Biobased And Biodegradable Polymers For A Sustainable Future

液体配方中的聚合物（PLF）是一组广泛的聚合物，在许多日常用品中用作增稠剂、乳化剂和粘合剂，包括家用洗涤剂、化妆品和农用化学品。这些聚合物中的绝大多数来自化石燃料来源，它们不会在环境中降解。皇家化学学会最近的一份报告估计，每年有超过3600万吨的这些成分（足以填满温布利体育场32次）在使用后无法回收，造成了重大的环境负担。尽管它们对社会和全球经济很重要，但与最近对塑料可持续性的强烈关注相反，很少有协调一致的努力来解决PLF的可持续性问题。有一个明确的要求和要求，使这些重要的成分更环保;他们可以从可再生资源开发，他们可以在使用后生物降解？这是我们“繁荣伙伴关系”的重点。禾大是高性能配料和技术的全球领导者，在个人护理、作物护理和制药等广泛市场拥有世界上最大、最成功的品牌。该公司致力于到2030年成为气候，土地和人的积极参与者，并在此过程中成为最可持续的创新成分供应商。这一雄心正推动公司利用更大比例的生物基原料，通过最节能的工艺将其转化为性能成分，并考虑所产生材料的报废影响。PLF是禾大产品组合的重要组成部分，为了确保这类材料在未来具有经济和环境可持续性，需要对PLF的化学、生产和报废处理采取新的方法。为了使这一研究领域发生重大变化，推进知识，技术创新和速度至关重要。禾大决定与诺丁汉大学和约克大学携手合作，利用双方的专业知识加速创新，以促进所需的变革。我们的“繁荣伙伴关系”将成为催化剂，将在地理位置、方法以及最重要的科学匹配方面最优秀的团队聚集在一起，以应对禾大当前和未来的挑战。通过合作，我们将应对开发用于PLF应用的新型生物基和可生物降解材料的挑战，提供与现有合成聚合物相同的性能优势。在这一过程中，我们需要了解分子结构的结构变化如何影响生物降解性和最终用途性能，同时了解如何利用这一点来优化目标聚合物的设计和开发。所生产的产品将有助于实现禾大的可持续创新目标，支持禾大向净零生产转变，同时也将在这一重要领域建立英国的专业知识。对于禾大的客户来说，这些成分将使他们能够减少自己的碳足迹，遵守未来的法规，并朝着自己的可持续发展目标取得重大进展。合作伙伴之间的共同创造和信息共享将是这一方法的基础，提供机会利用大学的绿色化学和聚合物专业知识，并将其添加到禾大对产品性能的无与伦比的理解中，市场需求。这种繁荣伙伴关系将使我们的伙伴关系，资源和人才的连续性，以提供必要的临界质量，以解决这一重大问题，这是影响我们的社会现在，因为我们解决的可持续性挑战，这一基本组的成分。

Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) are a broad group of polymers that are used as thickeners, emulsifiers and binders in many day-to-day items including household detergents, cosmetics and agrochemicals. The vast majority of these polymers are derived from fossil fuel sources and they do not degrade in the environment. A recent report from the Royal Society of Chemistry has estimated that more than 36mn tonnes of these ingredients (enough to fill Wembley Stadium 32 times over) are not recovered after use every single year, presenting a significant environmental burden. Despite their importance to society and the global economy, and in contrast to the intense recent focus on the sustainability of plastics, there has been very little coordinated effort to address the sustainability of PLFs. There is a clear requirement and demand to make these vital ingredients more environmentally friendly; could they be developed from renewable resources and could they be biodegradable after their use? This is the key focus of our Prosperity Partnership. Croda is a global leader in high performance ingredients and technologies in some of the biggest, most successful brands in the world across a wide range of markets including Personal Care, Crop Care and Pharma. The company is committed to be Climate, Land and People positive by 2030 and in doing so be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients. This ambition is driving the company to utilise greater proportions of bio-based feedstocks, transform them into performance ingredients through the most energy efficient processes and consider the end-of-life impacts of the materials generated. PLFs form a significant part of Croda's product portfolio and to ensure that this group of materials is economically and environmentally sustainable in the future, new approaches to PLF chemistry, production and end-of-life fate are required. To make a significant step change to this area of research, advancing knowledge, technical innovation and speed is critical. Croda has decided to join forces and build on the existing strong relationship with both the University of Nottingham and the University of York to catalyse the changes required, using joint expertise to accelerate innovation. Our Prosperity Partnership will be the catalyst in bringing together the best teams in terms of location, approach and above all scientific fit to meet Croda's current and future challenges. Collaboratively we will be addressing the challenge of developing novel biobased and biodegradable materials for PLF applications, offering equivalent performance benefits to existing synthetic polymers. On this journey we will need to build knowledge about how structural changes in molecular architecture influence biodegradability and end use performance, alongside developing an understanding of how this is exploited to optimise design and development of target polymers. The products generated will contribute to Croda's sustainable innovation targets, will support Croda's move to Net Zero manufacture, whilst also building UK expertise in this important area. For Croda's customers these ingredients will allow them to reduce their own carbon footprint, comply with future regulations and make significant advances towards their own sustainability goals.Co-creation and sharing of information between the partners will be fundamental to this approach, giving the opportunity to tap into green chemistry and polymer expertise from the Universities and add that to Croda's unrivalled understanding of product performance and market requirements. This Prosperity Partnership will give us continuity of partnerships, resource and talent to provide the critical mass required to tackle this major problem that is affecting our society right now, as we address the sustainability challenges of this essential group of ingredients.