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Aditya Birla acquires Connora's Recyclamine technology

24 Jul '19
3 min read
Pic: Aditya Birla Chemical
Pic: Aditya Birla Chemical

Aditya Birla Chemicals Thailand, a manufacturer of bulk and specialty chemicals and viscose filament yarn, has acquired Recyclamine technology from chemical technology start-up Connora. The US-based company, Connora is the pioneer of recyclable epoxy resin technology, based on a novel proprietary polyamine synthesis platform called Recyclamine.

Recyclable thermoset technology was recognised as one of the top ten emerging technologies in 2015 by the World Economic Forum. Aditya Birla Chemicals Thailand, a parent company of CTP Advanced Materials (Germany) which owns Epotec and CeTePox brands, is one of the manufacturer of epoxy resins and curing agents globally. Aditya Birla Chemicals, part of the $48.3 billion global conglomerate Aditya Birla and Connora, have been collaborating since 2016 in a joint development agreement to scale-up the manufacturing of Connora’s recyclable epoxy thermoset technology, according to Aditya Birla.

Polyamines are used in diverse applications ranging from fuel additives and lubricants, to cross-linkers in high-performance thermoset plastics, such as epoxy resin or polyurethanes. Epoxy thermosets are traditionally the material of choice in adhesives, coatings, and light-weighting in the aerospace, automotive, windmill, and sporting goods industries. Connora’s Recyclamine synthesis platform provides a modular and rapid chemistry approach for making new polyamine molecules. A unique and patented feature of Recyclamine is the ability to create cured thermoset resins that can, on command, be recycled into a reusable thermoplastic, thus enabling ‘end-of-life’ recycling and ‘zero-waste manufacturing’ in the thermoset composites industry.

The efficient recycling of composite materials should have a positive impact on the automotive and aerospace industries, where the trend to make lighter, stronger, and more energy-efficient vehicles is driving growth in the use of carbon fibre composite materials. Making composites more recyclable through the use of Recyclamine should help reduce the overall cost of manufacturing of composite products, by re-integrating composite waste and reducing landfill costs.

“The acquisition of Recyclamine technology is a natural next step for Aditya Birla Chemicals, as it constantly strives to bring innovative and sustainable advanced polymer solutions to its customers. The technology not only enables incremental value creation through zero-waste manufacturing to customers, but also uniquely offers end-of-life recyclability options,” Kalyan Ram Madabhushi, CEO of Aditya Birla Chemicals.

“As a chemical technology start-up company, we always knew that forming a close partnership with a world-class chemical company would be required for our technology to get to scale. This acquisition is the culmination of a multi-year relationship and the result of the dedication and unwavering commitment to the vision of the Recyclamine technology, from both ABCL and Connora,” Stefan Pastine, co-founder and CTO of Connora said.

“The investment in Connora over the years from a large and well-respected global manufacturing partner such as Aditya Birla Chemicals, has been invaluable to the commercial development of recyclable thermoset technology. Due to their decades of expertise in scale-up manufacturing and sales of epoxy resins, on a global scale, I expect that over the next decade, Recyclamine technology will be commonplace in many epoxy-based composite products, from sporting goods to automobile parts and windmill blades,” Connora’s co-founder and CEO, Rey Banatao said. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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