Emery Oleochemicals was awarded the Best Technical Paper in the CASE Renewables Session at the 2017 Polyurethanes Technical Conference. The award recognized the innovative azelate polyols technology recently developed by Emery’s Eco-Friendly Polyols business platform.

Co-authored by Mark Anater, Research & Technology chemist, and Eric Geiger, Eco-Friendly Polyols technology manager, Emery’s winning paper showcased the company’s new line of EMEROX Polyols for CASE applications. The paper and conference presentation outlined the superior characteristics of Emery’s bio-based azelate polyols which are engineered to help formulators achieve both performance and sustainability objectives.

Azelate ester chemistry is a high performance alternative for the CASE market. To meet market demand, Emery Oleochemicals introduced a series of polyols under the EMEROX trade name based on azelaic acid (C₉ diacid) technology. Superior performance characteristics of EMEROX azelate polyols include:
 

• Good solubility in common solvents across a wide range of polarities and hydrogen bonding strengths;
• Lower viscosity compared to analogous adipate polyols;
• Polyurethane coatings based upon EMEROX azelate polyester polyols showed better compatibility with commonly used chain extenders and crosslinkers such as TEOA or tetrafunctional amines than coatings based upon adipate polyols and yielded clear, glossy, high-quality films when cured with HDI trimer;
• Equal, or superior, chemical resistance for coatings based upon EMEROX azelate polyols compared to adipate-based coatings