MUNDOMATERIAL

1,3-Propanediol, also known as PDO, is an organic compound used as a monomer in a variety of applications. At the moment PDO can be obtained from both petrochemical and renewable sources. This gives me the chance to analyse how both routes lead to the same chemical, but not the same product. Some of the main applications for PDO are listed below: As a monomer in the production of polymers As heat transfer fluid, coolant and solvant As an additive in thermoplastic polyurethanes, to improve thermal, hydrolitic and dimensional stability As an additive in polyester systems, to improve flexibility of coatings formulationsas a chain extender in polyurethane formulations The largest producer of PDO is Shell, which manufactures it in its US plant in Geismar. Shell began PDO production in 2000 and it now has a plant capacity of 73 kt per year. The proprietary Shell method for producing PDO is the hydroformylation reaction of ethylene oxide (EO) with syngas to make 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (HPA)... 
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I just created a bioplastics group on linkedin to discuss related topics. I invite you to join it: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1454117 Linkedin is a social network directed to professionals, to promote networking and discussions. You can check my profile, but if you are new to linkedin, I recommend you have a look around. For those of you that already know it, just say that it has become much more proactive. You can now use different tools to encourage professionals with similar interests to meet, tools like groups, questions or notifications of events. I have asked a few open questions, which anyone can answer. The great advantage to me is that with linkedin I can check what type of background the person answering has, which can be any really. Here you have links to my questions, although the 3 are closed now! what is the future of bottled water? How is REACH going to impact your business? What materials are used to produce bicycles? Have fun! AKPC_IDS += "1693,"; 
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Bioplastics and other new materials offering environmental advantages have created a bit of confusion with the terms related with their source and end of life. I would like to shed some light in some of vocabulary used, starting with perhaps the less defined and yet more important word: Bioplastic: Plastic obtained from natural and renewable sources Most bioplastics are biodegradable and compostable, but they do not need to be in order to be classified as bioplastics. Similarly, not all bioplastics are sustainable. In Brazil, for example, there has been a lot of interest in obtaining traditional plastics from soy and other fast growing crops. Even though it sounds great, there are concerns about the impact these crops may have on the rain forest surface. To better understand the differences between new bioplastics, it is important to have some concepts clear. I have divided the vocabulary in two main aspects: sourcing of the raw materials and degradation process of the bioplastic. Degradation... 
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Earlier in Septembre the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) part of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) announced the 8 finalists for the Innovation awards that will be voted attendees of “Polyurethanes 2008 Technical Conference”, to be held in San Antonio. There are three different categories for the awards chemical: Merquinsa, Ashland Performance Materials y BASF processing equipment: Graco y KrausMaffei finished products: Acma Industries, BASF y co-finalistas Fenner Precision y HP Labs You may remember my post from the 21st July, Renewable TPEs, where I discussed Merquinsa‘s new product, Pearlthane® ECO, for which is being nominated. It consists of a range of thermoplasic polyurethanes, TPUs, with a renewable content ranging from 30 to 90%. BASF is also nominated for introducing renewable content. In particular for its range of natural poliols, BALANCE, used in the production of polyurethane foam. The third nominee is Ashland Performance Materials, for... 
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Thermoplastic elastomers, or TPEs, deserve a post of their own, as they are an interesting polymeric family that is not very well known. You can find a good introduction in Wikipedia. If you are not familiar with Wikipedia, give it a go, you’ll be surprise how thorough it can be considering is free. Just be careful to check the facts elsewhere afterwards, as anyone can edit an entry and some are almost like corporative pages. Coming back to the initial issue, TPEs have rubber and thermoplastic properties. This combination of properties is achieved by blends of elastomers and thermoplastics or by using copolymers. Usually elastomers are thermosets and the crosslinking is by a covalent created during vulcanisation. TPEs crosslinked thanks to weaker bonds or by bonds being created in only one of TPE’s phases. In the previous table you can see types of TPEs commercialised, some companies that produced them and their trade name. Links are at the bottom of the post. Arkema and DuPont... 
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