Current projects at work

Some people wonder what a polymer scientist is much less what they do. Currently I am working on several projects:

• Wood composites for commercializing alternate crop
• Developing soy bean protein based adhesives
  to replace existing petroleum based adhesives
• Urea formaldehyde (UF) resins are commonly
  used in commercial particle board manufacture
• Formaldehyde is a carcinogen and is federally
  regulated
• Recently California imposed stricter regulations
  cutting emissions 80% by 2012
• This level is barely above the formaldehyde emissions
  of wood naturally
• Currently our adhesive matches or surpasses physical properties of UF resin boards, but our press time is longer and adhesive cost is an order of magnitude greater than UF adhesive
• Modification and commercialization of powder coatings
• Powder coatings are what they sound like
• They contain little or no volatile organic
  compounds
• They are eco friendly, but are relegated to commercial
  application processes
• Most common places you will see a powder
  coating is on large appliances at home
• They are also used expensively as barrier
  coatings and undercoats in the automotive industry
• We have completed the first of 4 resins and
  it should be scaled up to 70,000 lbs by the end of April
• The second only requires a duplication and it
  will be ready to move to the scale up process
• Preliminary work on the final two has also
  been completed
• Development of a novel fire retardant and insulating coating
• All developmental work has been completed and
  outside testing is underway
• Commercial production may begin in the near future
  
• Advancements in materials and test methods for structural composites
• Primarily investigating the state of the art
  at this point to determine the best direction for the research

And that is what I am doing ;)