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By Germain HURTADO – Sustainable chemistry, known as green chemistry, also focuses on the environmental impact of chemistry, including the reduction of non-renewable resource consumption and technological approaches to pollution prevention.
Green chemistry addresses our future challenges, working with chemical processes and products, inventing new reactions, preventing chemical pollution, and managing resource depletion.
In 2005, Prof. Robert GRUBBS (USA), Dr. Richard SCHROCK (USA), and Dr. Yves CHAUVIN (FR) collectively received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis. Although this technology has been widely used in the industry for manufacturing drugs and chemical intermediates, the use of a ruthenium catalyst for Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP) of olefins allowed the launch of new high-performance polymers. The main advantages of ROMP are atom economy, very low energy consumption for activation and processing, as well as very low production of by-products and hazardous waste. It highlights 5 key boxes of green chemistry principles.
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Solar-powered ice factory in the Amazon that eliminated a 5-hour trip to Manaus, prevents the loss of up to two-thirds of the fish, and now ensures income for more than 30 riverside families.
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Every time a river flows into the sea, an amount of energy equivalent to a 120-meter waterfall is silently wasted, but Japan has just inaugurated the world’s first power plant that captures this waste and transforms it into electricity 24 hours a day without sun, wind, or fuel.
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Silicon Valley bets on a 100-hour battery that uses carbon and oxygen to store renewable energy for days and could turn a little-known chemical system into an alternative to critical metal batteries to tackle prolonged blackouts.
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Fortescue announces a radical shift by replacing diesel with a system featuring 1.2 GW of solar energy, 600 MW of wind energy, and up to 5 GWh in batteries, a giant project that could save $100 million per year and transform heavy mining into one of the largest 100% renewable operations in the world by 2028.
On both sides of the Atlantic, two start-up companies, Materia Inc. (Pasadena, CA) and DEMETA SAS (Rennes, France), had the idea of utilizing this discovery through the formulation of cyclo-olefins, including DCPD (dicyclopentadiene), with additives and a catalytic system. By simple mixing, the reaction is initiated and leads to a polymer with unique mechanical and thermal characteristics. It is noteworthy that these catalysts are extremely robust, insensitive to oxygen or water, and therefore do not require complex molds or injection systems. The two start-ups patented their slightly different systems and market them under the Proxima® and NexTene ™ brands, respectively.
The Classic Families of Coatings Are:
• Polyurethanes that are generally sensitive to high temperatures (> 80° C)
• Epoxies have limited moisture resistance and are brittle. Additionally, some formulations can be very expensive.
• Generalized polypropylene is not temperature resistant (both high and low) and the injection equipment and tools are quite costly.
• Silicones have good thermal properties but are expensive for most applications.
Other technical polymers such as PEEK or PVDF are emerging in our industries but are not readily available and are very expensive, both in implementation and CO2 balance.
In contrast to these materials, Proxima® and NexTene ™ resins combine excellent resistance to corrosion, hydrolysis, and temperature, with very good thermal insulation and a density close to 1.
In addition to coatings, such as those used in the Appomattox project in the Gulf of Mexico, the type of resins developed by Demeta and Materia also finds applications in flotation modules, custom coatings (combining corrosion protection and excellent thermal insulation), but also in the field of composite materials, allowing, thanks to a density of 1.03, to further reduce the weight of installed underwater systems.
Helps Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Projects
“Our product is fully engaged in the efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of our industries. The carbon footprint of NexTene ™ is reduced to half compared to that of epoxy, polyurethane, polypropylene resins, etc… and this without compromise, neither in mechanical properties nor in thermal properties, nor in its implementation”.
Patrick PIOT, CEO of DEMETA.
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