Dow's Renuva scores
Offers green option for foam products
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, November 30, 2008
SAN ANTONIO — Dow's Renuva technology, which enables producers to create foams from renewable, natural oils, celebrated its first anniversary here with reports of success from three continents.
It was just a year ago at the Polyurethanes Technical Conference, the industry's major annual event, that Dow launched Renuva. At this year's conference here, Dow reported a number of mattress industry successes with Renuva technology.
The polyurethane foams used broadly in the mattress and upholstered furniture industry traditionally have been created using chemical compounds called polyols derived from petroleum products. But with growing interest in “greener” products, the polyurethane industry has begun turning to polyols produced from natural oils derived from soybeans and other crops.
Dow began working with natural-oil based polyols in the early 1990s and made commercial-scale quantities available last year with the launch of Renuva. While Dow's initial natural-oil polyol offerings are created from soybeans, the company has a long-term product plan that includes evaluating the use of other vegetable oils as well.
With its Renuva technology, which employs a proprietary, patented process, Dow takes the soybean oil and breaks it down into various components. Then it reassembles those components to produce high-performance characteristics, the company says.
Foams produced with Renuva technology can have a natural content in some applications as high as 30%, according to Dow officials. The performance of those foams is the same as or better than the performance of conventional foams, while the cost of the Renuva-based polyols is competitive with conventional polyols, Dow said.
The company says its natural oil-based based polyol chemistry provides a reduced environmental impact without the “French fry” odor sometimes associated with bio-based polyols. In addition, the process is greenhouse-gas neutral and uses up to 60% less fossil fuel resources than conventional polyol production methods, according to Dow.
“We have been pretty successful,” said Herman Motmans, global marketing director for Dow's polyurethanes business. “Our technology is being used by several mattress producers in Europe, Latin America and North America. We are happy with the progress we have made.”
“This is something we are very excited about,” added Thomas Feige, Dow's product manager for polyurethanes for North America. “We are committed to our customers and the industry. Our actions and our technology are driven by the customer.”
A survey commissioned by Dow found significant consumer interest in purchasing environmentally friendly furniture and mattresses. A majority of the consumers said they would prefer to purchase a mattress or sofa that contained higher levels of natural materials.
Dow said that Simmons is using Renuva technology in the base and edge support foams in its Natural Care line, where it was able to increase the level of renewable content while maintaining the comfort and feel of its mattresses.
According to Dow, Renuva technology is also used by:
• Brazilian bedding producer Ecoflex, which is incorporating it into the comfort layers of its Equilibrio Natural Ecoflex line of green mattresses.
• Portuguese foam and bedding producer Eurospuma, which is using natural oil-based polyols in its mattresses and travel pillows.
• Turkish foam producer and bedding maker Isbir, which is incorporating the technology in its Viscostar Nature Mattress line.
Renuva technology can be used to produce conventional foams, memory foams and high-resilience foams, Dow officials said.
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