In recent years, industry has shifted gradually from petroleum-based feedstocks to less price-sensitive renewable resources. It brought a new generation of biorefineries and other initiatives involving new products and processes online.

The Dow Chemical Company started a program to explore the use of seed oils as raw materials in the late 1990s. As a result, Dow adopted a vision for a seed oil refinery supplying several Dow businesses and external customers with a new source of monomers and polymers.

Several technologies emerged enabling this option. One of these technologies, Union Carbide's hydroformylation and reduction platform, has been critical for enabling practical use of seed oils in polyurethane applications.

Dow Polyurethane Business adopted the concept of developing seed oil-based polyols with the initial target of partial replacement of PO/EO based polyols and with the long-term objective of fully replacing conventional technology with the same or improved performance.

This paper is focused on the description of the work done in different market segments and applications and the success obtained with selected development customers.

The success of Dow's product and process technology was significant enough for Dow to commit to building a market-development facility for the commercial launch of this new product family of seed oil polyols.