Following a difficult year, the biocides market is finally showing some
signs of recovery in 2010.
B
Y
K
ERRY
P
IANOFORTE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
After weathering a number of rough years biocides manufac- turers
Coatings World
spoke
with reported signs of recovery for
2010.
Troy Corporation reported that the
market for biocides has been increas-
ing, independently of the growth rate
of related industries. As coatings man-
ufacturers move to more environmen-
tally-friendly water-based formula-
tions, the need for biocides inherently
increases.
According to Gary Horacek, director,
microbiology technical service of Troy
Corporation, “Water-based systems are
obviously much more prone to microbial
contamination in the wet-state, but
movement to reduced VOC coatings has
dramatically increased microbial prob-
lems. This is because VOC-containing
coating components were also acting to
inhibit microbial growth.” Furthermore,
coatings manufacturers are at the same
time moving away from formaldehyde
adducts as wet-state preservatives, in
favor of new generation formaldehyde-
free, low- or zero-VOC technologies.
“Where formaldehyde adducts
used to suffice throughout the pro-
duction process, to treat raw materi-
als, wash water, etc., several new
generation biocides may now be
needed at different stages in produc-
tion,” continued Horacek.
The dry film preservatives market is
strong as well, where the shift to low-
VOC coatings formulations has driven
demand for low- and zero-VOC biocide
technologies. According to Don Shaw,
vice president, development for Troy,
“Replacing older biocide technologies
has been going on for several years, and
will continue in the following years as
coatings manufacturers reduce produc-
tion of solvent systems. The end result
in both the wet-state and dry film mar-
kets is strong demand for new genera-
tion preservatives.”
The global market for industrial bio-
cides has recovered well in 2010 follow-
ing a difficult year in 2009. “Restocking
throughout the supply chain and strong
growth in Asia have been the main con-
tributing factors,” said David Tierney,
global business, Arch Building Products,
Arch Chemicals Inc.
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