Speciality chemicals drive sustainability

The past week has seen remarkable scenes, with Extinction Rebellion protests taking place across the world causing wide scale disruption, and emotional and vocal admonishments from individuals such as Greta Thunberg claiming that previous generations have taken the future away from the young. 

Although I have a lot of sympathy with the position of these protesters and agree in principle with their stance, I note that, despite all the bluster and noise, they seem to present few detailed polices on viable alternatives, practical solutions and suggestions for allowing governments to meet CO2 targets. Speeches and slogans typically comprise blanket statements on cutting CO2 and changing the “structures of power” to allow suitable actions to take place. 

Likewise, certain government representatives and politicians use climate change to demonstrate virtue and bask in a green glow, but provide little in terms of hard practicalities.  “Don’t bring a speech, bring a plan!” For months now, that’s what António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has been telling heads of state and government.

To try to understand what we can do, I did some reading on developments in sustainable technology and practical solutions for tackling the causes of climate change.  The attached Markit article advocates the use and development of speciality chemicals and their role in green energy production.  Of course, the media and press are typically hostile to the word “chemical”, which usually signifies something toxic or noxious.

Speciality chemicals are absolutely essential to maintaining human health and also play a key role in the manufacture of sustainable technology for energy production, helping to minimise the causes of climate change. In particular, speciality polymers allow the production of clean water, treatment of wastewater, development of clean tech, as well as the preservation of underwater life.

Clean water

All water requires treatment, even that collected from a fresh mountain springs, before it can be consumed by humans en masse. Polyacrylamide, used in water treatment, plays an important role in drinking water production and wastewater treatment. Polyacrylate, the second largest volume polymer, prevents scale formation in industrial equipment, and quaternary ammonium polymers and polyamines play a key role in the production of potable water. Dr Hackett notes in the Markit article that “worldwide consumption of speciality polymers in water treatment exceeds one million metric (mm) tons per year”.

Clean Energy

Speciality chemicals play a key role in relation to development of sustainable energy, especially wind power. Circular wind turbines incorporate 25 to 100 metric tons of speciality resins and reinforcements, including unsaturated polyester resins, epoxy resins, glass fiber, and carbon fiber, as standard construction materials for wind turbine blades. Wind is considered a critical element in the global energy market, and in 2018 wind accounted for more than 8% of global power capacity. The largest turbine blades in commercial production are in excess of 88 meters long and require more than 100 metric tons of resins and reinforcements.

Preserving Life Below Water

Nutrient pollution is very damaging to underwater life, and surplus nutrients, typically nitrogen or phosphorus, lead to algae blooms in lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. Excessive algae growth depletes oxygen and blocks sunlight from underwater plants, making life below water untenable and some algae blooms also produce toxins that are harmful to humans. Excess nutrients can come from many sources, including laundry detergent. Speciality chemicals – zeolites, citric acid, and polyacrylates – enhance detergent performance without causing algae growth. These chemicals do everything that conventional builders are designed to do – soften water (by sequestering calcium and magnesium ions), disperse dirt, and prevent soil redeposition, without nourishing algae blooms.

At Polestar we have supported companies who are developing technologies that can be leveraged to drive sustainable developments, such as recyclable and biodegradable packaging, AI and technological solutions, which in turn will help meet our changing needs without costing the earth.