Over the past five years, Solvay's investment in research has averaged around 450 million, which demonstrates the importance we attach to this activity. Our Research & Technology Centres keep us at the cutting edge of developments in the plastics sector and maintain our reputation as one of the sector's most innovative companies. 
These centres have developed many products and processes which not only open new markets, but also help us to preserve our precious natural resources.

We have innovative products in every sector of the market, from  Ixan® barrier resins used in the food industry, through our Fluoromaterials, our engineered polymers, not to mention an extremely wide portfolio of PVC-based products.

With the development of PRIEX® resins, a complete range of  multi-functional additives available in pellet and water-based emulsions form (for some grades), Solvay gives polyolefin's producers, converters and end-users, an opportunity to dramatically increase most of their polymers’ performances such as adhesion, compatibilization, creep, HDT or impact and rigidity  resistance.

Based on Solvay’s alround expertise in polymer properties, processing and product performance, an original and polyvalent one step process for honeycomb production has been developed, the Nidacell®, adapted to a large range of thermoplastics.This new technology gives plastic processors various ways of differentiation and an opportunity to produce “the right 3 D materials with the right benefits” they were expected.

Vinyloop

The latest recycling technology is the   Vinyloop® process which was developed in collaboration with an external partner. It extracts the PVC compound from composite materials. The PVC compound obtained can be used in current applicaitons for PVC.

The solvent used to dissolve the PVC works in a closed loop. The process generates a minimal amount of waste material and the new PVC pellets it produces reduce our call on natural resources. It has been assessed as the most eco-efficient recycling process.

Solvay Plastics achieved a world first in the production of HDPE fuel tanks for motor vehicles. Not only does this reduce impact on the environment through fuel savings due to reduced vehicle weight, it also reduces the use of HDPE for fuel tanks thanks to our Recafuta closed loop recycling process. This process removes any fuel residues and anti-corrosive coatings from the plastic and produces a good quality HDPE which can be used again for the manufacture of fuel tanks. The typical level of recycled HDPE used is in the region of 40%.

Research

Our innovations don't stop with recycling processes. The Research and Technology teams work to develop new production processes which are more efficient or which open new possibilities. One such process is what is known as reactive processing. This is a technique in which the chemical structure of a polymer is modified during its processing to give it a certain set of desired properties. This has resulted in the improved ability of both PE and PP resins to mix with, or adhere to, polymers or materials with which they were previously incompatible. It has led to the development of a special PP foam grade and a biodegradable polycaprolactone film.

Efficient production is not just more profitable for manufacturers, the environment benefits as well. All our polymerisation reactors now benefit from our Advanced Process Control (APC). This is a group of simple or complex automated techniques based on Knowledge Models. APC achieves a considerable reduction in the consumption of energy and raw materials, as well as significant improvements in product quality and consistency.

Priex Nidacell®