• EcoSphere® biolatex™ products are made from annually renewable crop sources, and they contains no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), use no organic solvents, and are manufactured by an environmentally friendly and continuous extrusion process. The biolatex binder offers the intrinsic value proposition of a reduced carbon footprint by way of renewable carbon in the product that is in harmony with the rates and time scales of the natural biological carbon cycle. This has been confirmed by Carbon 14 analysis (See “Sustainable Advantage” section).
• A major investment has been made in developing and scaling the clean technology process for manufacturing EcoSphere biolatex binders. The manufacturing process is reliable and robust, and it can be readily implemented on many different types of existing plastics extrusion manufacturing equipment that is located throughout the world.

EcoSynthetix Economy

• Clean and lean manufacturing
• Regionalized or satellite manufacturing
• New manufacturing facility is relatively inexpensive to build
• Lead time: 6-12 months regionalized or 18 months for satellite
• Less load sensitive
• Ship “dry” (more than 90% solids)
• Production plants close to customer reduces fuel and freight costs
• Biobased

Old Economy (synthetic latex producers)

• Chemical suppliers use monomers and products containing VOCs
• Large chemical plants
• New manufacturing facility is relatively very expensive to build
• Long lead time to build (5 to 10 years)
• Require 90%+ loading for economics to work
• Must ship “wet” (50% solids — half of the product is water)
• Typically ship halfway across the country with increased fuel and freight cost
• High fixed cost, capital intensive
• Oil-based

Environmental Impact and Sustainability

With its corn base, EcoSphere biolatex ("new" carbon) binders offer a completely carbon neutral replacement for petroleum-based SB & SA Latex ("old" carbon).

The environmental impact of SB and SA Latex substitution by biolatex binders can be measured in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, since "old" carbon derived from oil is replaced by "new" carbon derived from crop based feedstock. Substitution of SB or SA Latex with EcoSphere biolatex products results in the reduction of carbon dioxide GHG emissions (CO2). Every pound of product made from petro-carbon that is substituted by biomass carbon intrinsically offers a reduction of 3.3 pounds in CO2 emissions, because in the time frame of 1 to 100 years the product does not remain in existence. A 40% industry wide substitution level would reduce CO2 emissions by ~2.5 million metric tons.

The total environmental benefit of petro-based products and biobased products is complicated because it depends on many different production process steps and waste management options. For a truly sustainable future this will continue to change as the utilization of fossil-based energy and fuels shifts towards renewable energy and fuels.

Intrinsically, however, any petro-based products will continue to result in GHG emissions, and therefore the switch to biobased products is essential to restore the balance in a time frame of 1 to 100 years.

Because of the above stated complexity, EcoSynthetix claims no benefits for the embedded energy costs in the production of latex binder from agricultural crops versus those from oil.

We have, however, identified other direct benefits that exist for the paper manufacturer. These include environmental benefits due to energy savings from higher solids, increased board stiffness, freight savings (not having to ship 50% water), plus other benefits that include fiber reduction, enhanced recyclability, and carbon tax credits which EcoSynthetix is in the process of quantifying for different paper and paperboard making operations. The energy, fiber reduction and freight savings were estimated to amount to an additional industry wide impact of approximately 10 million metric tons in CO2 reduction.

This amounts to a total estimated reduction in CO2 of approximately 12 million metric tons annually.

This is based on a 1:1 replacement of synthetic latex at a substitution level of 40%. This is a starting point for the new biolatex technology, and the total impact in the reduction in CO2 is therefore expected to grow to 31 million metric tons annually as we achieve 100% substitution in the future.

Additional benefits include enhanced recyclability, carbon tax credits and other savings which EcoSynthetix is in the process of quantifying for different paper and paperboard making operations.

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