New Paint Technology by Arthur Raybold

An environmentally friendly paint developed by polymer science researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, will serve a dual purpose of reducing pollutants in the atmosphere and increasing market opportunities for farmers.

The paint, developed by a Southern Miss research team led by Dr. Shelby Thames, was unveiled during an Earth Day celebration April 24 at the Pentagon in Washington. Within the next year, the paint will be used on approximately one-fifth of the interior walls of the Pentagon. The Pentagon test will be a first step to bringing the paint to market, said Dr. Thames.

Under Thames' direction, Southern Miss researchers have developed a monomer, a chemical building block, from an agricultural product-in this case, castor oil-which is built into the chemical base of the paint. The monomer, called a "castor oil acrylated monomer," takes the place of a solvent in the formulation of the paint. That, in turn, dramatically reduces the amount of toxic pollutants given off by water -based paint into the atmosphere.

Conventional paint, Thames said, contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which pollute the air and give fresh paint its unpleasant odor. The paint industry has been called upon to reduce VOCs, but has not had the technology to do so.

The new technology developed at Southern Miss will remove the VOCs from the paint, cutting the level of pollutants from, typically, 200-400 grams per liter of paint to as low as three grams.

The bottom line is this technology uses castor oil, soybean oil or lesquerella oil to allow us to make latex polymers that have wide applications, Thomas said. Not just paints, but inks, adhesives, carpet backing, coating for fibers, coatings for concrete steel, just a huge potential for applications. And we make these coatings systems that have no odor  and release no pollutants into the atmosphere.

Thames said the new paint , unlike the soy-based paints that have been on the market for the last ten years, has shown a consistently high quality in lab tests, including government testing as a precursor to environmental certification and Pentagon approval.

According to the specifications called for by the Green Seal Society, our paint far exceeded their expectations-in terms of the amount of volatiles in it, in terms of the odor, the wash ability, the scrub resistance values. So this has now become Green Seal-certified.

The task at hand before Thames, Watts (a thirty year painting and coatings industry participant) and their partners is to manufacture approximately 20,000 gallons of their environmentally friendly paint for Pentagon painters. To that end, they have established Southern Diversified Products, a Jackson, MS-based manufacturing company, to produce the paint.

Southern Diversified Products was formed under an arrangement made possible by the Mississippi University Research Act, which allows university researchers to market the results of their work under an agreement with the university and the State College board.

Important to vendors, HOA property managers and HOA boards is that, according to Dr. Thames, a gallon of this vinyl acrylic paint will cover approximately 400 sq. ft. and the wholesale cost of 100 gallons or more is estimated to be $27.50/ gallon. An extrapolation of these numbers suggests that this product initially will be purchased at a premium in comparison to low VOC acrylics currently being manufactured and used on the exteriors of multi-family units. However, for HOA's with high populations of seniors and allergy sufferers, this product would appear to be well worth its initial market premium cost.

N.B. This article was edited from an article written by Jack Mitchell, entitled "New Paint Technology to Aid Environment, Farmers," appearing in The Bear Facts, Volume III, Issue 3, Official Publication of the Golden State Council, Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. For more information, contact Bud Kirkpatrick, Assistant to the President for University Relations, The University of Southern Mississippi, Box 5016, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5016; 601-266-4491; budkirkpatrick@usm.edu.