Best Product Innovation Category

Judges' special mention

Lucite International

Neil Sayers, David Johnson, Graham Eastham, Neil Tindale, Neil Turner, Mark Jelpke and Roy Goulder

Alpha technology for production of methylmethacrylate

UK-based Lucite has developed and commercialised a novel process route to methylmethacrylate which has the potential to realise cost savings of over 40% compared to existing processes. The Alpha process uses readily available feedstocks, eliminates inventories of toxic and corrosive materials, and minimises production of effluents and byproducts, thus virtually eliminating waste treatment costs. Lucite had to develop two new highly selective and active catalysts and a novel separation process to realise the process, which is now in use in a 120,000 tonne/year plant in Singapore.

Runners up in this category 

Genencor/Goodyear Tire and Rubber

Jesse Roeck, David Benko, Michael Arbige, Karl Sanford and Richard laDuca

BioIsoprene

Genencor, a division of Danisco, and Goodyear began a collaborative effort to develop an alternative bio-route route to isoprene in 2008, to reduce dependence on the petrochemical product potentially in very short supply. Genencor has engineered an E. coli bacterium to produce isoprene in high yield, while Goodyear has designed an economical recovery process to produce polymer-grade isoprene. The key is production in the gas-phase which leaves the culture medium free of the product at all times, avoiding the toxic effects of product build up. The market opportunity for BioIsoprene is estimated at over 770,000 tonnes/year.

Arkema/ESPCI/CNRS

Manuel Hidalgo, Ludwik Leibler and Francois Tournilhac

New materials derived from supramolecular chemistry

The heart of this entry is an innovative polymer material based on reversible intermolecular bonds, in particular hydrogen bonds, instead of or in addition to the usual covalent or ionic crosslinkers in polymers. By controlling this type of bond and its strength, a whole new class of elastomers and rubbers can be achieved, notably with “self-repairing” properties. The hydrogen bonding is introduced by using special functional additives such as aminoethyl imidazolidone and fatty acid dimers and trimers. Products are being commercialized under the tradename Reverlink.