UTECH North America Conf. to Focus on Sustainability & Latest Developments in the PU Industry

The sustainable use of polyurethanes and the latest developments in sustainable raw materials for the global polyurethane industry will take centre stage at the UTECH North America conference and exhibition taking place June 4th-5th 2014 at Charlotte Convention Center, North Carolina, USA.

The conferences opening day will see a full session dedicated solely to sustainability issues, which will seek to analyze why acceptance of renewably resourced raw materials has until now been relatively slow. Prof. Ramani Narayan of the Biobased Materials Research Group at Michigan State University will deliver the keynote entitled ‘The use of bio-resources, end-of-life options and LCA methodology to drive towards sustainable polyurethanes’. Prof Narayan will then chair a round-table discussion featuring proponents of the three alternative raw material technologies.

Despite the growing desire of companies to claim green credentials, the acceptance of natural?oil- based polyols, and more recent developments such as bio-succinium- and CO₂-based materials, has been slower than many expected. The conference will examine in detail the reasons for this and seek to set out a series of practical steps to foster the wider and faster acceptance of the new approaches.

The debate will open with three presentations on each basic system ? on Natural Oil Polyols (NOPs) from Green Urethanes Ltd of the UK, on bio-succinium materials from Bio?Amber lnc., and CO₂- based products from Novomer Inc. The conference floor will then be opened for contributions from all attendees, including suppliers of conventional, petroleum?based raw materials, processors and users of end products. The panel will look at processing performance, the variability of different products and the fact that standard specifications tend to have been written around the behaviour of conventional materials, rather than actual performance requirements.

The remainder of the session will comprise technical presentations detailing the latest developments in each area, including some specific polyurethane product developments. Contributors will include: Green Urethanes Ltd, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board/Troy Polymers, lnc., Myriant Corporation, Reverdia of The Netherlands, Bio?Amber lnc., DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, LLC and Cardolite Corporation.

Featuring a total of 46 detailed technical papers delivered in a total of eight sessions, the U