Application Innovation for Vestenamer®

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2020, the enterprise with more than 33,100 employees generated sales of €12.2 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of €1.91 billion from continuing operations.

The business line high performance polymers offers a broad portfolio of polymers for demanding applications and serves globally many markets from a leading position.

THE CHALLENGE

VESTENAMER® is one of our well established product in specific markets, where benefits of the product are clearly understood. In this challenge Evonik wants to identified new innovative ideas to broaden the application field of VESTENAMER® and enter new markets with this product.

You can answer any of the key questions, do not hesitate to participate:

Which new applications could be addressed with VESTENAMER® as it is (no modification to its current performance properties)?

In which applications someone would need good compatibility to rubber or rubber like materials?

Which use cases benefit from a low melting point and high reactivity via double bonds?

How can VESTENAMER® support the road of recyclability?

Which new processing technologies might open the application field for VESTENAMER®?

PRODUCT

VESTENAMER®   is a semicrystalline rubber that is also described as a polytransoctenamer rubber (TOR). As a polymeric processing aid, it acts as a plasticizer of rubber compounds in mixing and manufacturing processes. In the vulcanization of rubber parts, it participates in crosslinking and, as an elastomer, is fully incorporated into the network.

VESTENAMER® is produced in a ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) from cyclooctene. The polyoctenamer consists of linear and cyclic macromolecules. The cis/trans ratio, which determines the degree of crystallinity of TOR, is controlled by the polymerization conditions. In general, if trans content is increased, a higher crystallinity is produced and thus a higher melting point can be obtained. The crystallinity is thermally reversible, and the crystallization rate is exceptionally high. This effect can be used to reduce the cold flow of soft compounds, for example, to improve green strength and reduce shrinkage in calendering.

The properties of VESTENAMER®:

• Low melting point (<60C)
• High crystallinity
• High percentage of macrocycles (>30wt%)
• A double bond every eighth carbon atom

Typical Applications:

VESTENAMER® is used as additive and compatabilizers in tires, mechanical rubber goods and asphalts. VESTENAMER® is a key ingredient for rubber recycling.

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS:

VESTENAMER® THE WORLD‘S MOST VERSATILE RUBBER ADDITIVE

VESTENAMER® FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION 

RECOMMENDED LINKS:

VESTENAMER® IN TIRE MANUFACTURING

VESTENAMER® FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION

VESTENAMER® FOR MECHANICAL RUBBER GOODS

RUBBER RECYCLING WITH VESTENAMER®

IDEA SUBMISSION

Each submission should cover certain parameters that are key for their success:

• Overview of the Idea and related needs which are addressed by the idea
• Detailed description of the technical idea (addressing at least one of key questions).
• Drawings and examples as well as references for comparable system or proposed solution/ approach
• Technical and/or commercials benefits and limitations of your solution
• Potential collaboration partners for development, scaling up, testing and implementation
• Key market opportunities for the idea

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The evaluation criteria are defined as follows (ranking from 0 – 10, all criteria have the same weight):

• Creativity: The proposal is unknown to Evonik so far in the way that it shows a high degree of creativity and represents a new approach for Evonik from the application side
• Probability of technical and commercial success:  There is a high chance of technical and commercial success to be expected if the proposed concept can be successfully realized.
• Quality of idea proposal: The idea proposal is well explained and contains clear description of what is planned to be done, how and with which resources (for instance: project plan draft, responsibilities, funding, others)
• Form and volume: accepted all forms of contributions (videos, documents, presentations, etc)

LEGAL

Please click, read carefully our conditions:

Terms and Conditions

AWARD

Evonik will award a total of 5T€ between the three most innovative concepts and invite the awarded teams for an idea pitch with the VESTENAMER® team.

DEADLINES

April 30^th, 2022

Announcement of the winning concepts: 21 days after submission deadline.

BY SUBMITTING THE FORM YOU ACCEPT OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL 

SUPPORT NEEDED

Please contact us at oi@evonik.com