Olga Selifonova and Sergey Selifonov

Founders of Reluceo Inc. and XLTerra Inc.

Polymers for the 21^st century:

New planet and human friendly materials with exceptional performance.

Development of the petrochemical industry in the 20th century resulted in creation of remarkable new polymer materials and plastics that became inseparable parts of human life. However, today, the majority of fossil-based polymers and plastics are not degradable hence posing a multitude of pollution problems with gargantuan mountains of plastic trash on the land and in the oceans. Challenging such a socially and environmentally unacceptable status quo, we embark on a quest to develop and industrialize sustainable and responsible alternatives to those 20th century polymer technologies that are at the heart of the Trash Planet problem. Introduction of new degradable plastics from renewable sources faced and will continue to face enormous challenges. Largely, these challenges arise from limitations of the fundamental properties of PLA, PHB(A)s, cellulose acetate and starch-based alternatives developed and commercialized during last decades. We will discuss how we discover and develop the next generation of planet and human friendly polymers and polymer systems that are devoid of toxins, have exceptional performance, made from abundant renewable sources, beautifully designed to re-enter the carbon cycle when they are no longer needed, and are competitive with the best fossil carbon polymers