The Urethane Blog

January 9, 2020

MLily USA Expands in SC

First U.S. facility: MLily USA opens mattress factory in S.C.

David Perry // Executive Editor, Furniture Today • January 6, 2020

Ty Davenport, left, director of Fairfield County Economic Development; Chad Reinsel, MLily USA; Mayor Roger Gaddy, Winnsboro, S.C.; Annie McDaniel, S.C. representative; Mike Fanning, S.C. senator; James Ni, Healthcare Co.; Bobby Hitt, S.C. Secretary of Commerce; Cornelius Robinson, chairman of Fairfield County Council; Stephen Chen and Suns Jian, both of MLily USA.

WINNSBORO, S.C. — Fast-growing MLily USA recently opened its first U.S.-based mattress manufacturing facility here, preparing to serve customers in the North America market.

The company, a unit of China-based Healthcare Co., spent about $48 million to open and equip the new factory in Fairfield County, just north of the state capital of Columbia.

More than 200 state and local officials and bedding suppliers and executives were on hand for the grand-opening celebration, which featured comments by James Ni, the chairman and CEO of Healthcare.

“James always saw a huge opportunity in the U.S.,” said Stephen Chen, president of MLily USA. “That vision has come true today.”

Ni said the U.S. government’s antidumping duties on Chinese bedding producers have hurt MLily’s business but said the new mattress factory here gives his company renewed growth prospects.

Read more here:  https://www.furnituretoday.com/bedding-manufacturers/first-u-s-facility-mlily-usa-opens-mattress-factory-in-s-c/

January 9, 2020

MLily USA Expands in SC

First U.S. facility: MLily USA opens mattress factory in S.C.

David Perry // Executive Editor, Furniture Today • January 6, 2020

Ty Davenport, left, director of Fairfield County Economic Development; Chad Reinsel, MLily USA; Mayor Roger Gaddy, Winnsboro, S.C.; Annie McDaniel, S.C. representative; Mike Fanning, S.C. senator; James Ni, Healthcare Co.; Bobby Hitt, S.C. Secretary of Commerce; Cornelius Robinson, chairman of Fairfield County Council; Stephen Chen and Suns Jian, both of MLily USA.

WINNSBORO, S.C. — Fast-growing MLily USA recently opened its first U.S.-based mattress manufacturing facility here, preparing to serve customers in the North America market.

The company, a unit of China-based Healthcare Co., spent about $48 million to open and equip the new factory in Fairfield County, just north of the state capital of Columbia.

More than 200 state and local officials and bedding suppliers and executives were on hand for the grand-opening celebration, which featured comments by James Ni, the chairman and CEO of Healthcare.

“James always saw a huge opportunity in the U.S.,” said Stephen Chen, president of MLily USA. “That vision has come true today.”

Ni said the U.S. government’s antidumping duties on Chinese bedding producers have hurt MLily’s business but said the new mattress factory here gives his company renewed growth prospects.

Read more here:  https://www.furnituretoday.com/bedding-manufacturers/first-u-s-facility-mlily-usa-opens-mattress-factory-in-s-c/

January 9, 2020

Government Work

Battelle To Develop Coal-to-Foam Program

Posted on Nov 25, 2019

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Nov. 25, 2019)—Battelle won a recent United States Department of Energy (DOE) award that has an interesting twist for coal.

The DOE announced that Battelle was among its recipients in funding for cost-shared research and development projects. The project is to be executed in a parallel program with the Ohio Coal Development Office. Battelle will develop a process to convert bituminous coal into polyurethane foam products along with some low-sulfur fuel oil by-product. The results are expected to confirm the commercial viability of a coal-to-high-value solid foam products process.

The value proposition is easy to understand: Coal currently sells for $50 to $60 a ton and polyurethane foams sell for $5,000 to $6,000 per ton. Currently, these expensive foams are made from petroleum products, but coal can be converted by either heat or solvents into a polyol that does the same thing.

Based on research that dates to 1974, Battelle has a patent that uses a solvent to transform coal into such a polyol. The high-value chemical can then be used to make foams for a variety of different products, including insulation for buildings, which is good for the environment.

“This traps the carbon in the rigid insulation foam,” said Satya Chauhan, a scientist, business developer and principal investigator on the project. “This is an important project to illustrate the importance of employing a wide variety of approaches to use fossil fuels in an environmentally responsible way and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere.”

The DOE award project number is DE-FE0031795 and the OCDO/ODSA project number is D-19-05.

https://www.battelle.org/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-detail/battelle-to-develop-coal-to-foam-program

January 9, 2020

Government Work

Battelle To Develop Coal-to-Foam Program

Posted on Nov 25, 2019

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Nov. 25, 2019)—Battelle won a recent United States Department of Energy (DOE) award that has an interesting twist for coal.

The DOE announced that Battelle was among its recipients in funding for cost-shared research and development projects. The project is to be executed in a parallel program with the Ohio Coal Development Office. Battelle will develop a process to convert bituminous coal into polyurethane foam products along with some low-sulfur fuel oil by-product. The results are expected to confirm the commercial viability of a coal-to-high-value solid foam products process.

The value proposition is easy to understand: Coal currently sells for $50 to $60 a ton and polyurethane foams sell for $5,000 to $6,000 per ton. Currently, these expensive foams are made from petroleum products, but coal can be converted by either heat or solvents into a polyol that does the same thing.

Based on research that dates to 1974, Battelle has a patent that uses a solvent to transform coal into such a polyol. The high-value chemical can then be used to make foams for a variety of different products, including insulation for buildings, which is good for the environment.

“This traps the carbon in the rigid insulation foam,” said Satya Chauhan, a scientist, business developer and principal investigator on the project. “This is an important project to illustrate the importance of employing a wide variety of approaches to use fossil fuels in an environmentally responsible way and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere.”

The DOE award project number is DE-FE0031795 and the OCDO/ODSA project number is D-19-05.

https://www.battelle.org/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-detail/battelle-to-develop-coal-to-foam-program

January 9, 2020

A Little Flexible Foam History