Emery Oleochemicals, a natural-based chemicals producer and largest oleochemicals manufacturer in North America, announced earlier this year the completion of its new 7,500 square foot Technical Development Center (TDC). This center will now also serve as the state-of-the-art application lab for the company’s Green Polymer Additives Business to offer renewable and innovative polymer additive solutions to high growth markets such as automotive, building and construction, electronics, packaging as well as toys and sports equipment.

The new application lab in Cincinnati provides Emery Oleochemicals’ Green Polymer Additives (GPA) customers with regional value-added services through its dedicated Application Testing and enhances the Emery Oleochemicals’ Global Technical Development Center capabilities in Loxstedt, Germany, which opened in 2013.  Staffed by a dedicated technical team utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, the new Cincinnati lab capabilities include:

• Custom lubricant and plasticizer development, scale-up of LOXIOL ester lubricants and EDENOL plasticizers in our state of the art multi- purpose reactor,
• Formulation and applications testing for rigid and flexible PVC as well as development in engineered resins to provide technical solutions for many of today’s market segments from building and construction to medical applications, and
• Full analytical support for lubricant and plasticizer development and modern analysis including NMR, FTIR, SPME, GC/MS, HPLC, HPLC/MS, DSC TGA and viscosity measurement as well as physical testing to measure percentage elongation, compression and tensile strength.
• In addition our state of the art lab is equipped with weathering devices to simulate weathering characteristics of the finished article.

Dr. Harald Klein, Global Business Director, Green Polymer Additive Business said of the opening, “Our  lab housed in the TDC in Cincinnati is specifically designed to leverage our in-depth application knowledge of polymer processes and technical capabilities to deliver customizable market-ready solutions to the North American Market. By providing our customers with the latest innovations, we aim to be an instrumental partner in the development of polymer additives that are sustainable, environmentally friendly and exceed the requirements in today’s polymer industry.” The renewable and innovative polymer additive solutions will be offered to the market under the well-known global brands of LOXIOL and EDENOL.

With its local Green Polymer application lab capabilities, the Cincinnati TDC can be seen as another key milestone backing the business unit vision to be ‘The first choice in sustainable polymer additives’. Explains Michael Hoppe, Senior Sales Manager Specialties, “Our continued investment in the US into technical development capabilities combined with the recent completion of our  $50 Million (USD) bio-based and recycled content ester plant, also located in Cincinnati, places the Emery Oleochemicals’ Green Polymer Business in a prime position to be the preferred partner for the plastics industry by offering renewable and innovative polymer additive solutions such as lubricants, plasticizers, anti-fogging, anti-static, and release agents.”