Friday, September 26, 2008
2008 R&D 100 Winner
Current powder coating resins and formulations have one serious limitation that restricts their use—they generally require moderately high oven temperatures (typically above 175°C) to provide the good flow and cross-linking that result in acceptable performance. Many of the substrates to be coated (e.g. plastics, wood, bio-composites) are, themselves, quite temperature sensitive and cannot tolerate the high temperatures required for powder coatings formulations. Overcoming this limitation is Bio-Based Powder Coating Technology, a low-temperature powder coating technology developed by researchers at Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, jointly with Hexion Specialty Chemicals s.r.l., Sant’Albano Stura, Italy, the Ohio Soybean Council, Columbus, the United Soybean Board, St. Louis, Mo., and John Deere, Moline, Ill. The bio-based powder coating technology combines resin compositions derived from renewable bio-sources and is compatible with existing formulation, processing, and application practices in the industry. Its ability to operate at 130°C offers significant energy savings of over 14% compared to conventional high-temperature technology. In addition, using renewable resources to derive these resins has a favorable environmental impact, with the ability to reduce CO2 emission by 30% over petroleum-based resins.
Technology
Bio-based powder coating
Developers
Battelle
Hexion Specialty Chemicals s.r.l.
Ohio Soybean Council
United Soybean Board
John Deere
