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European Coatings Show Preview December 2014 www european coatings show com 6 Focus Green and sustainable chemistry Prof Rolf Mülhaupt will give the keynote speech at the European Coatings Congress Sustainability and green production of raw materials is still a major issue throughout the coatings industry With his keynote speech Prof Rolf Mülhaupt will critically highlight real ity and prospects of green polymer chemistry At the beginning of the 21st century the quest for sus tainability and green economy is deeply affecting plastics and coatings businesses causing a paradigm change Originally designed as substitutes for silk ivory and natural rubber advanced polymeric materials are indispensable in modern society and sustainable de velopment The rapid growth of the world s population ex ceeding seven billion people Prof Rolf Mülhaupt University of Freiburg today and projected to reach nine billion people by 2050 together with the need for a better quality of life are paral leled by a surge in demand for food energy potable water clean air fertile soils and other resources This is rapidly de pleting natural resources and enhancing greenhouse gas emissions Therefore the aim of sustainable development is to meet the needs of the pre sent without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs Green chemistry offers solutions A key element of sustainable development is green chem istry Today green chemistry stands for minimising the use and generation of hazardous substances high energy eco and resource efficiency low emissions of volatile or ganic compounds VOC and greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide carbon footprint recycling and the use of renewable re sources Customers and politi cians growing concerns about climate change and the crisis of resources are the driving forces behind the development of green and bio products However green and bio are not at all synonymous Different strategies towards green poly mer chemistry are being pur sued by developing biobased products from renewable re sources as well as chemical fixation of carbon dioxide Synthetics often out perform biopolymers At present a major thrust in coatings and plastics develop ment is aimed at the develop ment of biobased products In the pioneering days all plas tics had green routes and were made from biopolymers such as modified natural rubber proteins and or carbohydrates In spite of their abundance cel lulose and chitin are infusible and insoluble thus requiring chemical modifications that frequently do not match the re quirements of green chemistry Biotechnological biopolymer syntheses have a high water demand entail tedious sepa ration of cell proteins and are not very flexible with respect to tailoring polymer property profiles Although we are ex periencing a renaissance in biopolymers with their high annual growth rates they ac count for less than three per cent of annual plastics pro duction and are outperformed by most synthetic polymers Hence instead of designing new bio polymers biorefiner ies are converting biomass into biobased monomers which are polymerised in efficient bulk and gas phase polymerisation processes Bio is not the holy grail Today almost all commod ity and engineering poly mers are rendered green and renewable using bio based monomers How ever neither crude oil nor biomass are cost compet itive with cheap resources supplied by fracking Biofuel production is an area that clearly reveals the limita tions of the green economy concept especially where intensive farming competes with food production endan gers biodiversity and even accelerates global warming Bio is not the holy grail of sustainable development Biodegradation depends on the climate and can cause drastically increased emis sions of fine particles The solar powered closed carbon cycle is an illusion In recent life cycle assessment studies the clear number one among synthetic and biobased plas tics are polyolefins such as polypropylene and polyethyl ene produced from both fos sil and renewable resources in highly efficient catalytic processes Instead of exploit ing biological carbon dioxide fixation and so avoiding con flicts with food supply the direct chemical fixation of car bon dioxide offers prospects for the production of fuels and polymers For example green polyurethane coatings are produced exploiting cyclic carbonates as intermediates derived from epoxides and carbon dioxide Tailored non isocyanate polyurethanes and polyfunctional cyclic carbonates hold great prom ise for coating and speciality polymer applications such as dispersants This presenta tion highlights the prospects dreams and reality of green polymer chemistry and em phasises its impact on the development of sustainable polymers and coatings xz We are carefully selecting raw materials Modern architectural coatings have to work in all climate conditions Peter Thommassen Direc tor R D EMEA at Chromaflo Technologies gives an out look on future requirements for architectural coatings and appropriate develop ment of new products   Which problems are most important to be solved through R D for architectur al coatings at the moment Peter Thommassen As pro ducers and suppliers of color ants we are facing legislation changes with increasingly stricter regulations These changes include the ban of biocides and requirements for VOC free colorants Such products may cause prob lems in the tinting dispensers Peter Thommassen Chromaflo Technologies including blockages or noz zle drying because they no longer contain glycol Today there are also more tinting machines in the market while colorant consumption has remained the same This has resulted in lower colorant consumption per machine so colorants stay in the container longer with the risk of molding losing their viscosity or drying We solve these problems by carefully selecting raw materials And we need to keep in mind that our solutions have to work in all weather and climate condi tions from Scandinavia to the hot Middle East  What do you consider the most important development for architectural coatings within the last ten years Thommassen The develop ment and evolution of VOC free colorants has changed the business Today s VOC free colorants are very differ ent from the first generation 10 15 years ago We have continually modified the product properties to answer machine requirements and changing legislation When we first started selling VOC free colorants the gear pumps in tinting machines were made of steel for instance The first colorant generation was based on just water and pig ments which of course wore the steel out quickly One way how we resolved the problem is by adding high boiling gly cols to our colorants to act as a lubricant Today we can offer a whole range of waterborne and universal VOC free color ants for internal and external architectural applications  Which aspects do you consider most when devel oping new formulations for architectural coatings Thommassen Of course whenever we develop new products we must always bear the requirements of paint manufacturers and their customers in mind One of today s greatest demands is high speed Paint produc ers are introducing new product lines to the market more often and time to mar ket has gone down consider ably Ten years ago we had about one year to test a new product before we released it But customers don t wait that long nowadays There is strong pressure on them to keep up with rapid market changes With an R D team of around 35 people in the EMEA region alone we are well equipped to meet these challenges xz