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many people thought was impossible has become a reality.” He pointed out that 6,000 of Solar Impulse’s parts incorporate Solvay materials. Patrick W. Thomas, chief executive officer of Bayer MaterialScience, another partner in the Solar Impulse project, wasn’t to The world’s largest plastics show highlighted be outdone. He noted how his company’s INNOVATION and sustainability materials are being used in the cockpit and ALEXANDER H. TULLO, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU in other parts of the plane. “Sometimes, it means a competitive challenge about who can make the lightest wingtip,” he said. BERTRAND PICCARD managed to bring the last fair in 2007 but exceeding organizMany polymer companies promoted down the house at the recent K 2010 Iners’ expectations of 200,000 attendees. developments along these lines. Rhodia ternational Trade Fair for Plastics & RubPiccard captured the moment. Despite unveiled a nylon-based thermoplastic ber in Düsseldorf, Germany. He’s a Swiss the recent recession, exhibitors were upcomposite that it claims will ease the incorpsychiatrist, balloon pilot, and flamboyant beat, reflecting a plastics industry with poration of composites into automobiles. promoter of Solar Impulse, a completely renewed confidence in what it can accomDuPont released new grades of nylon solar-powered airplane that this summer plish. Innovation and sustainmeant to increase the life span of made a 26-hour flight and is now being preability were the words used most plastic parts under the hood. “We pared for intercontinental voyages. often at the show, usually togeth- BIG MACHINE A believe there has never been a At the booth of Solvay, a major Solar er. “Today, for us, the message is, Windmöller & better time for high-performance Hölscher filmImpulse partner, Piccard donned a flight first, innovation,” said Jacques plastics,” DuPont’s regional direcblowing line on jacket before a standing-room-only crowd van Rijckevorsel, general mantor of performance polymers, Björn display at the and extolled how the airplane—which ager for plastics at Solvay. “What K 2010 show. Hedlund, said in a presentation at has the wingspan of an Airbus and DuPont’s booth. the weight of a car and needs less In addition to making conveypower to fly than a scooter does to ances lighter through plastics, operate—would not have been posplenty of companies that exhibited sible without lightweight polymers. at K 2010 are trying to do their part “Maybe the people who make plasto help save the planet by making tics don’t appreciate the role they plastics out of plants. are playing in the evolution of this Brazilian chemical maker planet,” he said, closing the press Braskem unveiled the next stage conference. Journalists rushed the of its initiative to make polyolefins podium to get pictures. from Brazil’s cheap ethanol supply. Drawing attention at K 2010 In September, Braskem started up wasn’t easy. The fair, held from Oct. 200,000 metric tons per year of 27 to Nov. 3, was massive—con“green” polyethylene production, siderably larger than any plastics based on ethylene made via the show and larger, perhaps, than any dehydration of ethanol. At K 2010, other event related to chemistry. the company announced plans for Some 3,102 exhibitors occupied all a new facility to convert ethanol 19 halls at Düsseldorf ’s enormous into 30,000 metric tons per year of convention center, Messe. A brisk propylene, which will then be used walk from one end of the fairto make polypropylene. grounds to the other takes no less Although Braskem is collaboratthan 20 minutes. Materials compaing with Novozymes to make propylnies, such as polymer and additive ene out of biomass, Rui Chammas, producers, dominated three or four Braskem’s executive vice president of the halls. for polymers, said it won’t use that Most of the space was dedicated joint technology for this facility, to machinery manufacturers, who which is expected to open in 2013. spend several weeks before the He wouldn’t say much more about show setting up working producthe technology except that the protion equipment, including filmpylene will be derived from ethanol blowing lines that are four stories that is not directly from biomass. tall, right on the show floor. The facility will come with a hefty K 2010 drew 220,000 visitors, price tag, about $100 million. On down somewhat from 240,000 at the basis of capacity, that’s far in exWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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cess of the $250 million its ethylene plant cost. When asked at the press conference how cost-competitive the new material will be with petroleum-based polypropylene, Chammas replied that the “market concepts were completely different.” In other words, customers are willing to pay more for some biobased materials. He added that 70% of Braskem’s biobased polyethylene production is already under contract to large multinational firms such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Tetra Pak. “It brings a different value,” Chammas said. “It’s not in competition with traditional polymers.” Braskem isn’t alone in planning the production of polyolefins from Brazilian ethanol. At K 2010, Mauro Gregorio, commercial vice president of basic plastics for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Dow, said, “We continue to invest in polyethylene from sugarcane.” This was something of a revelation. In 2007, Dow teamed up with Brazilian sugarcane processor Crystalsev to build a 350,000-metric-ton sugar-based polyethylene plant in Brazil by the end of 2011. By 2009, however, Crystalsev had pulled out, and the project seemed dead. At K 2010, Gregorio told C&EN that Dow is in final stages of discussions with a new partner. OTHER COMPANIES also introduced bio-
based polymers at the show. DSM unveiled Arnitel Eco, a polyester block copolymer in which blocks of hard polybutylene terephthalate alternate with blocks of a softer
“There has never been a better time for high-performance plastics.” elastomeric material derived from rapeseed oil. Arnitel Eco can have between 20 and 50% biobased content depending on the size of the soft block. And the more elastomeric the polymer is made to be, the more biobased content it contains. The company is targeting durable goods, cars, and sporting goods with the product line. In addition to unveiling new materials, plenty of firms used K 2010 to introduce themselves. The CEOs of Canada’s Nova Chemicals, Abu Dhabi’s Borouge, and Austria’s Borealis held a joint press conference. All three companies have Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co. as a common investor. IPIC owns Nova and controls Borealis, which, in turn, owns half of Borouge. “Think of us as a Japanese or Korean group that is managed by common shareholders and cross-board seats,” Borealis CEO Mark Garrett said. The companies cooperate better with each other than do the regional units of two of his former employers, Ciba and DuPont, Garrett contended. Styron, the styrenics and polycarbonate business that Dow sold to Bain Capital in June, likewise used K 2010 for corporate branding. It was also the only plastics company to announce an acquisition at the show: the purchase of Dow’s 50% interest
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in the Japanese polycarbonate joint venture Sumitomo Dow. The purchase is a coup for Styron. Dow also ran a larger polycarbonate joint venture in South Korea, but its partner, LG, took advantage of an option to buy out Dow, depriving Styron of an opportunity for an Asian foothold. “It was very important for us to secure that business,” Styron CEO Christopher D. Pappas, former head of Nova Chemicals, acknowledged about the Japanese purchase. Companies from oil-rich countries, heirs apparent to the plastics industry, had a strong presence at the show. An affiliate of Iran’s National Petrochemical Co. had a pavilion right next door to Saudi Basic Industries’ booth. Russia’s Sibur was only a couple of doors down. The company is expanding its output of polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride—all in Russia. And the firm issued an announcement that it is targeting exports to Europe and China. Sibur President Dmitry Konov isn’t quite as charming as Piccard, the Solar Impulse promoter, just yet. “The picture with Europe is quite an interesting one,” he announced at the meeting. “The relative competitiveness of the European petrochemical companies in comparison with Russian ones is beginning to look rather poor.” ■
