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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Coatings in a High Petroleum Cost World

I worked on green and natural coatings for a year in 2004. It was motivated by raw material shortages at my old company Johnson Polymer, but there were a lot of raw material shortages that year. We were thinking about making industrial polymers (for coatings and inks) from agricultural feedstocks. The world learned in 2007 and 2008 that this was a bad idea, because the agriculture prices depended on petroleum prices, and actually we were not gaining freedom -- just a different kind of dependence.

This Tuesday March 24, I will present a paper on what I learned.



Platform


Details


Uses


Properties


Bio-monomers


Bio-acrylic from lactic or

3-hydroxypropanol,

crotonic
acid and esters furfuyl alcohol, itaconates, many others


Main polymer


Bioacrylic = acrylic



Not all copolymerize well


Terpene/maleic & terpene/maleic esters


Dicyclopentadiene, limonene or
similar copolymerized with maleic anhydride/esters


Main polymer, Thickener/

colloid


Hard, often yellow



Limited supply


Proteins


Water soluble proteins: casein, soy protein isolate, whey
protein concentrate, gelatine,


Main polymer, support resin


Can be tough, clear & crosslinkable.

Pure grades are expensive.



Platform


Details


Uses


Properties


Starch/Dextrin


Used today and in the past



>propoxlated, ethoxylated,
etc

 


Modifier & thickener used in paper and in adhesive,


Highly modified grades address limitations in solubility
and water resistance – at added cost


Natural polyesters


Vegetable oil polyesters, fumarates



Used today and in the past


Main polymer


Great range of properties; Natural ones are hard to
water-base


Polysaccharides


Aqueous solutions of carrageenan,
xanthan, pectan, guar,
agar or chitosan


Modifier, support resin, main polymer


Mainly thickeners; Chitosan
– a biocide, used on paper


Rosin/tannin


Used today and in the past


Modifier, surfactant


Hard, yellowish


Others


Natural rubber, shellac, lecithin


 


 


Vernonia oil,


A naturally epoxidized oil

Supply issues


Crosslinking coatings


Good toughness

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