Air Products has donated a portfolio of U.S. and foreign patents on making vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), a key ingredient in products ranging from emulsion paint to chewing gum, to the University of California, Davis. The donation will support work on catalysis by Bruce Gates, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and his laboratory.

Gates' laboratory will use the technology for further research and graduate teaching. The UC Davis researchers will be able to add to the existing patents and file new applications based on their research. The university will be able to license the technology to companies for commercial development through its Technology Transfer Center. Any future royalties or licensing fees from the patents, or from new inventions derived from the technology, will benefit the University of California.

"We are pleased that the stewardship of the VAM technology donation is in the very able hands of UC Davis," said John C. Tao, corporate director, Technology Partnerships at Air Products. "This institution has the enviable combination of a globally recognized center for heterogeneous catalysis research in Professor Bruce Gates' laboratories of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, combined with the proactive and successful Technology Transfer Center at Davis."

"This generous donation reflects both UC Davis' standing as a major research university and the contributions Bruce Gates has made in this area over the past three decades. Equipped with these patents, Professor Gates and his students will now be able to pick up this technology and run with it. We're very pleased to have Air Products as a partner in research and teaching in this way," said Barry Klein, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

VAM is a starting material for manufacturing a wide variety of products including latex emulsion paint, adhesives, ceramics, coatings and paper products. The current commercial process for making VAM uses acetic acid, ethylene and oxygen as raw materials, with a liquid catalyst. The new process patented by Air Products uses a mixture of gases derived from natural gas as a raw material, with a solid catalyst, making separation of products from the catalyst easier. Acetic acid is a byproduct of the new process.

Initial tests indicated that with some further development of the catalyst, the new method could be significantly less expensive than conventional technology. With its continued interest in improved routes to this key feedstock, the company began searching for a university on which to confer its technology and identified Gates' laboratory at UC Davis due to its expertise in catalysis.

This donation extends Air Products' partnership with UC Davis, which includes an association with the university's Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). The institute recently dedicated a new Air Products hydrogen fueling station on campus as part of its research and demonstration programs on transportation technology.

Headquartered in Lehigh Valley, Pa., Air Products provides atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials and chemical intermediates to customers in technology, energy, healthcare and industrial markets worldwide.