Abu Dhabi and Israeli investors among new financiers of dioxin-free flame retardant plastic.
FRX Polymers manufactures and markets a range of environmental friendly and inherently flame retardant plastics. The company recently raised $26.6 million in series B venture capital financing from a diverse group of investors including Masdar Capital of Abu Dhabi, Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV), Capricorn venture capital, SAM private equity and BASF Venture Capital of Europe. This funding will allow FRX polymer to complete its first full scale production facility in Antwerp, Belgium.
Polystyrene has a Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI) of only 21 percent which means it can maintain a flame in normal air with only 21% oxygen. Potentially toxic fire retardant chemicals must be added to polystyrene in order to make it a safe building material.
PVC and other halogenated polymers provide slightly better flame resistance (40% LOI for non-plasticized PVC) but they release dioxin and other toxic carcinogens into the environment throughout their life-cycle from production, through use and disposal.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7VeiYL2bBg[/youtube]
FRX’s polyphosphonate homopolymers, copolymers, and oligomer polymer plastics are not halogenated, so they do not release dioxin as PVC does. FRX-100, a non-halogen phosphorous plastic, has a LOI of 65%. This is the highest LOI of any thermoplastic on the market. It does not produce flaming drips or black smoke.
With a diverse group of investors from the Mideast and Europe, FRX seems poised to introduce a building material which will help protect us from fire and protect future generations from toxic carcinogens.
FRX Polymerswas founded in 2007 and the company operates two pilot plants in Chelmsford, MA and a polymer pilot plant in Switzerland.
Image of green men and jellybear from Shutterstock
Author: Brian Nitz
Brian remembers when a single tear dredged up a nation's guilt. The tear belonged to an Italian-American actor known as Iron-Eyes Cody, the guilt was displaced from centuries of Native American mistreatment and redirected into a new environmental awareness. A 10-year-old Brian wondered, 'What are they... No, what are we doing to this country?' From a family of engineers, farmers and tinkerers Brian's father was a physics teacher. He remembers the day his father drove up to watch a coal power plant's new scrubbers turn smoke from dirty grey-back to steamy white. Surely technology would solve every problem. But then he noticed that breathing was difficult when the wind blew a certain way. While sailing, he often saw a yellow-brown line on the horizon. The stars were beginning to disappear. Gas mileage peaked when Reagan was still president. Solar panels installed in the 1970s were torn from roofs as they were no longer cost-effective to maintain. Racism, public policy and low oil prices transformed suburban life and cities began to sprawl out and absorb farmland. Brian only began to understand the root causes of "doughnut cities" when he moved to Ireland in 2001 and watched history repeat itself. Brian doesn't...
Comments are closed.