Controlled Release of Exploration Chemicals
As energy prices continue to increase, the need to find and develop new energy fields is becoming more important. Oil and gas exploration is a very expensive process requiring tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and ongoing maintenance.
Landec is actively investigating ways to leverage the controlled release properties of Intelimer Polymers® for use with oil and gas exploration chemicals. Intelimer Polymers® can sustain the release of biocides, scale inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors and surfactants in down-hole operations to sustain their effectiveness over long periods of time, significantly reducing the cost of maintenance and maximizing
well productivity.
Temperature Indicating Labels
Two significant trends in the pharmacuetical industry are increasing the demand for temperature indicating labels. The number of biologic-based therapeutics is growing, offering improved treatment for the patient over small molecule therapeutics but requiring more stringent storage and handling requirements. Also, to improve patient convenience, more drugs are being delivered directly to the home. As a result, there is a pressing need to carefully manage and monitor the cold-chain of these biologic drugs to ensure patient safety. Patients need to know that the drug they are about to take has not been exposed to thermal stresses outside of a tolerable range and that the efficacy of their drug has been preserved.
Landec is investigating the use of the temperature triggered properties of our Intelimer Polymers® to build irreversible chemical-based temperature indicators. The goal of the research program is to develop indicators that are more accurate, deliver improved visual clarity and are more cost effective than existing indicating technologies.
Positive Temperature Coefficient Inks
Low cost, inherently safe positive temperature coefficient (PTC) systems are becoming more common in the market. One application of PTC systems is a self-contained thermally regulated circuit that supports high conductivity at low temperatures but transitions abruptly to very high resistance at a specific safety threshold temperature.
Landec can provide Intelimer Polymers® with temperature triggered volume change properties for PTC inks. When Intelimer Polymers are combined with conductive materials (i.e. metals) below the transition temperature, the system maintains its highly conductive nature. When heated to the designated safety threshhold, the volume of the polymer increases, creating separation between the conductive particles and reducing conductance. In effect, this breaks the circuit until the system cools back below the transition temperature.
