Conference Programme

This major three-day event opens on 17 April 2012 in the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Starting the proceedings will be a Keynote presentation from Ding Jiansheng, Chairman of Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes Co Ltd, China, leading into a Plenary Session focussed on celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the invention of polyurethanes chemistry, dated from Prof. Otto Bayer’s initial patent in 1937.

This comprises half a dozen presentations looking back over the history of the industry and assessing the prospects for the future. Experts will discuss the development of the key raw materials and processing equipment used to make these versatile materials.

This first session after lunch comprises two papers looking at the development of and prospects for the global markets amid the current turmoil in the world’s leading economies, including a special report on the development of the polyurethanes industry in Indonesia. This is followed by an Innovations session, with 8 papers detailing recent work from the world’s leading suppliers. The parallel session in the afternoon comprises 10 papers looking at the latest advances in “Green” chemistry, raw materials based on renewable resources.

The main technical conference continues through to 19 April, in a series of half-day sessions focussed on the key technical developments in the use of polyurethanes to make rigid and flexible foams, and CASE products (coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers), with a separate session on the final day discussing more scientific approaches to the production of PU-based products.

In addition to the technical programme, there will be separate sessions created by ISOPA (the European Diisocyanate and Polyols Producers Association) and the Polyurea Development Association Europe. The first of these, in the afternoon of the second day of the conference, will address key safety, health and environmental issues including an overview of the latest life-cycle analysis work on rigid PU foams and details of the latest US legislation, Chemical Action Plans, and their likely impact on the industry .

In the second special session, on the morning of the final day of the conference, 19 April, the latest commercial and technical developments relating to the fast-growing polyureas market will be discussed.

Without doubt, this combination of high-level information on technical, legislative and commercial activities in the polyurethanes sector, will make the UTECH Europe 2012 Conference an unmissable event.