CPI Announces Innovation Award, Paper and Poster Winners from the Polyurethanes 2011 Technical Conference

Washington, D.C. - October 10, 2011 – Albemarle Corporation’s breakthrough color stable spray coating technology with ETHACURE® 90 has been named the winner of the 2011 Innovation Award at this year’s Polyurethanes Technical Conference, hosted by the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI). With 783 attendees and more than 60 technical presentations from leading polyurethanes researchers and businesses featured at the Polyurethanes 2011 Technical Conference last week at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tenn., it was one of the largest events for the polyurethanes industry in North America.

“The hundreds of attendees at our conference left with valuable, new information about developments in the polyurethanes industry and benefitted from networking opportunities,” said Lee Salamone, senior director of CPI. “Over the course of three days, polyurethanes professionals from around the globe demonstrated the industry’s creativity, innovation and energy. Albemarle Corporation, and all the Innovation Award finalists, impressed the attendees, as did the paper and poster presenters. Congratulations to all our award winners.”

Albemarle’s winning technology is a new color stable aliphatic polyurea coating technology developed in partnership with LINE-X Protective Coatings. The technology is based on Albemarle’s ETHACURE® 90, a new aliphatic curative designed at the molecular level to provide moderate cure speed, allowing ease of formulation. The new coating technology is UV and color stable, giving customer’s color choice without the need for an additional topcoat. It also provides rapid return to service and generates minimal volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

“We are proud to accept this award as a demonstration of Albemarle’s excellence in innovation. Our employees work hard to make products that benefit the world in which we live and that meet the demands of our customers, and we are honored that their work has been recognized by this prestigious award, ” said Dave Clary, Albemarle’s chief sustainability officer.

In addition to the Innovation Award, a winner was named for each technical session and poster category based on votes from session and conference attendees. The 2011 Best Paper Award winners are:
 

• Appliances/Cold Chain (tie): James Bowman of Honeywell for “Household Refrigerator: Low GWP Blowing Agent Performance Update”; Vanni Parenti of Dow Italia s.r.l. for “PASCAL® Technology: A Novel Breakthrough Polyurethane Foaming Technology for Domestic Appliance Insulation.”
   
• Automotive: G. Ron Blair for “Hysteresis Loss - Is it a Viable Flexible Foam Property or Not?”
   
• CASE: Paul Wiggins of Albemarle for “New Developments in Aliphatic Polyurea Coatings.”
   
• Chemistry & Fundamentals (tie): Elodie Hablot of Michigan State University / CHEMS for “Efficient Synthesis of Biobased Poly(amide urethane)s via Non-Isocyanate Route” ; Max Senechal of Metabolix, Inc. for “Metabolix MBX-1000 - A New Polyurethane Additive.”
   
• Construction 1: Advancing the Science of PUR/PIR Construction Foam: Robert Tauchen of Evonik Industries for “Easing the Transition Between Blowing Agents in PIR Formulations Through Proper Surfactant Selection.”
   
• Construction 2: Advancing the Science of SPF for the Construction Industry: Paul Ashford of Caleb Management Services Limited for “Trends in the Selection of Next Generation Blowing Agents - An International View.”
   
• Elastomers & Footwear: Daniel Rosenvasser of Huntsman Corporation for “Further Advances in Footwear Elastomers with Increased Bio-renewable Content.”
   
• Environment, Health & Safety 1 (tie): James Chapman of Bayer MaterialScience LLC for “EPA's Chemical Action Plan (CAP) for MDI and TDI”; Michael Woolhiser of Dow for “Sensitization Potential of Low-Monomer Diisocyanate Prepolymers.”
   
• Environment, Health & Safety 2: Ryan Hulse of Honeywell for “Predictive Model for Polyurethane Blowing Agent Emissions into a House.”
   
• Flame Retardants & Combustibility: Heiko Tebbe of LANXESS Deutschland GmbH for “Comparison of Different Phosphorus Based Flame Retardants in Rigid Polyurethane Foam for the Production of Insulation Materials.”
   
• Flexible Foams 1: Stanley Hager of Bayer MaterialScience LLC for “New Chemical Technology for the Production of Super High Air Flow Flexible Foams.”
   
• Flexible Foams 2: John DeMassa of R.T.Vanderbilt Company for “Polyol Stabilization and the Introduction of a New PUR Slabstock Foam Anti-Oxidant.”
   
• Processing Innovations: Bjoern Dormann of DESMA GmbH for “Advanced Low Pressure High Volume Throughput Mixing Equipment.”
   
• Renewable Content Polyols: Robert Miller of DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products for “Susterra® Propanediol - Evaluating the Structure-Property Relationship in CASE Applications.”
   

The 2011 Best Poster Presentation Award winners are:
 

• Appliance & Blowing Agents: Piero Corradi of Cannon SpA for “Cannon V.A.I.: Vacuum-Assisted Injection Technology for Refrigerators Production, Providing Cost-Effective Eco-Design and Superior Energy Saving.”
   
• Chemistry & Renewable Materials: Elodie Hablot of Michigan State University / CHEMS for “Efficient Synthesis of Biobased Poly(amide urethane)s via Non-Isocyanate Route.”
   
• Construction: Jean Vincent of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. for “Dabco DC5350 and Dabco EM400, New Surfactants for Water-Blown Low-Density Spray Foam.”
   
• Equipment & Processing: Carol Hetfield of the U.S. EPA for “Draft Ventilation Guidance for Spray Polyurethane Foam Application.”
   
• · Flexible Foam & CASE: Theodore Smiecinski of BASF Corporation for “Polyurethane GEL Network.”

Next year’s Polyurethanes Technical Conference will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, September 24-26, 2012. CPI will begin accepting paper and poster abstracts on November 1, 2011 and Innovation Award entries in 2012. Additional information about paper and poster abstract submission will be made available at that time.