Polymers consumption

Steel consumption is growing at less than 2% per year - it doubles about every 35 years. Polymer consumption is rising at about 5% per year - it doubles every 14 years. During times of boom - the l%0s and 1970s for instance - polymer production increased much faster than this, peaking at 18% per year (it doubled every 4 years), but it has now fallen back to a more modest rate. 

Watanabe and Ohnishi [39] have proposed another model for the polymer consumption rate (in place of Eq. 2) and have also integrated their model to obtain the time dependence of the oxide thickness. Time dependent oxide thickness measurement in the transient regime is the clearest way to test the kinetic assumptions in these models however, neither model has been subjected to experimental verification in the transient regime. Equation 9 may be used to obtain time dependent oxide thickness estimates from the time dependence of the total thickness loss, but such results have not been published. Hartney et al. [42] have recently used variable angle XPS spectroscopy to determine the time dependence of the oxide thickness for two organosilicon polymers and several etching conditions. They did not present kinetic model fits to their results, nor did they compare their results to time dependent thickness estimates from the material balance (Eq. 9). More research on the transient regime is needed to determine the validity of Eq. 10 or the comparable result for the kinetic model presented by Watanabe and Ohnishi [39]. 

Figure 2.1 shows percentage share of global biodegradable polymer consumption by major world region for 2005. 

Table 4.4 shows Western European biodegradable polymer consumption by polymer type for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. 

Figure 4.5 shows percentage share of Western European biodegradable polymer consumption by end use sector for 2005. 

In 2005, North American biodegradable polymer consumption was 21,300 tonnes against 6,700 tonnes in 2000. In 2010, biodegradable polymer consumption is projected to reach 46,500 tonnes, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 16.9% during the period 2005-2010. 

Figure 4.6 shows percentage share of North American biodegradable polymer consumption by product type for 2005. 

Figure 8.1 shows percentage share of global synthetic biodegradable polymers consumption by end use market for the year 2005. 

Bags and sacks represents around a half of synthetic biodegradable polymer consumption worldwide in 2005. Packaging represents 39% of total consumption with other applications such as agricultural film, paper coating and nonwovens representing 11 % of total market volumes. 

Section 4 examines the global market for biodegradable polymers by major geographic region, covering Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Biodegradable polymer consumption by polymer type and end use market is presented for each region for the years 2000, 2005 and forecast for 2010. 

Polyurethanes represent only 5% of the worldwide polymer consumption (Figure 1.3 shows around 10.6 million metric tonnes in 2004), but the dynamics of their growth is constantly high, around 4-6% [35]. 

Polymer blends constitute ca. 36 wt% of the total polymer consumption, and their pertinence... 

Polymer alloys and blends constitute over 30 wt% of polymer consumption, and with an annual growth rate of about 9.3% that has remained constant for the last ten years (i.e., four times the growth rate of the plastics industry as a whole), their role can only increase. In the text, the following standard definitions will be used [Utracki, 1989 1991 see also Nomenclature in Chapter 1 of this Handbook],... 

Table 16.10. Polymer consumption in automotive industry [Manolis-Sherman, 1996]...

We have developed know-how for manufacturing floors similar in quality significantly more cheaply. Techniques include embedding colored stones or chips into cement—sand tie placed onto a floor body. After the ties are dried off, a Silor composition is applied onto the stones. This composition impregnates, strengthens, and seals the upper part of the tie, and stones and chips become securely bonded in. Consumption of composition may be only 100—200 g per square meter. A wear-resistant pol5mrethane composition of 0.1—0.2 mm thickness is applied to the floor. In this way, polymer consumption in floor manu-factirring may be reduced 3—5 times. 

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