related issues of lactate
esters. The objective of this project is to expand the use of
biobased solvents for large volume applications in the coatings
industry.
Vertec
BioSolvents has partnered with Akzo Nobel, Hexion Specialty
Chemicals and other technology leaders whose management
understands the value of "Green", sustainable,
renewable, carbon-neutral products and technologies.
Coatings
and paints are large volume products and a strong industry in the
U.S. In 2004, approximately 1.57 billion gallons (~ 16 billion
pounds) of products were produced in the U.S. with a market value
of 19.5 billion dollars. Large volumes of a variety of solvents
are used in the formulation of these products - an estimate of
solvent based products is 875 million gallons with 60% solvents
i.e. solvent consumption of 525 million gallons or approximately
4.7 billion pounds per year in the U.S. This industry is also a
very large consumer of a variety of major polymeric resins such as
polyesters, polyacrylates, alkyds, phenolics, fluoropolymers etc.
The worldwide production is estimated to be about 2 to 2.5 fold of
the U.S. production.
One
of the major challenges facing the coatings industry is the
emission of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from its products and
applications (5). Currently many of the petrochemically derived
solvents used such as glycol ethers, ketones and aromatics are
both toxic and are considered HAPs. Vertec's biosolvents are
non-toxic, non HAP, non-ozone depleting and have many other EPA
approvals and endorsements. For example, Vertec's ethyl lactate
VertecBio EL™ and its blended solvent with methyl soyate
VertecBio Gold™ carry the EPA's "Design for the
Environment" logo, which recognizes them for environmentally
preferable chemistry.
Another
challenge is the increasing cost of petrochemical feedstocks which
is translating into higher prices. The prices of many of the
petrochemically derived solvents and resins have increased by 50
to 100% over the past two years, whereas the prices of our
biosolvents have remained relatively stable.
There
is also an increasingly strong push by many countries and
initiative among many governments for sustainable technologies and
renewable resource based products, worldwide. This has challenged
many of the worldwide manufacturers and major corporations to seek
sustainable technologies for their products.
The
two primary objectives of the project are:
Develop high
performance coatings formulations using biosolvents with resins
and bio-based materials for large volume applications such as
polyesters, polyacrylates and others.
Optimize,
pilot and lead to commercial development, two or three high
performance coatings formulations using biosolvents with resins
and bio-based materials for large volume applications in
polyacrylates, polyesters or epoxies.
With
the strong support of our major industrial partners we are making
rapid progress to meet and exceed these goals.
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