Speciality Esters Project with NCBiR Funding

The National Centre of Research and Development (NCBiR) granted to Grupa Azoty ZAK S.A. funding of PLN 23 million for the project to develop the technology of manufacturing speciality esters. Under the project, the Group will carry out a series of advanced development works which will deliver a wide range of low-molecular non-phthalate plasticizers and innovative polyester plasticizers.

‘Grupa Azoty ZAK S.A. has taken up innovativeness as its main course of action, and the speciality esters projects fits in this strategy in two dimensions. The first one is process innovation on the domestic scale involving the development of a new manufacturing technology. The other is product innovation by introducing new polymer plasticizers into the offer. In this case, we can speak of an international scale’, says Mateusz Gramza, Chairman of the Board Grupa Azoty ZAK S.A.

The project funded by the NCBiR will include development works in the pilot line where the new technology will be implemented on the semi-industrial scale, allowing the Group to make prototype batches of new products. Three years after these operations end, the effect will be the start of manufacturing on the industrial scale.

‘One of the advantages of the new plasticizers includes the beneficial functional properties such as lower migration, much lower volatility and a good effect on the strength characteristics of plastics. Furthermore, the manufacture we plan with renewable bio-succinic acid entails environmental benefits’, explains Mateusz Gramza.

The project will be implemented by Grupa Azoty ZAK S.A. in cooperation with the Professor Ignacy Mościcki Industrial Chemistry Research Institute in Warsaw. The funding was granted by the NCBiR in the PILOT LINES competition under the Smart Growth Operational Programme 2014-2020.