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ties, Ashland Specialty Ingredients. “With nearly 20 percent of
Ashland’s annual sales coming from these emerging regions, we
are continuing to focus on capital investments in manufacturing
and R&D, such as supporting our customers with new labora-
tories in China and India.”
Although emerging regions represent great growth potential,
developed areas offer opportunities as well.

“Developed geographies where customers are moving to more
and more waterborne and solvent-free systems present a great
opportunity for innovations in surfactant technology,” said Jim
Stange, North America coatings marketer, Dow Corning Corp.
“Customers are looking for more environmentally friendly prod-
ucts with lower VOCs and BTX-free that help to meet more
stringent regulations and customer’s requirements. Products with
less environmental persistence are required. From an economics
standpoint customers are looking for surfactants that can solve
multiple problems, allow the coatings to keep up with faster
processes in manufacturing and may also be effective at low
usage levels.”
Pflaumer Brothers sees good prospects for growth in applica-
tions for higher performance coatings such as epoxies,
polyurethanes and polyaspartics. “We see continued advance-
ments in 100 percent solids coatings where new surfactants offer
an opportunity to decrease viscosity and/or increase loadings of
pigments and fillers, particularly where this increase represents a
greater efficiency in manufacturing or a direct reduction in raw
material costs,” said Craig McNair, COO and director of tech-
nology, Pflaumer Brothers. “Formulators of paints and coatings
are being asked to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce
costs. It’s as simple as that. New surfactants that reduce viscos-
ity and improve application properties in 100 percent solids coat-
ings represent an important opportunity because the formulator
can substitute lower-cost raw materials, including solvents, pig-
ments and fillers into the formulation.”
Environmental regulations have had a profound effect on the
surfactants market. Increasingly strict regulations are driving the
need for low and zero VOC products.

“Environmental and regulatory issues remain a prominent
factor in the development and marketing of surfactants, partic-
ularly with regards to compliance with REACH standards,” said
Izzy Colon, VP, general manager additives, VP science and tech-
nology, Troy Corp. “The elimination of APE surfactants (alkyl
phenol ethoxylate), which have been the workhorse of the in-
dustry for years, creates serious formulation issues. Some sup-
pliers have invested in developing ‘green’ products in
anticipation of these concerns. Troy, for instance, offers a full
suite of green, environmentally friendly Troysol wetting and
flow and leveling additives with multifunctional benefits. These
products have proven to be sustainable and highly effective.”
According to Singhal, stringent regulations to move to
lower-VOC and APEO-free formulations are driving the global
change in demand for surfactants with unique performance at-
tributes. “In addition, customers want to combine functional-
ity such as substrate wetting, better flow and leveling with
performance attributes to reduce the total number of raw ma-
terials used,” he said. “This reduces the number of steps re-
quired to achieve desired formulations, thereby lowering over-
all costs. One example would be Ashland’s offering of Dextrol
and Strodex phosphate ester surfactants (PES), which help
meet these customer needs.”
Environmental regulations have been the impetus for the in-
flux of “green” products being offered to formulators of paint
and coatings. “Facing both regulatory pressure and consumer de-
mand, coatings manufacturers need to offer products that offer
the best of both worlds: the same high quality and surface char-
acteristics as those historically offered, and green attributes, such
as low VOCs,” said Colon “To help coatings manufacturers
achieve these goals, additives suppliers such as Troy are focusing
more on multifunctional additives, that is, single additive prod-
ucts that accomplish the tasks of several additives.”
“For instance, Troy’s ‘Z’ line of performance additives, many
of which are multifunctional, is engineered specifically for low
VOC, APE-free coatings systems in which compliance and max-
imum coating performance are imperative,” said Colon. “Troy’s
multifunctional additives enhance multiple coating properties,
including surface wetting, improved adhesion, surface flow and
leveling, color development, surface slip and defoaming.”
“All new developments in our company are geared at helping
our customers meet their green standards,” said Singhal. “We un-
derstand that the definitions are different around the world, so

Ceresana Research Publishes Market Study
on Surfactants

According to a new study from Ceresana Research, global demand for anionic surfactants was approximately 6. 5 million tons in 2010. Anionic and non-ionic surfactants combined account for roughly 85 percent of global demand for surfactants. The firm expects non-ionic surfactants to see the strongest growth between 2010 and 2018. Despite this global trend towards non-ionic surfactants, anionic surfactants will remain the second-largest product group, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia countries, with the exception of Japan and South Korea.

The report analyzes how surfactant consumption will develop in the individual markets. Most important buyers worldwide include manufacturers of household cleaners and detergents. Industrial cleaners accounted for just less than nine percent of global consumption in 2010. Body care products and cosmetics had a 9. 5 percent share. Other industrial applications, such as agrochemicals, photo chemicals, oil field chemicals, construction materials, food-stuffs, adhesives, lubricants as well as metalworking, mining, and pulp and paper, accounted for approximately 11 percent of worldwide consumption.