Based in the Area Science Park of Trieste, one of the main technological and scientific parks in Italy, AEP Polymers was created in 2013 by four professionals in the field of chemistry and industrial polymers with private equity support.
AEP is an innovation-based company specialized in R&D for the development of bio-based building blocks and polymers for industrial application in polyurethane foams and CASE (coating, adhesives, sealant and elastomers), as well as in fibre-reinforced composites and thermoplastics.
AEP uses renewable sources (e.g. bio-aromatics like cashew nutshell liquid, plant-derived oils, lignin, etc.) to explore and validate new valorisation routes, coupling raw materials selection and synthetic approaches to deliver industrially scalable bio-based monomers, polymers and formulations that can have at least the same technical performances as their commercial fossil-derived counterparts.
Spanning from organic chemistry to polymer science and having a proactive and result-oriented attitude, AEP supports industrial clients in developing new products and brings this experience into collaborative projects, where new valorisation routes are explored.
AEP provides valuable contributions at different stages of new product creation:
- Experimental proof-of-concept (TRL=3), to enable decision making (business concepts, further developments) based on experimental results.
- Product development (TRL=4-5), to test and validate novel building blocks, formulations or materials against commercial benchmarks.
- Assistance to pre-industrialization (TRL>5), through transfer of synthetic protocols, pre-evaluation of regulatory status (e.g. REACH compliance) and definition of technical specifications for TDS.