Toray Produces Fully Renewable PET Fiber Derived from Gevo's Biobased Para-xylene

Toray Industries, Inc. has succeeded in producing laboratory-scale samples of the world's first fully renewable biobased PET fiber by using fully renewable biobased PET derived from biobased para-xylene from Gevo, Inc., one of the leading companies in renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels.

Gevo has succeeded in converting isobutanol, produced from biomass by employing its own highly effective production method that uses synthetic biology, to synthesize para-xylene employing conventional chemical process used in commercial operations.

Toray used terephthalic acid synthesized from Gevo's biobased para-xylene and commercially available renewable mono ethylene glycol (MEG) as raw materials, and successfully produced the PET samples by applying a new technology and PET polymerization in June this year. This biobased PET has exhibited properties equivalent to petro-based PET in laboratory conditions.

Toray has also succeeded in the production of a fiber using this fully renewable biobased PET for the first time in the world. PET has one of the highest production volumes among petrochemical products in the world. Around 40 million tons of polyester fiber, for which PET is the source, is produced worldwide annually. Polyester fibers are widely used in our daily life as well as in industry, and it is one of the core products manufactured and sold by Toray.

The success of this trial, albeit under laboratory conditions, is proof that polyester fiber can be industrially produced from fully renewable biomass feedstock alone. This is a significant step that would contribute to the realization of a sustainable, low-carbon society.

Toray is planning to exhibit this laboratory-scale fully biobased PET fiber samples at Eco-Products 2011, which will be held at The Tokyo Big Sight in December 2011.

Under its management policy that all business strategies must place priority on the global environment in an effort to help realize a sustainable low-carbon society, Toray has been promoting the development of biobased polymers while expanding the businesses related to biobased materials such as poly lactic acid (PLA). The expansion of biobased polymers is an important initiative central to the Group's Green Innovation projects under its new medium-term management program "Project AP-G 2013," launched in April this year.

BASF's Tear-resistant Bioplastic Bin Liner Passes Test Under Real-world Conditions

Leftover lettuce, old bunches of flowers, potato peelings, coffee grounds: the average kitchen generates lots of organic waste. This can be turned into nutrient-rich compost in an industrial composting plant, but only if it is collected separately in advance and that can be a bothersome and unhygienic task. Throw the leftovers straight into the bin and you will be confronted with a foul-smelling residue after emptying it. Lining the bin with a paper bag means liquid soaks through, the paper tears. This dilemma results in large quantities of compostable material ending up in the normal rubbish and subsequently being incinerated, using lots of energy in the process. Alternatively, biodegradable waste is disposed of in regular plastic bags, which must be painstakingly removed at the composting plant.

Bioplastic Bin Liners

BASF has a solution to this problem: the compostable plastic Ecovio® FS. In an industrial composting plant, this innovative material biodegrades within four weeks. Bin liners made from Ecovio FS are strong and tear-resistant, even if the waste inside is wet. Liquid from tea bags or fruit leftovers does not seep through reducing unpleasant odors and putting an end to laborious bin-scrubbing. Once full, the bag can simply be put out for collection with its contents.

The plastic's properties first underwent extensive investigation in pilot projects at composting plants in Germany, Canada and Australia. But would the new compost bags pass the test when used on a large scale. To find out, BASF and its project partners examined the bags under real-world conditions. The study took place in Bad Durkheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, from April to June 2011. Around 65,000 households each received ten Ecovio FS bio-waste bags free of charge, and could buy more if needed. Consultancy IBK-Solutions GmbH was responsible for analyzing the compost. "The results were very positive," says Erhard Freunscht, the Bad Durkheim council member responsible for waste management. "Residents really took to the new bin liners, as was clear from the number of bags put out for collection. And after around three weeks, the bags had biodegraded a complete success from our point of view."

The key to Ecovio FS's outstanding compostability lies in its composition. The material comprises a partly petroleum-based, compostable plastic called Ecoflex® FS, and polylactic acid made from corn starch. Polylactic acid, which is derived solely from renewable raw materials, tends to be brittle in its pure state. But when combined with Ecoflex, a flexible plastic is created that can be used to manufacture a variety of products, including bin liners. In the controlled conditions of an industrial composting plant high temperature and humidity, defined oxygen levels microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria break the plastic down into water, carbon dioxide and biomass. In other words, they transform the bag and the bio-waste into valuable compost.

"Both components of Ecovio Ecoflex and polylactic acid, are biodegradable," explains Professor Andreas Kunkel, Head of Research for Biopolymers at BASF. "For a material to be biodegradable, it is unimportant whether the feedstock is plant or petroleum-based. What matters is the structure of the molecules. Because this synthetic polymer has been engineered for outstanding biodegradability, microorganisms can easily digest it." Ecovio FS's superior biodegradable properties are recognized internationally, and it conforms to all relevant standards for compostable and biodegradable plastics in Europe, North America and Asia.

Bio-waste bin liners are by no means the only application. Paper cups can be covered with a thin layer of Ecovio FS, making them both waterproof and compostable. The same applies to shrink films for drink bottle packaging. And not only bin liners but also shopping bags can be manufactured from Ecovio. Agriculture, too, stands to benefit: by using biodegradable mulch films for their crops instead of conventional polyethylene film, farmers can simply plough it into the ground instead of painstakingly collecting it after the harvest.

International demand for biodegradable plastics is on the rise, with experts estimating an annual market growth of around 20 percent in the next few years. And BASF, a leading manufacturer of bioplastics, has significantly expanded its Ecoflex and Ecovio production capacity to keep pace. In future these plastics should make organic waste collection much easier so more ends up as compost and less in landfill.

United States: Honda Civic Natural Gas wins 2012 Green Car of the Year award

The all-new 2012 model – the only factory-built, CNG-powered car produced in America – received the honor yesterday. The prize was presented to Honda by the editors of Green Car Journal representing a diverse panel of environmental experts and automotive enthusiasts who annually select a single vehicle for its outstanding environmental performance.


The six-judge panel on the Green Car of the Year jury selected the Civic Natural Gas from a field of five contenders,  including the Ford Focus Electric, Mitsubishi i, Toyota Prius V and Volkswagen Passat TDI.

"The Civic Natural Gas is not only a great vehicle, it also demonstrates Honda's commitment to provide a variety of alternatives to gasoline," said Michael Accavitti, vice president of marketing at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "The Civic Natural Gas and the all-new Fit EV that we introduced yesterday at the Los Angeles Auto Show are the latest additions to a rapidly expanding family of alternative energy Honda vehicles aimed at cutting petroleum use and reducing our carbon footprint."

The model’s engine produces almost zero smog-forming emissions and is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

All Civic Natural Gas models are produced by Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC (HMIN) using domestic and globally sourced parts.  HMIN is the recipient of a 2011 Platinum Award for quality from J.D. Power and Associates.  In addition to being named 2012 Green Car of the Year, previous versions of the CNG-powered Civic have topped the "greenest vehicle" rankings of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) for eight straight years.

Biggest Plastics Recycling Initiative for London 2012 Olympic Games

As part of its commitment to help London 2012 stage a sustainable Olympic Games, The Coca-Cola Company is placing 260 new recycling bins in locations around the city centre. These bins will encourage people to recycle the 11,000 tons of waste produced in the capital every day - before, during and after the Games. Working in partnership with WRAP, Coca-Cola has already established 44 Recycle Zones across the country, and has plans to almost double this number by the time the Games commence.

The process that follows the collection of waste includes the following steps: 
1. The bottle gets picked up, squashed as small as possible and taken to a reprocessing plant
2. There, the bottle is spun in a special machine to shake off dirt and a magnet removes any metal
3. All the bottles are sorted by color and type
4. The sorted bottles are ground into flakes, and the flakes are then sieved through to get rid of any discolored or contaminated bits
5. These tiny pieces of plastic can then be made into a new bottle, ready for use.

Berkeley Lab research sparks record-breaking solar cell performances

Theoretical research by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has led to record-breaking sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies in solar cells. The researchers showed that, contrary to conventional scientific wisdom, the key to boosting solar cell efficiency is not absorbing more photons but emitting more photons.

"A great solar cell also needs to be a great light emitting diode," says Eli Yablonovitch, the Berkeley Lab electrical engineer who led this research. "This is counter-intuitive. Why should a solar cell be emitting photons?  What we demonstrated is that the better a solar cell is at emitting photons, the higher its voltage and the greater the efficiency it can produce."

Yablonovitch is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work titled "Intense Internal and External Fluorescence as Solar Cells Approach the Shockley-Queisser Efficiency Limit." Co-authoring this paper with Yablonovitch were Owen Miller of Berkeley Lab, and Sarah Kurtz, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

In their paper, Yablonovitch, Miller, and Kurtz describe how external fluorescence is the key to approaching the theoretical maximum efficiency at which a solar cell can convert sunlight into electricity. This theoretical efficiency, called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit (SQ Limit), measures approximately 33.5% for a single p-n junction solar cell. This means that if a solar cell collects 1,000 W per square meter of solar energy, the most electricity it could produce would be about 335 W per square meter.

Calculations by Miller, who is a member of Yablonovitch’s research group, showed that the semiconductor gallium arsenide is capable of reaching the SQ Limit. Based on this work, a private company co-founded by Yablonovitch, Alta Devices Inc., has been able to fabricate solar cells from gallium arsenide that have achieved a record conversion efficiency of 28.4%.

"Owen Miller provided an accurate theory on how to reach the SQ Limit that for the first time included external fluorescence efficiency," Yablonovitch says. "His calculations for gallium arsenide showed that external fluorescence provides the voltage boost that Alta researchers subsequently observed."

Solar or photovoltaic cells represent one of the best possible technologies for providing an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible source of electricity. However, for this dream to be realized, solar cells must be able to efficiently and cost-competitively convert sunlight into electricity. They must also be far less expensive to make.

The most efficient solar cells in commercial use today are made from monocrystalline silicon wafers and typically reach a conversion efficiency of about 23%. High grade silicon is an expensive semiconductor but is a weak collector of photons. Gallium arsenide, although even more expensive than silicon, is more proficient at absorbing photons, which means much less material is needed to make a solar cell.

"Gallium arsenide absorbs photons 10,000 times more strongly than silicon for a given thickness but is not 10,000 times more expensive," says Yablonovitch. "Based on performance, it is the ideal material for making solar cells."

Past efforts to boost the conversion efficiency of solar cells focused on increasing the number of photons that a cell absorbs. Absorbed sunlight in a solar cell produces electrons that must be extracted from the cell as electricity. Those electrons that are not extracted fast enough, decay and release their energy. If that energy is released as heat, it reduces the solar cell’s power output. Miller's calculations showed that if this released energy exits the cell as external fluorescence, it would boost the cell’s output voltage.

"This is the central counter-intuitive result that permitted efficiency records to be broken," Yablonovitch says.

As Miller explains, "In the open-circuit condition of a solar cell, electrons have no place to go so they build up in density and, ideally, emit external fluorescence that exactly balances the incoming sunlight. As an indicator of low internal optical losses, efficient external fluorescence is a necessity for approaching the SQ Limit."

Using a single-crystal thin film technology developed earlier by Yablonovitch, called "epitaxial liftoff," Alta Devices was able to fabricate solar cells based on gallium arsenide that not only smashed previous solar conversion efficiency records, but can be produced at well below the cost of any other solar cell technology. Alta Devices expects to have gallium arsenide solar panels on the market within a year.

"The SQ Limit is still the foundation of solar cell technology," says Yablonovitch. "However, the physics of light extraction and external fluorescence are clearly relevant for high performance solar cells."

Yablonovitch believes that the theoretical work by he and his co-authors, in combination with the performance demonstrations at Alta Devices, could dramatically change the future of solar cells.

"We're going to be living in a world where solar panels are very cheap and very efficient," Yablonovitch says.

Brazilian Designer Selects Ticona's Long Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic to Design a Chair

A new plastic chair introduced in Brazil is receiving awards for its contemporary look with a focus on features such as geometry, harmony and consistency thanks to Ticona Engineering Polymers and the exceptionally well balanced property profile of Celstran® long fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFRT).

Manufactured from a single mold, the IC01 chair by designer Guto Indio da Costa uses a glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) Celstran LFRT grade from Ticona that offers design, processing and cost advantages vs. unfilled polypropylenes and acrylonitrile butadiene styrenes (ABS), as well as short glass reinforced nylons and polyesters. "In addition to the significant weight and cost advantages over typical materials used in similar applications, this Celstran PP LFRT offers high stiffness, strength, toughness and low warpage while providing wide design latitude, colorability and a much better surface finish out of the mold," said Simone Orosco, Development & Marketing Manager, Brazil.

Celstran PP LFRT grades from Ticona offer several advantages:

Weight and cost savings less weight at equal wall thickness

Improved creep resistance resists compression and deformation from skin/cover shrinkage

Improved impact performance reduces breakage during shipping, handling and assembly

Improved notched impact strength better load transfer and predictable performance in cold temperatures

Superior tensile strength higher tensile strength and elongation resulting in ductile behavior

The Ticona team, including George Dini, sales manager, Brazil, worked with the Rio de Janeiro design house Indio da Costa and its Brazilian molder Pnaples, which is supplied by the Ticona distributor Tecnopolymer. The chairs are injection molded in various colors by adding tint concentrates to the base Celstran PP LFRT.

SABIC's Low-moisture Absorbing PEI Replaces PMI in Aerospace Applications

SABIC's Innovative Plastics strategic business unit is presenting the low moisture absorption of Ultem* polyetherimide (PEI) foam for composite aircraft structures. Ultem resin's low-moisture absorption is critical in that it helps address two major aircraft OEM challenges: reducing weight for fuel conservation and emissions reduction, and lowering systems costs while delivering equal or better performance than traditional materials. Low moisture absorption combined with the proven flame-smoke-toxicity (FST), dielectric, acoustic and thermal performance of Ultem foam underscores the pioneering work of SABIC in engineering superior, world-renowned thermoplastic solutions for the aircraft industry.

"By replacing competitive materials such as polymethacrylimide (PMI) with Ultem foam, OEMs and tiers can meet their environmental goals and industry challenges, while lowering systems costs by streamlining processing and extending the application's useful life," said Kim Choate, Global Product Marketing Manager, Ultem, Innovative Plastics. "Investment in proactive laboratory testing is just one of the ways in which SABIC delivers ever-better solutions for the aircraft industry to improve performance and drive cost advantages across the board."

Ultem foam products, available in three densities, are manufactured as boards for use in skin-core-skin composite structures. Applications include luggage bins, galleys and lower wall panels.

Ultem Foam Outperforms PMI in Hot, Humid Conditions:

Testing involved exposing Ultem foam and PMI foam boards to elevated heat (70C/158F) and humidity (85 percent relative humidity) in an environmental chamber. Test results demonstrated that the Ultem foam absorbed less than 0.5 percent moisture by weight at 1,000 hours. In contrast, PMI absorbed five to six percent moisture by weight at just 150 hours and maintained those results through 1,000 hours.

Weight gain from moisture absorption adds to the overall weight of the aircraft, adversely affecting fuel consumption and emissions. On average, an aircraft will burn about 0.03 kg (0,06 lbs) of fuel per hour for each kilogram (2.2 lbs) carried on board. Given that the total commercial fleet flies about 57 million hours per year, cutting one kilogram per flight can save roughly 1,700 tons of fuel and 5,400 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

In addition, moisture absorption itself can have a disruptive effect on electronics (interference) and may cause condensation on sensitive areas of the interior. The cycle of absorption and drying that occurs as the aircraft travels through different environmental conditions also has the potential to cause delamination of a composite structure and can distort the dimensions of a part. Such results can lead to more-frequent repairs and downtime.

Ultem Foam Avoids Time and Cost of Drying Boards:

Another important benefit of Ultem foam's outstanding low moisture absorption occurs during processing. Often, PMI foam boards must be conditioned (dried and/or stored in a special area) before they can be machined, compression molded or thermoformed. This extra step adds time, costs and overhead to the process. Ultem foam avoids this scenario. Further, PMI may have to undergo a multi-step annealing process. In addition, Ultem foam is compatible with metals and thermoset laminate materials, potentially eliminating adhesives and other secondary operations that are common to the aircraft industry.

Ultem foam has a density of 10 to 30 times less than the traditional resin. It exhibits the outstanding FST performance of Ultem resin (it meets Ohio State University (OSU) performance levels below 50/50) and offers excellent dielectric and acoustic properties, including demonstrated noise reduction coefficients of greater than 0.3.