NDSU Researchers Develop Bio-based Technology
from U.S. Grown Crop Materials
U.S. grown agricultural crops such as sugar beets, sunflowers, flax and soybeans could play a major role in
a game changing bio-based green coatings technology developed by North Dakota State University researchers.
Several crops produced in North Dakota could play a significant role in
bio-based resins and coatings recently developed by researchers at
North Dakota State University. Scientists at NDSU have developed bio-based resins that may prove to be a game changer in coatings and
resin technology.
The NDSU researchers have developed a family of resins from renewable raw materials, creating resins that eliminate hazardous components such as formaldehyde and bisphenol-A. The resins are based
on sucrose and vegetable oils, and can be varied to perform in many
applications and industries, according to Dean Webster, professor in
the NDSU Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials. Webster’s
research group includes NDSU graduate students Xiao Pan and T. J.
Nelson, undergraduate student Adlina Paramarta and Partha Sen-gupta, former postdoctoral researcher at NDSU.
The resins developed by the NDSU research group can be made
from sugar beets, plus oils from soybeans, flax and sunflowers. When
cured, the patent-pending resins show significantly improved proper-
ties over current bio-based materials and processes, according to the
researchers. They also said the resins display mechanical properties
comparable to petrochemical-based materials and dramatically in-
creased renewable material content
“These NDSU-developed technologies achieve what few bio-based
materials have before,” said Webster. “They have vastly improved me-
chanical properties, reduced hazardous chemical content and are made
from readily available materials and common processes. The tech-
nologies have the potential for significantly impacting bio-based ma-
terial markets.”
The bio-renewable chemicals market is projected to reach $5 bil-
lion by 2015.
The new resins developed at NDSU could further reduce reliance on
petrochemical-based materials, one of the main components in many
coatings formulations. Dr. Webster’s research group found that the
epoxidized sucrose ester resins they developed result in materials that
are two- to four-times as functional as vegetable oil-based resins.
20 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
October 2011
