Note vedr. afhandling

Plasticizers are additives that increase the plasticity and fluidity of materials. Phthalates are the most widely used plasticizers. Based on animal studies, however, studies have reported that phthalates might have hormone-disrupting effects in humans. The focus is therefore on replacing phthalates with renewable, plant-based plasticizers.

Seong-Chea Chua took part in a three-year collaborative project between DuPontTM Danisco® (previously Danisco A/S), AU-MBI (now AU-ENG), DTU Chemistry and DTU Food to develop a series of novel processes to produce Grindsted ®Soft-N-Safe (SNS) analogues from glycerol monooleate (GMO), which can be used instead of castor oil and thereby replace phthalates as a safer plasticizer.

During her PhD studies, Seong-Chea focused on lipase-catalyzed epoxidation, chemical-catalyzed hydrogenation and lipase-catalyzed acetylation. She proved that those approaches are able to produce SNS analogues with a high conversion and a high yield at lower temperature.

The PhD degree was completed at the Department of Engineering, Science and Technology, Aarhus University.