Sustainable PLFs Summit

Sustainable polymers for a clean future, Prosperity Partnership

Professor Steve Howdle University of Nottingham

Dr Amy Goddard CRODA

Talk summary Despite the importance of PLFs to society and the global economy, there has been little coordinated effort to address the sustainability of PLFs. There is a clear requirement to make these vital ingredients more environmentally friendly: could they be developed from renewable resources, and could they be biodegradable after their use? This is the focus of our Prosperity Partnership, where Croda, the University of Nottingham and the University of York are working to catalyse the changes required, using joint expertise to accelerate innovation. We are targeting the development of commercially viable, novel bio-based and biodegradable polymers, aiming to offer more sustainable alternatives to traditional PLFs e.g. polyacrylates. On this journey we are widening the scope of available building blocks and developing knowledge about how structural changes in molecular architecture influence biodegradability and end use performance. This data will be exploited to optimise design, development and production of desirable functional polymers.

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