International. ICIS revealed that AkzoNobel has been chosen as the overall winner at the 2017 ICIS Innovation Awards. AkzoNobel's entry for its Interline 9001 advanced coating system for ship cargo tanks also won the Best Product Innovation category.
The novel BiModal polymer formulation and curing technology underlying Interline 9001 have enabled AkzoNobel to obtain more than half of the total volume of new tanker constructions in the world in 2016. The innovation is based on patented BiModal technology.
The coating is formulated in a lower stoichiometry than conventional epoxy amine systems. It undergoes initial conventional curing at room temperature before undergoing a high-temperature post-cure, which induces homopolymerization of unreacted epoxy groups in the presence of a catalyst.
This offers very high conversion and results in a highly crisscrossed network, which is the basis of the gradual change in chemical resistance.
Innovation was considered the clear winner by the panel of seven leading experts in industrial innovation. The judges commented on its rapid success in the market and the scale of the benefits offered to users.
The ICIS Innovation Awards recognize outstanding technological and business innovation in the global chemical industry, at the individual and company levels.
