Penn Specialty Chemicals and Chemetall join forces in marketing organometallic reagents

Published: 22-Feb-2007

US company Penn Specialty Chemicals, of Philadelphia, has joined forces with Chemetall, of Frankfurt, Germany in a strategic marketing agreement for global market development of the solvent MeTHF (2-methyltetrahydrofuran) and MeTHF soluble organometallic reagents, organic and inorganic salts, hydrides and alcoxides.


US company Penn Specialty Chemicals, of Philadelphia, has joined forces with Chemetall, of Frankfurt, Germany in a strategic marketing agreement for global market development of the solvent MeTHF (2-methyltetrahydrofuran) and MeTHF soluble organometallic reagents, organic and inorganic salts, hydrides and alcoxides.

Penn manufactures MeTHF commercially and specialises in the production of furfural and furan-based solvents and derivatives. Chemetall is a leading supplier of metal-based chemical applications and produces a variety of lithium-based products.

The main purpose of the agreement is to increase the awareness and acceptance of MeTHF and MeTHF-based reagents in industrial r&d and academia with a focus on the fine chemical market.

Penn has developed MeTHF as a more environmentally friendly and more effective solvent alternative to tetrahydrofuran. Unlike THF, MeTHF is obtained from renewable resources and is not soluble in effluent waters.

MeTHF is comparable or better than THF in terms of its chemical properties but resembles toluene in terms of its physical properties. This has important in-process advantages such as easier recycling, improved extractive and crystallisation properties, and shorter cycle times.

Chemetall has developed and commercialised numerous MeTHF based reagents with several distinct advantages over THF-based reagents. The company has shown that various organogrignard reagents are much more soluble in MeTHF than THF and some reactions display dramatically improved yields.

Since the advantages of MeTHF and MeTHF-based reagents are not widely known in the marketplace, both companies recognise the need to allocate resources to the development of open knowledge in terms of existing and new applications.

Penn and Chemetall will jointly sponsor scientific events catered around green chemistry and organometallic applications. In addition both will provide free samples and finance fundamental research for a select group of universities and research centres around the world. This will increase the foundation needed to grow the market and lower barriers to entry for MeTHF and MeTHF-based reagents.

Industry is looking for new ways of doing things and this is a greener, more efficient process,' said Bogdan Comanita, director of marketing and sales Europe.

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