Creativity Awards

The 2009 Specialty Chemicals Creativity Award was won by a Pulp & Paper Chemicals team for its entry An Alternative & Biorenewable Feedstock for Hydrogen Peroxide Manufacture.

Hydrogen peroxide is the preferred oxidizing agent for the bleaching of wood pulp in the production of paper. However, the established industrial method of producing it requires the reduction of an anthraquinone using hydrogen over a palladium catalyst, followed by oxidation by air to produce the peroxide and regenerate the anthraquinone. The production and use of hydrogen, typically by electrolysis or steam reforming of a fossil fuel, is complex and costly.

Building on their deep knowledge of anthraquinone chemistry and the chemistry of wood pulp mills, the Pulp & Paper Chemicals team succeeded in producing hydrogen peroxide from by-products and wastes arising from the wood pulping process. In so doing, they've opened up the possibility of using alternative feedstocks derived from biomass to produce hydrogen peroxide locally at pulping mills, thereby avoiding the need for expensive transportation of the hazardous oxidizing agent.

The RD&I Leadership Team chose this entry from the three Business Area Award winners to be the ultimate winner of the 2009 AkzoNobel RD&I Creativity Award.

The 2009 Performance Coatings Creativity Award was won by a Car Refinishes team for its entry Creation of a Coating Dormitory Mode.

Their research produced a coating additive that prevents the appearance of so-called 'solvent pops' during the application of clear- and top-coats to car body panels. The appearance of what look like tiny erupting volcanoes during spraying operations, particularly in the hot and humid summer months, can completely spoil the aesthetic quality of a re-spray. The Car Refinishes team developed a solution in which a patented additive becomes active only during the standard heat curing cycle, resulting in perfect finishes in all conditions.

The 2009 Decorative Paints Creativity Award was won by the Color Research Team within the Decorative Color Technology Group for its entry A System for Providing Lock-in Color Help via Consumers' Mobile Camera Phones.

The goal of this research is to provide consumers with help in choosing decorative colors that coordinate with their furnishings. The innovation stems from the need to devise and use calibrated color cards that are suitable for use with a wide range of different mobile phones and their use in varying light conditions. Already, the feasibility of the approach has been demonstrated following the successful development of prototype software with a third party for accurately measuring the colors on the photograph taken of the objects to be matched using a calibration card.