Sustainability or performance – Choose both, says DuPont

At the upcoming NPE, several DuPont (Booth #35013) materials science businesses will join forces to showcase sustainable solutions that the company says deliver performance. This will include offerings from DuPont’s Polymer Additive group, formerly part of last year’s new acquisition, bio-based solutions specialist Danisco, apparently bearing out DuPont’s vision when purchasing the company, which was “to start with renewable raw materials and create differentiated products with excellent environmental profiles and superior economics for our customers.”

Among the products presented will be SOFT-N-SAFE, the world's foremost bio-based plasticizer which enables PVC customers to utilize safe chemistry in an environmentally responsible fashion. The group also plans to introduce a fully food-grade approved anti-stat replacement for ethoxylated amines for polypropylene films during a science and technology talk on Tuesday, April 3, at 2:30 p.m. These bio-based additive families deliver performance benefits ranging from flexibility to anti-stat and anti-fog.

The group will also be exhibiting various applications for renewably sourced high performance polymers, including two award-winning applications – DuPont Zytel RS nylon in Fiat bio-diesel fuel lines and DuPont Sorona EP polymer in Toyota air-conditioning louvers. In the former, the renewably sourced long-chain nylon was chosen in preference to competitive grades of PA12 on the basis of its superior temperature resistance and long-term aging performance in biodiesel; in the latter, Toyota opted for Sorona EP because this material offered the heat resistance and durability required to control the intensity and direction of the air blowing out of the air conditioning outlet.