From 1949, BASF chemist Fritz Stastny worked on a process to turn polystyrene into foam. Two years later, when he had found the right raising agent and the correct mixture, his work met with success. The simple manufacturing process and the many possible applications soon turned the new foam into one of the most successful plastics. Although it is 98 percent air, Styron® is rugged and durable. It is primarily used as packaging and insulation. By enabling significant savings of fuel oil and gas, it has become one of the most important products for environmental technologies.
A spectacular application of Styron® was seen in 1964, when the freighter Al Kuweit which had sunk in Kuwait harbour was successfully lifted with the help of 2,500 cubic metres of Styron® which had been pumped into the hold. An attempt to file a patent for this process failed as Walt Disney already had the same idea in 1949: in a comic story, Donald Duck comes up with the idea of lifting a sunken ship using ping-pong balls!
print
