Rohm and Haas Co. along with Engelhard Corp., has been awarded a US$5.2 million federal grant to develop new technology to produce acrylic acid from propane by the U.S. Department of Energy's industrial technologies program. The University of Delaware is also a partner in the project, which is expected to arrive at a conclusion in the next five years.
The new manufacturing process uses propane instead of propylene to manufacture acrylic acid. If the technology were adopted worldwide, it would eliminate 15 million pounds of environmental pollutants annually and save U.S. industry US$1.8 billion by the year 2020. Current global demand is pegged at 7.5 billion pounds annually. Acrylic acid is one of the fastest growing commodity chemicals and is used in everything from water-based paints and sealants to super-absorbent polymers and detergent additives.
28-Jan-05 
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