Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients manufactures chemicals that add desired traits to products from food to construction materials. An Ashland subsidiary, the company produces both water-soluble and solvent-soluble polymers (mostly derived from natural raw materials) that add functionality such as thickening, water-retention, binding, and emulsifying capabilities. It also makes wood and gum rosin resins for adhesives, food and beverages, and construction materials. Ashland Aqualon's customers include makers of coatings, oil field chemicals, paper, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. The company had been a part of Hercules Incorporated until Ashland acquired Hercules in 2008 and rebranded Aqualon.

S.C. Johnson Ltd. helps its customers clean up in the UK. The wholly-owned subsidiary of S.C. Johnson & Son is a Surrey-based manufacturer of household and industrial cleaning and hygiene products that is also known as British Johnson. The company operates a marketing and manufacturing unit in Frimley Green, Surrey; a regional headquarters (for Europe, Africa, and the Near East) in Egham, Surrey; and a European Shared Service Centre in Edinburgh House at Slough in Berkshire. Established in 1915 as its parent's first subsidiary, the firm markets cleaning products for nearly every room in the house. The company's brand names include Autan, Baygon, Brise, Echo, Kabikiller, Klear, and Mr Muscle, among others.

Polypore International, Inc., a technology filtration company, develops, manufactures, and markets microporous membranes used in separation and filtration processes. The company operates through two segments, Energy Storage and Separations Media. The Energy Storage segment offers polypropylene and polyethylene monolayer and multilayer membrane separators for lithium batteries for the use in personal electronic devices, cordless power tools, and hybrid electric and other electric vehicles. This segment also provides polymer-based membrane separators for lead-acid batteries for the use in transportation and industrial applications comprising automobiles and other motor vehicles, forklifts, submarines, and uninterruptible power supply systems. The Separation Media segment offers healthcare application products, which include polyethersulfone membranes for hemodialysis; polypropylene and polymethylpentene membranes for blood oxygenation; and polypropylene and polyethersulfone membranes for plasmapheresis. This segment also produces membranes and membrane-based elements for micro-filtration and ultra-filtration and gasification/degasification of liquids for the filtration industry. Polypore International sells its products to manufacturers and converters in North America, South America, western Europe, and Asia. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2005 UWGP completed the construction of and began operating an ethanol facility that manufactures 40 million gallons of ethanol a year. It has since expanded the plant to a capacity of more than 50 million gallons. It's not going against the grain to turn farm crops into motor fuels. Certainly not for United Wisconsin Grain Producers (UWGP), which like many other agribusinesses in the Midwest and Great Plains, is pushing grain-based ethanol as a viable and renewable fuel additive. Ethanol is an alcohol fuel produced by fermenting converted starch from corn with yeast. Most ethanol is blended with unleaded gasoline and other fuel products.

Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc., a development stage company, focuses on developing and commercializing gasification technology primarily in China and the United States. The company intends to build, own, and operate coal gasification plants that utilize its proprietary U-GAS fluidized bed gasification technology to convert low rank coal and coal wastes into higher value energy products, such as transportation fuels and ammonia. Synthesis Energy Systems was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

O'Neil Color and Compounding makes colorants and compounds for a variety of plastics used in packaging, bottles, toys, and horticultural and industrial products. It has about 20 advanced production lines and produces custom compounds such as flame retardant, anti-stat, and wear resistant materials for resin systems. The company is a subsidiary of Primex Plastics, which is itself a subsidiary of ICC Industries. It was founded in 1957 by Frank O'Neil.

Penn Color might not have anything to do with your pen color, but there's a good chance that some piece of plastic within your line of sight is colored by Penn. The Pennsylvania company manufactures dispersions, colorants, inks, and coatings primarily for the plastics industry, but also for automobile makers, printers, construction materials, packaging, wall covering and flooring, and even for use in nail polish. Penn Color has six manufacturing plants in the South East and North East US and one in the Netherlands. The company was formed in 1964 as PFD Plastics.

Not only can you paint the town red with Benjamin Moore paints, you can stain and finish it as well. In addition to ready-mixed colors -- sold under such brands as Benjamin Moore Paints, Moorcraft, and Benwood -- the company can match almost any shade with roughly 3,300 colors. Benjamin Moore also makes industrial coatings and coatings for manufacturers of furniture and roof decking. The company sells its paints through a dealer network of about 4,000 independent paint and decorating stores, most of which are in North America. Benjamin Moore became a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2000.

Brown Chemical mixes chemicals of various shades. The family-owned company specializes in distributing chemicals such as amines, food grade chemicals, latex additives, organics, phosphates, and sodiums for applications in textile, industrial, institutional, and specialty markets. Brown Chemical sells more than 1,500 products from 35 chemical manufacturers, and it offers contract packaging, custom blending, and product research services.

Kuraray's synthetics are for real. The diversified company manufactures chemicals and resins (about half of sales, including copolymer EVAL used in food packaging) and synthetic fibers and textiles (man-made leather, nonwoven fabrics, rayon, and polyester). It also offers engineering and consulting services. Kuraray pioneered the commercialization of several synthetic fibers and resins -- such as its KURALON and Poval products -- for industrial uses. The company, which does most of its business in Japan, is made up of about 80 companies operating in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.