Honeywell Wins 2015 Polyurethane Innovation Award

The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) announced that Honeywell’s Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA) won the 2015 Polyurethane Innovation Award.

Honeywell’s winning entry, selected from among three finalists, was announced today during the Closing Session of the 2015 Polyurethanes Technical Conference in Orlando. More than 1,000 polyurethanes professionals attended the conference.

“Our finalists this year brought more than technical advancements — they delivered an inspiring reminder of the virtually limitless potential polyurethane materials hold,” said Lee Salamone, senior director of CPI. “We applaud Honeywell on winning the 2015 Polyurethane Innovation Award and thank them for continually exploring the boundaries of what is possible using today’s best knowledge and technical capabilities.”

Honeywell’s Solstice LBA is a special formulation designed to significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) and improve energy efficiency while retaining non-ozone-depleting characteristics.

The other finalists were Dow Chemical’s VORASTAR 7000 spray elastomer, which represents a novel class of hydrophobic, alcohol terminated polymer resins that can be formulated as spray applied polyurea coatings, and Novomer’s Converge® Polyol RF-x polyisocyanurate rigid (PIR) foams, which represent an optimized material that allows foam manufacturers to process PIRs with traditional equipment and processing conditions while still benefiting from properties derived from polypropylene carbonate polyols.

“We are honored to receive this recognition,” said Sanjeev Rastogi, business director for Honeywell Fluorine Products. “I want to congratulate the other finalists, Dow Chemical and Novomer, as well as all of the submitters. It’s exciting to see this level of technical excellence across the polyurethanes industry. We are very proud that Solstice LBA is making a positive contribution by playing a role in increasing foam performance and energy efficiency, while reducing climate impact.”

Honeywell’s Solstice LBA is a polyurethane foam blowing agent used in insulation applications, including in appliances and spray foam, enabling the attainment of higher energy standards. Solstice® LBA can also help better insulate trucks, containers and ships used to transport cold cargo like food and liquefied natural gas. Moreover, it can help reduce climate impact, improve energy efficiency and create jobs.

“This year’s submissions are exactly the kind of groundbreaking innovation we need to keep moving the industry to new levels of excellence,” Salamone said. “Along with Honeywell, finalists Dow Chemical and Novomer did an outstanding job introducing new uses of polyurethanes as did all of the submissions for the award this year.”

All entries for the 2015 award were required to represent new innovations that had not been previously submitted for the Innovation Award and had not been available for commercial sale longer than 15 months prior to June 19, 2015.

The 2015 Polyurethanes Technical Conference featured 75 technical presentations and 38 poster presentations, as well as a Table Top exhibit, a Professional Development Program and premier networking events.