BASF, Arkema increase R&D into chemicals from castor oil

19 March 2009 18:01  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW YORK (ICIS news)--Increasing interest in bio-based polymers is driving development in chemical derivatives made from castor oil, officials from chemical companies BASF and Arkema said on Thursday.

Germany-based BASF is currently marketing two castor oil-based high-performance chemicals, Ultramid Balance polyamide 6.10 and Lupranol Balance, a polyol used for the synthesis of soft polyurethane (PU) foams.

More castor oil-based products are under development, said Matthias Scheibitz, product manager for Ultramid at BASF SE.

“Using castor oil as raw material is the most competitive way to get sebacic acid, which is one of the monomers needed to synthesise our polyamide 6.10,” Scheibitz said.

“In polyols, castor oil could now be used for the first time as a raw material because a special catalyst made it possible to avoid the formation of side products with bad odour,” he added.

For France-based Arkema, most of their developments in renewable chemicals use castor oil as feedstock, said Aurelien Paumier, manager for Arkema’s polyamides business in North America.

“Our company has set a target of getting 10% of revenues out of renewable resources by 2010. Purely from our polyamide business standpoint, we will beat this target to reach around 15% by 2012,” Paumier said.

Some of Arkema’s castor-based chemicals include its Rilsan polyamide 11, polypthalamide resin Rilsan HT, thermoplastic polyamide elastomer Pebax Rnew, bio-based hot-melt adhesive Platamid Rnew and the recently launched transparent polyamide Rilsan Clear Rnew.

Paumier said the company is constantly developing new applications and new blends made from high performance castor derivatives.

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