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Biosolvents
for Coatings, Resins and Biobased Materials 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
TM and its blended solvent with methyl soyate VertecBio Gold TM 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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