Jochen Ahrens, head of Clariant's flame retardants business, announced news regarding the company's investments in Daya Bay, China, at an Oct. 20 news conference at K 2022.
Clariant had previously announced a 60 million Swiss franc investment on a new facility at Daya Bay. The plant, which is scheduled to open in mid-2023, will produce Exolit OP halogen-free flame retardants for thermoplastics used in e-mobility and in the electrical and electronics segments.
Ahrens revealed that Clariant will invest a further 40 million francs to begin construction on a second Exolit OP production line at Daya Bay — before completion of the first production line — and that this second line is scheduled to come on stream during 2024.
"The demand for nonhalogenated flame retardants has increased tremendously in the past 15 months. We evaluated very thoroughly how the industry is going to move, not only for the next couple of years, but looking at the next five to 10 years," Ahrens said.
The increased demand has been propelled by the trend toward electrification of vehicles. Ahrens said that halogen-free additives are a requirement in the specification for most components used within e-mobility applications.
Ahrens also announced the expansion of the Exolit OP 1400 range with two new products, focused principally on unattended household appliances, designed to meet the "glow wire test" required by safety regulations. Clariant has also collaborated with Schneider Electric on that company's definition of "green plastics" and meeting the GreenScreen Benchmark Three for safer chemicals. And it has worked with Lavergne, a company that recycles ocean-bound plastics, to provide it with flame retardancy for the recycled compounds it has produced for use in building the cases of Hewlett-Packard laptops.
"We are very proud to have been leading the move to environmentally responsible flame retardants for plastics for more than 20 years," said Ahrens. "We see enormous opportunities to support the demand for halogen-free flame retardants."
Martin John, Clariant's vice president for advanced surface materials, described solutions developed with the Fraunhofer Institute, designed to optimize the use of recycled materials in automotive applications. Licowax AS 100 TP is an anti-scratch additive, made from renewable raw material, for PP and TPO applications. The additive is said to help prevent scratches and scuffing on interior automotive parts, household appliances and lightweight luggage, improving the perceived quality of recycled plastics used in these applications.
John also previewed Clariant's AddWorks AGC970, a light stabilizer solution for PE agricultural films, to extend their surface life and UV resistance, and also preventing contamination of the soil from decomposition of the film.
A new bio-based wax for the processing of injection molded polyester compounds was next in John's presentation. John said the bio-based Licocare RBW 560 TP Vita additive, exhibited a combination of lubrication and nucleation in the compounding and processing of engineering plastics, while offering easier mold release, better thermal stability and increased color stability.
The additive is based on renewable, nonfood-competing feedstock: crude rice bran wax, a byproduct from the production of rice bran oil. Clariant has submitted an application for FDA food-contact approval for its entire range of Licocare RBW additives.
Clariant's final presentation came from Bettina Siggelkow, the company's head of sustainability affairs. Siggelkow explained that Clariant was an early champion of sustainability, having introduced a program in 2012 — Portfolio Value Program — to steer the company's portfolio toward increased sustainability.
"This has been true differentiator for us," said Siggelkow. "Now based on this, in 2022, we have implemented a revised version, PVP 2.0, which now incorporates the evolved understanding of what sustainable product means for us as a client, for the society and for the industry. PVP 2.0 is based on 39 criteria, panning all dimensions — social, environmental and economic — and looking at a product along the full life cycle."
Siggelkow explained CliMate, which she described as an "ambitious science-based target to reduce our own emissions and those of our customers." Siggelkow said: "I'm really happy to announce that we have introduced an automated product, a carbon footprint tool. CliMate allows us to provide our customers with information on the carbon footprint of our products based on a process which is standardized and is future-proofed. This really is a value chain effort to provide transparent and consistent data."
Siggelkow wrapped up the presentation with an announcement that would become the main talking point among the audience: Clariant's portfolio for purifying pyrolysis oil derived from mixed plastic waste.
"At the last K, we presented our circular plastic economy platform, EcoCircle, which comprises all our competencies in additive design, mechanical recycling and outlined our support for chemical recycling," Siggelkow said
"And, from within this platform, we have worked now on products for decontaminating pyrolysis oil from mixed plastic waste, making it fit for use in ethylene plants. I'm very excited that, this week, we will launch a specially designed portfolio for chemical recycling, based on catalysts and adsorbents."
Such was the interest in the pyrolysis oil decontamination from the audience, during a Q&A session, Siggelkow invited the participation of Clariant's product specialist on the topic, Business Development Manager Séval Schichtel.
Schichtel explained: "We have a dual process — we call it a 'dual concept' — in the first step we have decontamination by adsorbents, followed by catalytical hydrogenation. That ensures we remove contaminants like chlorinated nitrogen, etc. In the second step, we remove the remaining contaminants, the oxygenated ions or olefins, that you do not want to have in your steam cracker.
"What differentiates this concept is the first step of decontamination — where we have a very high flexibility in the choice of product and the dosing rate — giving a high flexibility to customers to accept very different qualities of pyro oil. The pyro oil quality is dependent on the plastic waste: the region it's coming from, the seasons. In winter, you have different plastic waste to summer. That leads to very variable pyro oil qualities and we can, with this very flexible concept, address this fluctuation."