Borealis and TOPAS Advanced Polymers developing new class of engineering material
Borealis and TOPAS Advanced Polymers have begun a collaboration on the development of a new class of engineering materials for capacitor film applications that will bridge the current performance gap between standard polymers and high-end plastics.
By enabling significantly higher film capacitor temperature resistance at lower cost, this new material will be a step change in power transformation and transmission: it will make traction inverters for electric mobility more energy efficient at higher temperatures, and will allow inverters to transform power from renewable sources like wind or solar more efficiently. Once commercially available, the first applications will be in traction inverters for electric mobility and inverters for solar and wind. A recent press releases stated: ‘It has the potential to accelerate the green energy transition towards renewables and contribute to achieving the greater goals of the European Green Deal.’
Combining the best of both worlds
Both companies are drawing on their respective expertise to create the EPN (ethylene-propylene-norbornene) material, which will increase the temperature resistance of film capacitors by 20°C to 35°C in comparison to capacitors made of standard polymers. This will close the current gap between conventional polymers and costly high-temperature plastics by enabling the use of polymeric film capacitors at endurance temperatures of up to 140°C.
Combining the highest electrical purity with superior homogeneity, the new material should be designed for the production of ultra-thin and highly consistent films in the range of 2-6 microns gauge. Provided the appropriate processing parameters are in place, the new material is targeted to be suitable for use on BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) film processing machines.
Anton Wolfsberger, Director Strategic Polyolefins Business Projects at Borealis, said: “For conventional energy to be replaced by power from renewable sources, energy transformation and transmission must become more efficient and affordable. Meeting this challenge is the goal of our co-operation with TOPAS Advanced Polymers.
“In the near future, this step-change material class will benefit both the power industry value chain as well as end consumers. We are proud to be working with TOPAS to enable green energy at a greater scale and to contribute to achieving the European Green Deal’s ambitious energy aims.”
Keisuke Goto, GM Corporate Strategy, Polyplastics CO., Ltd – the main shareholder of TOPAS – added: “It is exciting to develop a solution that will become a cornerstone for the transition of the energy supply system. We had been intrigued by the potential, which we plan to tap by joining forces with BOREALIS’ deep material expertise in polyolefins and specific market know-how. When we started this development, it became obvious rather quickly that this collaboration is the perfect match to deliver the best product with exceptional performance for this demanding application.”