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