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Acrylic Acid
Novomer has developed a cost-competitive, sustainable route to produce glacial acrylic acid (GAA) from plant-based and renewable feedstocks. The monomer created by combining ethylene oxide (EO) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the COEthTM process is polymerized, forming polypropiolactone-low molecular weight (PPL-LMW). PPL-LMW is hydrophobic, stable under ambient conditions, transportable in a variety of standard containers, storable for extended periods of time, and requires no special handling.
At a customer site, PPL-LMW is readily converted to GAA “on demand” using a Novomer designed and patented process. This conversion process is quantitative and produces GAA with greater than 99.9% purity.
This industry changing approach allows GAA, in the form of PPL-LMW, to be shipped around the world under ambient conditions without need of stabilizers or refrigeration. It can then be inventoried and used as needed. GAA consumers no longer need to be located adjacent to an acrylic production facility. By using PPL-LMW, GAA is now available on demand wherever and whenever needed.
Acrylic acid is used in the production of paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, plastics, detergents, flocculants, and absorbent and super absorbent polymers.
GAA made from PPL-LMW, when used in the production of certain super absorbent polymers, has shown improvements in retention capacity and absorbency speed compared to conventionally produced GAA. This performance improvement has been attributed to the exceptional purity of GAA derived from the PPL-LMW product.
PPL-LMW can also provide significant operating expense savings for customers. With quantitative conversion to GAA and the avoidance of refrigerated shipment and stabilizers, customers can save over $200 per ton by using Novomer PPL-LMW to produce GAA on their site.