Paint additive could make pots of money

Oct 18 2007 by Graeme King, The Journal

A PAINT additive developed by a chemist at Durham University is tipped to become a multi-million pound money spinner.

Dr Andy Whiting has been working with two colleagues from the University of Manchester to develop what is known as a ‘crosslinker’ material to avoid using smelly and environmentally unfriendly solvents in paint manufacturing.

With paint companies coming under pressure to minimise their environmental impact, the team’s ‘HESS’ product appears to be heading for the market at just the right time.

As the presence of solvents in the atmosphere contributes to global warming, governments around the world are moving to outlaw them.

The HESS team is talking to several major paint manufacturers about using the product, and they have recently attracted new funding of £90,000 from NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI) through its Proof of Concept Fund to develop HESS further into a fully commercial proposition that can be used in industry trials.

Dr Whiting, who is leading the team at Durham University, said: “This technology really has the potential to create a new generation of more environmentally-friendly paints, coatings and adhesives. This would be great news for DIY enthusiasts and decorators everywhere since HESS-based products wouldn’t produce any of the fumes normally associated with painting.”

Dr Whiting said normal paint is made up of little balls of polymer, which are held together by a solvent which evaporates when applied to a wall.

Paint using HESS, however, leaves the surface of the polymer balls ‘sticky’ and they then react with each other, and cling to the wall – without the need for a solvent. He said: “It’s sort of a mechanical linking device. The really clever part is that while the paint is sitting in water, the balls don’t react, but when they dry out, that switches the ‘stickiness’ on.”

Richard Price, business development manager at Manchester University’s intellectual property commercialisation company (UMIP), said: “HESS is groundbreaking and, as you can imagine, is attracting a lot of interest from the industry. I think this is potentially a multi-million pound innovation. Conservatively, there are 7bn litres of paint, inks and mastics produced in the world each year. Even if you said that products were sold at £1 per litre, that’s a £7bn market.”

Michelle Cooper, investment manager at NSEI, said: “HESS has been in development since 1998 so it’s very exciting to be on the verge of a breakthrough in terms of turning it into a commercial reality. NSEI funding has been instrumental in achieving this.”