DuPont Launches Next Family of Bio-Polymers; Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings
04 June 2007
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DuPont has announced its next polymer family made with renewable resources: Cerenol. This patented new product line joins DuPont Sorona as the newest polymer family made with corn instead of petroleum.
Cerenol is a family of renewably sourced, high-performance polyols (polyetherdiols). The liquid polyol is made using Bio-PDO from the DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products joint venture in Loudon, Tenn. Cerenol is the result of polymerizing Bio-PDO with itself. (Earlier post.)
Compared to existing alternatives such as polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG), DuPont Cerenol has a significantly lower environmental footprint as determined by an ISO 14000-compliant Life Cycle Analysis, because from cradle to gate it has a 40% savings in non-renewable energy and 42% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Cerenol is being produced at DuPont operations in the United States and Canada.
Cerenol will be the building block for two other renewably sourced products from DuPont. First, for new automotive primers and clearcoats from DuPont Performance Coatings that will be available in the first quarter of 2008, Cerenol provides increased chip resistance and flexibility. Second, grades of DuPont Hytrel thermoplastic elastomers made with Cerenol will be available in late 2007 and will offer performance comparable to conventional grades.
Cerenol can replace petroleum-based ingredients or finished products without compromising functionality. It offers value-added properties and can increase process efficiencies for a broad range of products in diverse markets including personal care, functional fluids and high-performance elastomers.
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Am I too late to get into corn futures? Are we in a maize-based economy? Bye-bye corn flakes.
Posted by: swen | 04 June 2007 at 01:15 PM
I see a future where we have all kinds of cool plastic things, but where people have to eat tree bark and grass clippings.
Posted by: eric | 04 June 2007 at 02:11 PM
At least it's a form of carbon sequestration. I just want to know if I can give my kids a toy and then put milk on it for breakfast after they break it.
Posted by: Neil | 04 June 2007 at 02:43 PM
people have to eat tree bark and grass clippings
you say this as if it were a bad thing!
Here's a mesaage from the Surgeon General
The Obesity Crisis in America
Posted by: DS | 04 June 2007 at 03:08 PM
This seems like a better use for corn than the ubiquitous corn syrup we use way too often as sweetener. That stuff is in everything.
Posted by: Cervus | 04 June 2007 at 03:26 PM
I think US corn is petroleum based anyhow!! How much gas does it take to produce a ton of corn?
Posted by: chris | 05 June 2007 at 03:53 AM
Kudos to DuPont! Using any excess corn stocks to produce plastics, such as this, makes much better sense that using that corn to make ethanol. Stop this ethanol debacle and we wont have to eat grass clippings. (The tree bark food source would be to damaging.)
I also agree with Cervus that we could all stand to have much less corn syrup in our lives.
Another burden on our already strained farmland availability will be in using real popcorn to eventually replace foam packing peanuts. Corn for plastics, corn for packing peanuts, corn for ethanol(?), and soybeans for biodiesel will leave very little available farmland for lettuce or tomatoes or beans or potatoes. The tree bark/grass clipping comment may be closer to being reality.
Posted by: Mark A | 05 June 2007 at 05:40 AM
Hey americans need to eat less anyways.
Posted by: Ben | 05 June 2007 at 09:49 AM
After the floods, the heat waves, the hurricanes, the TB scares, the CO2 poisoning, the fires and brimstone... Whose hungry? Best comedy in solar system!
Posted by: sulleny | 05 June 2007 at 06:09 PM