Source: www.epa1973.com

At this year’s Chinaplas, Eastman Chemical introduced a new type of bioplastic, where 50% of the raw material of the product comes from the fast-growing woods.

This material, named “Treva”, has similar chemical resistance and mobility to thermoplastic engineering plastics, and it is expected that China would become the most demanding market of this material, similar to the situation of the Tritan™ copolyester in the Chinese market.

Treva would initially be used for injection molding and extrusion, and will mainly target the glasses, electronic display, electronic products and cosmetic box markets, according to Kevin Duffy, Special Plastics Business Development Manager of Eastman Chemical.

The field of medicine is a potential future application. Kevin said, “If the medical field is interested in our product, we’ll seek business opportunities.”

When Tritan™ was released 10 years ago, the company did not foresee that China would become the largest market area for its products. But now, they expect China will provide the same development potential for Treva.

“We sold more Tritan™ products in the Chinese market more than anywhere else in the world,” said Randy Beavers, Asia-Pacific and Global Sales Director and Regional Business Director of Eastman Chemical, at the Chinaplas press conference, “I hope Treva would also be able to achieve this success.”

According to Eastman Chemical, Treva’s performance is already comparable to that of thermoplastic engineering plastics, including chemical resistance against sunscreens and household cleaning products. Experiments show that Treva’s flow rate is similar to ABS, and is greater than polycarbonates and polycarbonate / ABS mixtures.

Treva is composed of 50% bio-based substances, and the rest of traditional petrochemical products, here the petrochemical product forms the performance “basis” of cellulose materials.

“Normally, it was thought that bio-plastics lack rigidity or chemical resistance and the material lacks dimensional stability, but we have all these features covered and combined into our new product, people are really interested in that,” said Randy.