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Polypropylene nonwovens are widely used in feminine
hygiene products such as sanitary napkins. PP nonwovens also find
applications in medical disposable garments. However these products
are not biodegradable. Of course that does not restrict usage because
the advantages far outweigh the limitation of biodegradability.
However, if a product, with performance similar to that of PP nonwovens,
is developed in the biodegradable range of products, at a comparative
cost, then such a product would obviously be preffered.
Proctor & Gamble (P&G) developed a product called PHPB
(Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) at the turn of the
century. The development has reached a stage where P&G, along
with Japanese company Kaneka Corp., is considering plans to set
up a plant of 30000tpa capacity of PHPB under the brand name of
Nodax. The location of the plant is yet to be finalized, but the
Asian region would be preffered. Asia, with its high population
and a potentially large consumer base of this new product, holds
a good promise.
However, there are a lot of other factors that require to be ironed
out including the process. PHPB is not expected to be available
before 2005. At present both these companies are producing only
pilot plant quantities to conduct and perfect the product, process
and a host of other factors essential to set up a commercially viable
project.
The most important factor that would decide whether PHPB would
reach a significant level of 100KT/year or more is based on the
successful development of the process parameters to provide it at
a reasonable price of about $2-2.50/kg.
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