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TOPAS Advanced Polymers manufactures and markets TOPAS® COC (cyclic olefin copolymer) for advanced packaging, medical, optical and other applications worldwide. We also supply Crystal Dew® COC, a decorative material. Finally, TOPAS Advanced Polymers manufactures and markets norbornene, a valuable building block for complex organic molecules.
TOPAS Advanced Polymers is a joint venture of Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd., and Polyplastics Co., Ltd. It is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, with a U.S. subsidiary in Florence, KY. It operates a 30,000-metric tonnes/year COC plant, the world's largest, in Oberhausen, Germany. It employs about 100 people working in research and development, marketing and sales, production and administration. TOPAS Advanced Polymers was launched January 1, 2006 following the purchase of the TOPAS business from Ticona, a subsidiary of Celanese Corporation.
TOPAS COC was developed in the early 1990s by Hoechst AG. Hoechst created a new COC process in which norbornene is synthesized from dicyclopentadiene and ethylene. A second step copolymerises norbornene with ethylene by metallocene catalysis to generate cyclic olefin copolymer.
TOPAS development at a glance
1990:
COC project launched in the Central Polymer Research Department of the former Hoechst AG
1993:
R&D collaboration with Mitsui Petrochemical Company, Japan and first pilot-scale trials of a continuous COC process
1995:
First production run on semi-commercial scale begins
1996:
Ticona starts new TOPAS Business Line and develops the norbornene process
1998:
Decision made to build a production plant at Oberhausen, Germany
2000:
Commercial TOPAS COC production starts at Oberhausen with an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes
2004:
Polyplastics becomes development and distribution partner for TOPAS in the Asia / Pacific region
2005:
Ticona sells the TOPAS COC business to Daicel Chemical Industries and Polyplastics Co., Ltd
2006:
Formation of TOPAS Advanced Polymers GmbH and TOPAS Advanced Polymers, Inc.
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