A Bisphenol A-free Replacement for Conventional Epoxy Resins
- Detailed Technology Description
- The office of CommercialVentures and Intellectual Property (CVIP) at UMass Lowell is seeking licenseesof its intellectual property and together with Professor Dan Schmidt is seekingan industrial partner for collaborative research to further develop thistechnology.
- *Abstract
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- *Background
- BPA-based epoxies have been and remain the most importantcoating for lining metal food and beverage cans. Coatings based on these epoxies display excellentadhesion to metals and corrosion resistance, cause no changes in flavor, enablelong shelf lives, are tough and flexible allowing ease of manufacturing, arecost effective, and are compatible with a large variety of foodsubstances. As a result, BPA-basedepoxies are the most important coating by far for the 100 billion food and beveragecans produced in the USeach year. In 2011, the global epoxy resin output approximated 2.24 milliontons (80%-95% of which were BPA-based materials) and was mainly distributed inAsia, Western Europe and the United States, where their output made up over 90%of the global total.However, consumer preference for canned foods with BPA epoxycoatings has been waning for a decade because of reports that BPA may have adverseeffects on health. BPA and relatedphenolic compounds have structural similarities to estrogen that are known to createendocrine disrupting potential. Potential health hazards of endocrine disrupters include variouscancers, brain and behavioral changes in fetuses or infants, and femalereproductive issues. As a result BPA has been replaced by substitutes for somefood contact purposes where suitable substitutes are available. For instance, polycarbonate-based moldedthermoplastic food storage containers, water bottles, blender housings, babybottles and the like are no longer made from BPA-based polycarbonate becausesuitable substitutes such as Eastman Chemical’s Tritan are available.In contrast, no substitutes for BPA epoxies yet exist thathave its broad array of favorable properties but lack the phenolic moietiesgenerally associated with estrogenic activity. As a result, BPA epoxies remain uneasily the top choice for food andbeverage metal cans. There is concern inthe can manufacturing industry that until the BPA epoxy problem is solved and atrue drop-in replacement is found, that the future is less bright than it couldbe. The technology being offered here has thepotential to be the drop-in replacement the can coating industry has beenwaiting for.
- Country/Region
- USA
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