Novomer, a company that makes biodegradable plastics, polymers and other chemicals from renewable substances, has announced its first product, NB-180, a poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) sacrificial binder that the company says (via Earth2Tech) burns cleaner, more uniformly and at lower temperatures than currently available products.
NB-180 is made from just under half carbon dioxide by Novomer, a startup that uses recycled carbon dioxide to make polymers and plastics.
Sacrificial binders are used to hold two pieces of metal together in high precision manufacturing of products like electronics, fuel cells, nanomaterials and solar panels. In the manufacturing process the binder is burned away and the carbon dioxide is normally released into the atmosphere.
Novomer’s Product Manager Fox Holt estimates that the size of the high-precision sacrificial binder market is about 300,000 pounds per year.