Dow Polyurethanes Successfully Completes Testing Phase for Natural Oil Polyols
Dow Polyurethanes, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich., has successfully completed preliminary development of natural oil polyols (NOPs) for urethane formulations and will begin product sampling with a select group of customers immediately. Dow plans to begin market development scale production of the next- generation polyols in 2007.
Since first announcing its intention to conduct small-scale product testing of NOPs with select customers in June 2005, Dow has continued to invest in further advancing the technology and capabilities of these next-generation products. "Our developmental work has reached the point where we are now able to produce natural oil polyols that can match or exceed the performance of hydrocarbon-based products, and at fairly high levels of natural oil polyol content," said Pat Dawson, business vice president, Dow Polyurethanes.