Research - Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy
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The Feluy Research Centre, Total Petrochemicals’ largest R&D Centre with personnel
in excess of 400 people, pools catalyst expertise for petrochemicals, base chemicals,
and refining.
Its main mission is to improve and develop new technologies and new polyolefins
jointly with the Mont/Lacq (France) and La Porte (United States) research centres.
To carry this through, Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy prospects and develops
technology based on the Group’s objectives, cooperates with the factories, and
assists customers both in making optimum use of the products and in developing new
applications. The proximity of the research centre, the polymer production plant and
the sales teams within the same site makes for better and more frequent contacts
between people, promotes synergies, and, through greater efficiency, helps reduce
the product development cycle. Over half the grades marketed today have been
developed, improved or renewed in the last five years, which proves the success of the
organisation in place.
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Taking part in regional development
In 2003 Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy, the Walloon
Region and the European Union signed a 3-year convention
on the synthesis of new generation catalysts using the high
throughput screening method. Research is conducted
at the Feluy Research Centre and at Certech (Chemistry
Technological Resources Centre), a spinoff of the Université
Catholique de Louvain-La-Neuve set up in 1996 and based
in Seneffe. Over and above the pooling of competences
between university and industry, this cooperation venture
also aims to stimulate the creation of high added value jobs
in the Centre region of Belgium by securing in particular the
manufacture of the new catalysts in the area.
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Sustainable development is also at the heart of the concerns of Total Petrochemicals
Research Feluy. The bimodal polyethylene technology, developed in Feluy and which
the Group owns exclusively, as well as the metallocene catalyst technology, in the
development of which Total is a major player, help produce plastics which boast
improved properties and are less heavy and less bulky than those produced from
traditional resins. Other ambitious projects are also underway in particular in the field of
management of end-of-life plastics.
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The biodegradability of commodity polymers is a
challenge which Total Petrochemicals, as a responsible
plastics producer, has decided to take up through Total
Petrochemicals Research Feluy, and with the cooperation
of the Group’s other research centres as well as external
partners. Biodegradability through UV exposure or through
low temperature is one of the research areas overseen by
the Feluy R&D Centre. Meanwhile, research is also being
undertaken into biodegradable polymers manufactured from
renewable resources of agricultural origin. Additionally, the
Company has joined forces with IFREMER (Institut Français
de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) to develop new
polyesters produced by marine micro-organisms.
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