M.T.Harvey Award for CNSL Phenalkamine Epoxy Curing Agent Technology

The M.T.Harvey Award

History of Commercialization of Cashew Nutshell Liquid (CNSL)

Mortimer T. Harvey Award

Consistent with its mission on advancing the use of cashew nutshell liquid technology, in 1998 Cardolite established the M. T. Harvey award for "outstanding contribution to the commercialization of cashew nutshell liquid."

Mortimer T. Harvey

The award is named after Dr. Mortimer T. Harvey who is really the father of commercial applications of cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL). Dr. Harvey characterized the chemical structure of cashew nutshell liquid in the 1920's and 1930' while a student at Union College in Schenectady, NY and Columbia University in New York City. After finishing his graduate work, he formed HARVEL Corporation to continue research into commercial applications of CNSL. Most of the significant patents on CNSL up to the 1950's were in the name of HARVEL. The most significant of these was the one for friction particle.

Previous Awardees To Top

2004-Zhisheng (Jim) Dai

Zhisheng (Jim) Dai brought the most recent innovations in products and markets to CNSL technology. Since joining Cardolite in 1993, Jim led the development of the Lite series of products, low viscosity and unique adduct epoxy curing agents, specialty modifiers for epoxy systems, new liquid friction resins, and distinctive friction particles. In addition to these technical developments, Jim was the driving force in establishing the Chinese market for CNSL based epoxy products, greatly expanding the use of friction particle in China, and construction of a production facility for CNSL based products in Zhuhai.

2003-Alan Penman, Alan Guy & Ken Baxter

AKZO, at the time International Paint, recognized the need to coat ships in Korea all around the year. There was a urgent need for fast curing agents. Alan Penman was asked to find a solution and discovered the phenalkamine technology. They rapidly developed a phenalkamine curing agent and improved it to make a product which revealed to be very efficient. Alan Guy took then the baton to further develop the technology. International started the production in Felling and Alan Penman was again coming on board to further develop the technology. All these developments and implementation works were done under Ken Baxter's supervision. The production capacity was rapidly filled. Both Alan Penman and Alan Guy claimed not to have thought of such a success when they started their research and development works.

2002-Eric Van Nevel

Eric Van Nevel’s efforts since 1986 as the head of Cardolite’s ex Americas sales have established cashew based, phenalkamine epoxy curing agents as the standard for low temperature, quick cure in the marine and protective coatings industry outside North America. From a base of virtually zero, current sales of cashew based epoxy products outside the Americas are many millions of dollars and pounds. The business now eclipses the American business and is recognized as a mainstream technology in epoxy coatings.

2001-Tom Hartley

Cardolite Corporation granted its annual Mortimer T. Harvey Award to Tom Hartley for his outstanding guidance and process in the sales and marketing area. Tom’s efforts lead to a significant increase in sales, while refocusing the company to become more market and customer driven.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from NYU. He spent virtually all his career at Union Carbide in various sales and marketing positions, including running the business and sales training & development department. Tom has been married for 50 years and has 2 children. Tom started consulting with Cardolite 10 years ago.

2000-Robert A. Gardiner

In 1975 while working as a chemist for 3M, Dr. Gardiner invented the epoxy curing agent technology based on CNSL currently called phenalkamines. Dr. Gardiner, in fact, coined the name "phenalkamine." His benchmark product, NC-541 and its derivatives and copies, are the largest phenalkamine in use today.

1999-Warren P. Swett

Warren worked as a research chemist at Irvington Varnish & Insulator and 3M for over 40 years into the 80's. These were the companies primarily responsible for commercializing CNSL based products. Perhaps, Warren's most important innovation was developing the first continuous distillation unit for the production of cardanol.

1998-Vijay Datta

While as Technical Director of Devoe Coatings in the 1980's, Vijay introduced a product to the marine epoxy coatings industry, with the combined concept of all season cure, surface tolerance, and outstanding corrosion resistance. This product was based on a CNSL based curing agent and established the benchmark for a technology which continues to grow even today.

Please send any comments or future nominations to: m.t.harvey@cardolite.com

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