Abstract: A stable liquid ingredient composition for liquid animal feed, which is stable from 0 to about 40° C. and also forms a stable dispersion in water. The composition includes oleyl lactylate and salts thereof (OL), and a further lactylate selected from lauroyl lactylate and salts thereof (LL), or a mixture of lauroyl lactylate and myristoyl lactylate and/or their salts (LL/ML blend). The weight ratio of the lactylate selected from LL or the LL/ML blend to OL in the stable liquid ingredient composition ranges from 1/99 to 60/40. The stable liquid ingredient composition may optionally include a diluent. The composition provides an alternative to solid feed ingredients or additives and can be applied as ingredient in liquid feed for animals such as in drinking water. Use of the stable liquid ingredient composition allows a reduction in the use of antibiotics and helps to maintain a good health of the animal.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for the emulsifier-free preparation of water expandable polymer beads, which process comprises the steps of: a) providing an emulsifier-free starting composition comprising styrene and a polyphenylene ether resin, b) prepolymerizing the starting composition to obtain a prepolymer composition, c) adding an aqueous dispersion of a modifier-free nanoclay to the prepolymer composition to obtain an inverse emulsion, d) suspending the inverse emulsion obtained by step c) in an aqueous medium to yield an aqueous suspension of suspended droplets and e) polymerizing the monomers in the droplets of the suspension obtained by step d) to obtain the water expandable polymer beads.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for the emulsifier-free preparation of water expandable polymer beads. The process comprises the steps of: a) providing an emulsifier-free monomer composition comprising styrene and a polar comonomer comprising a carbon-to-carbon double bond, b) prepolymerizing the monomer composition to obtain a prepolymer composition comprising styrene, the polar comonomer and their copolymer, c) adding an aqueous dispersion of nanoclay to the prepolymer composition to obtain an inverse emulsion, d) suspending the inverse emulsion obtained by step c) in an aqueous medium to yield an aqueous suspension of suspended droplets and e) polymerizing the monomers in the droplets of the suspension obtained by step d).