Natural Oil Metathesis Unlocks High-Performance Building Blocks for Waterborne Coating Additives and Polyurethane Dispersions
Although the substantial drop in oil prices over the last two years has temporarily tapered capital flow into the biobased chemicals market, growing consumer demand for environmentally friendly and healthy products, increasing governmental policies targeted toward global warming, and the need for high-performance materials unlocked through biobased chemistries remain as steady tailwinds for market growth over the next several decades. Today the global renewable chemicals market is estimated at $49 billion, growing to $83 billion by 2020.1 Renewable chemicals currently represent only 1% of the global chemicals market, but will grow at three times the rate of petroleum-based chemicals for the foreseeable future.
Renewable chemicals can be classified into two main categories: “drop-in” replacements and “novel.” A drop-in renewable chemical is one that is virtually identical to a petroleum-based chemical and will access an existing market. Drop-in renewables can achieve fast adoption in segments with consumer and policy pull for biobased products, especially when oil prices are high, but typically lack performance differentiation over the petroleum-based incumbents. Novel renewables by definition constitute unique molecular structures that may enable new performance possibilities. Some novel renewable chemicals, however, are being introduced that don’t necessarily have unique structures, rather they are being accessed for the first time at significant production scale that are improving economics and enabling new applications. Novel renewable chemicals typically have a longer adoption cycle, but can unlock new performance parameters that can differentiate products and transform existing markets. Elevance is utilizing natural oil metathesis to create novel renewable building blocks that are beginning to reshape many chemical markets, including the coatings industry.