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CALIFORNIA: If you thought Cotton and castor beans have only limited applications related to textile and edible oil industry, it has been provided wrong by a US-based developer of break-through technologies to produce bio-based materials.

BioSolar Inc has introduced a ‘robust protective backing for solar cells derived from castor and cotton beans. BioSolar line of proprietary BioBacksheet is designed to replace expensive and hazardous petroleum-based film thereby creating an environment friendly and cost-effective solar panel component.

Designed specifically for cost-sensitive, economical photovoltaic (PV) solar cell modules, the BioBacksheet-C is expected to be instrumental in driving down the cost per watt of solar power,” said Dr. David Lee, BioSolar’s chairman and CEO. Currently designed for silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic solar panels, the first commercially available BioBacksheet-C is highly water resistant and contains high dielectric strength material combined with cellulosic film.
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Dr. David Lee, Chairman and CEO of BioSolar, recently announced that the BioBacksheet-C will be the company’s first product to be commercially available during the second half of 2009. The announcement follows BioSolar’s recent news that two of its products are currently in the preproduction stage and nearing qualification for full production.

“BioBacksheet-C is a two component system. The substrate is a cellulosic material coated with a proprietary material to reduce the water vapor transmission rate and to increase abrasion resistance,” said Lee. “BioBacksheet-C is undergoing rigorous testing and adjustments over the past months to ensure its functional durability as well as its cosmetic consistency. Once all the adjustments and improvements are finalized, BioBacksheet-C will go through one additional full cycle of vigorous tests before commercial production begins,” the company announced a month ago.

Expansion of the patent-pending BioBacksheet technology is also expected to accommodate copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic panels. An article in Green Energy News noted that BioSolar is “the primary initiator of this resilient bio-based plastic, which substantially reduces solar manufacturing costs and entirely ceases any need for petroleum exploitation.”

Previous bio-based plastic technologies developed by solar engineers made from all-renewable plant resources turned out to be unreliablet for solar cell purposes because of their delicate molecular composition and low melting properties when exposed to high temperatures; making traditional bio-plastics a wavering option for solar cell fabrication, Dr David Lee commented.

Through the complex manipulation of bio-based materials, BioSolar plans to generate dependable bio-plastics which meet the stringent thermal and durability requirements of current solar cell manufacturing processes. These bio-plastics are expected to cost 25 percent less than Tedlar, the petroleum-based film made by DuPont, which is used by most silicon-based solar cell producers today, according to the article in Green Energy News. (Courtesy: Businesswire)

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