Evonik Degussa Plans Biopolymer Foray

Evonik Degussa (Stand 6/D24) plans to debut commercial biopolymer products on the market in two to three years time according to Manfred Springer, member of the management board of Evonik Degussa Gmbh responsible for specialty materials.

The company has been working on biobased sources for plastics for the past eight months at its Bioscience-to-Business Center under agreements with various parties including academic researchers.

Intensive application development work is also underway for PEEK resin, which is manufactured at a 500-tonnes/yr joint venture Jida-Evonik High Performance Polymers in Changchun, China. Joachim Ch. Leluschko, president of high performance polymers at Evonik Degussa says the PEEK market is somewhat unique in that as a new supplier, it must work with customers to develop new applications. “We can’t target existing applications that employ grades from the other current supplier as the lengthy approval process would need to be repeated,” he explains. This can take anywhere from six months to up to two years in aerospace applications. Commercial applications are in the pipeline.

Another key business for Evonik Degussa is methyl methacrylate, where construction of a 100,000-tonnes/yr integrated production facility is underway in Shanghai, China. Part of the output of this plant will end up in LCD monitors and auto interior trims. Completion is slated for 2009.