To all my readers, have a safe and relaxing Labor Day.  Back next Monday with more technical content.       ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert Humphreys As explained in previous posts, most plant biomass (about 80% by weight) consists of carbohydrates (cellulose and hemicellulose), biopolymers that are rich in oxygen. In contrast, petroleum is comparatively rich in hydrogen and contains very little oxygen (usually less than 1% by weight, often much less). Figure 1 shows the structure of ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert Humphreys This post will focus on technologies for conversion of biomass to renewable BTX as a source of renewable polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), as well as many other valuable polymers and chemicals that are so much a part of life in the modern world (Figure 1). Many initiatives have focused on developing renewable BTX, ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert Humphreys One can imagine two very different options for developing renewable versions of polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET): Develop “drop-in replacement” renewable versions of PS and PET that can be substituted directly for petroleum-based PS and PET with minimal effort and little or no increase in cost to end users of ... [Click to Continue...]

Thank you to my loyal readers over the past few weeks as we improved the blog.  Polymer Innovation Blog and my other sites (InnoCentrix and PlasticsExpertWitness) have been moved to a new hosting site that has much better reliability and security.  Polymerwebinars.com has been consolidated into the blog (visit the Video’s on the navigation bar above).  In the process I have ... [Click to Continue...]