Jerome Chauveau

Advancements in the production of meltblown fibres

Meltblowing is an essential process in the production of filtration media, consisting of single- and sub-micron diameter fibres. At times, these fibres can be exposed to chemicals and environments that degrade the fibres and adversely affect product performance. This article explores the use of a more suitable “chemically resistant” fibre media in the process.

Polyvinylidene fluoride fibres for multiple high performance uses

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has long been used for industrial monofilament applications. In this article for Filtration+Separation Sean M Stabler, James Henry, and Jerome Chauveau of Arkema, developers of the new Kynar PVDF, discuss how fresh grades allow the dimensions of fibres to be scaled down to very low diameter fibres, giving access to new opportunities. They state it is an adaptable fluoropolymer, whioh can be applied to many markets including transportation and chemical processing.

Prospective Application of High Energy Mixing for Powder Flow Enhancement and Better Performance of Hydrogen and Energy Storage Systems

Mechanically induced physical or chemical conversions of solids termed as mechanochemistry have recently gained more scientific attention due to their solvent-free and energy saving approach to many existing and new technologies. Relatively simple technique allowing mechanochemistry to be used as an effective method for alteration and modification of powder properties is high-energy mixing/milling (HEM) in planetary or vibrating ball mills. The outstanding feature of this technique having unique significance for powder technology is flowability improvement of cohesive powders commonly used in chemical, pharmaceutical and food process industries. Using HEM it was possible to remarkably improve flowability of such highly cohesive powders as calcium carbonate, potato starch, Apyral, Disulphiram and others. Further applications of HEM include hydrogen and energy storage in solids. New surfaces which are continuously created under ball-milling and constant mass transfer when mixing are regarded as two major factors responsible for the enhanced reactivity of metals towards hydrogen. This was shown to be effective for some lithium compounds (lithium nitride) in a composition with fluoropolymers, like PVDF and PVDF-HFP. New energy storage systems, particularly highly efficient, rechargeable batteries are the primary factors for to-day information and communication technology needs. Lithium-ion-solid polymer batteries seem to satisfy the requirements. To examine applicability of HEM for electrochemical activation of solid polymer electrolyte (SPE), in this work fluoropolymers like poly(vinylidene fluoride) and its co-polymer (PVDF-HFP) were ball-milled with various lithium compounds (lithium nitride, lithium amide, lithium perchlorate). The results have proven that the obtained SPE can be useful as important components of prospective energy carriers.