Brazil's largest petrochemical company, Braskem has furthered its commitment of developing green plastics by producing the first samples of polypropylene (PP) from 100% renewable raw material with international certification. The company earlier pioneered the development of green polyetehylene. The samples of the green PP-which has the same properties and characteristics of traditional PP-were first obtained on laboratory scale and then in a pilot plant, where homopolymers and copolymers were produced.
Braskem's green polypropylene was analyzed by Beta Analytic Inc., an American laboratory and a world leader in carbon isotope analysis attesting to its 100% renewable origin using a methodology to detect fossil carbon in the sample. The company has no fixed projected date for the green polymer to reach the market but it does have partners to accelerate the project's development in sectors like food packaging, personal and domestic hygiene articles and the automobile industry, among others.
In Triunfo, Braskem is implementing a project to produce green polyethylene on an industrial scale with a capacity for 200,000 tpa with operations projected to begin in 2011. Braskem had recently signed a distribution agreement with Toyota Tsusho Corporation for distributing its green polyethylene in the Asian market.
04-Oct-08 
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