Sustainability

Sustainable chemistry is an environmental principle that is emphasized in our business practices. One of our goals is to keep our chemicals safe and non-toxic, including their method of synthesis, processing, use, and disposal. This means that we choose chemical feedstocks from renewable resources that are biodegradable and not toxic to the environment. To this end we have developed competitive polymers from amino acids and carbohydrate feedstocks.

These polymers have the potential to replace or supplement the use of vinyl polymers such as polyacrylics, polyacrylamides, and related materials. The vinyl polymers are nondegradable and persistent in the environment. They depend on feedstocks of petrochemicals and natural gas and typically are made via free-radical polymerization. Consequently, although they are very effective and useful materials, there are issues about their potential for harmful effects, particularly related to toxic monomers (building blocks) and reactants that remain in the polymeric products.

Vinyl polymer feedstock

Oil mining recovery operation

Oil refinery, vinyl feedstock production

In contrast, the biological polymers are made via thermal methods, and there are no toxic or harmful building blocks or reactants.

Renewable biopolymer feedstock

Biopolymer processing plant