Castor chemical development increases

Companies are intensifying efforts to improve castor oil production and processing. Some major projects have focused on developing higher-performance chemicals for applications such as base oil for lubricants, functional fluids and process oils, and others. The Dow Chemical Co.’s Indian unit, Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd., is collaborating with India-based Royal Castor Products Ltd. to investigate new castor oil-based products, with emphasis on the availability of appropriate technology and commercial viability of operations. Dow was seen to be working to catch up with the BASF Group, which revived a castor oil-based engineering polymer in its plastics portfolio in 2007. Other major players in the castor oil derivates industry are France’s Arkema Group, which has a portfolio that includes the 100% castor oil-based products and DuPont, with its sebacic acid-based Zytel long-chain polyamides. (April 6, 2009)