Technological watch

Trinseo has announced that its flagship STYRON™ Polystyrene Resins, MAGNUM™ ABS Resins, and TYRIL™ SAN Resins are available with renewable content. These materials combine fossil-based polymers with renewable raw materials according to a mass balance process, resulting in a bio-attributed composition from 80 to 95 percent.
Drop-in-Solution for Sustainability
STYRON™ CO2RE™ BIO Polystyrene, MAGNUM™ CO2RE™ BIO ABS, and TYRIL™ CO2RE™ BIO SAN offer a drop-in solution to customers who seek to further their sustainability efforts. The materials are an equivalent replacement to their fossil-based counterparts and offer both identical performance properties and processability. The CO2RE™ designation indicates a measurable product carbon footprint (PCF) reduction when compared to Trinseo’s fossil-based products.
“As customers increasingly focus on sustainable products, Trinseo continues to invest in technologies that offer an alternative to traditional petrochemicals,” said Julien Renvoise, Sustainability Commercial Manager. “Using renewable raw materials as an ingredient is an important solution as we strive to preserve our fossil resources, reduce our carbon footprint, and achieve circularity.”
Bio-waste Conversion Process
To produce the BIO materials, a bio-waste conversion process called feedstock cracking is used. Bio-feedstock is combined with fossil-based material resulting in material with a prescribed percentage of renewable content. ISCC Mass Balance processes and certification are involved at several points along the value chain - after raw material refining, bio feedstock processing, and bio material production.
Comparison of New BIO materials
Trinseo compared the PCF of its new BIO materials with fossil-based equivalents to determine the impact of replacing fossil with renewable content:

• STYRON™ CO2RE™ BIO General Purpose Polystyrene (GPPS): Replacing fossil- with bio-attributed styrene results in an 84 percent reduction in CO2 footprint.
• STYRON™ CO2RE™ BIO High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS): replacing fossil- with bio-attributed styrene results in a 71 percent reduction in CO2 footprint.
• MAGNUM™ CO2RE™ BIO ABS: Replacing fossil- with bio-attributed styrene results in a 57 percent reduction in CO2 footprint; replacing fossil- with bio-attributed ACN results in a 14 percent reduction. Replacing both results in a 71 percent CO2 footprint reduction.
• TYRIL™ CO2RE™ BIO SAN: Replacing fossil- with bio-attributed styrene results in a 74 percent reduction in CO2 footprint; replacing fossil- with bio-attributed ACN results in a 19 percent reduction. Replacing both results in a 93 percent CO2 footprint reduction.

The indicated CO2 reduction is based on a 100 percent substitution of fossil- with bio-attributed material. Note that the percent CO2 reduction in the constituents of ABS and SAN reflect the amount of that monomer in their formulations making carbon footprint proportionate.
Source: Trinseo