we have developed close partnerships with our customers to help
them meet their goals. As we pursue strict regulatory targets, we
are doing so with a very strong emphasis on increasing per-
formance properties such as stain resistance, hiding, appearance
and gloss, thereby focusing our efforts around paint quality and
durability as well.”
According to Salvatore Monte, president of Kenrich Petro-
chemicals, Inc., some key issues facing the surfactants market
include cost performance, environmental compliance regula-
tions such as REACH, biodegradability, green and sustain-
able products. “
Kenrich is meeting its customers’ environmental needs with a
number of sustainable products. “We are making more efficient
“The principal issue today in
the industry remains the economy, the rising cost of oil and
chemical raw materials, an
issue that causes coatings
manufacturers to look for better ways to cut these costs.”
use of raw materials through the use of organometallic titanate,
zirconate and aluminate to couple and electro-chemically bond,
catalyze and functionalize two dissimilar interfaces.”
Rhodia also works alongside its customers to design products
and solutions with reduced impact on health and the environment.
“Our first step is to understand what our customer means by
greener,” said Mechelle Engemann, sustainable development man-
ager, Rhodia Novecare. “As part of the Rhodia Way, the group’s
approach to corporate social responsibility, Rhodia uses proce-
dures that monitor its products throughout their life cycle.”
Performance Matters
Developing environmentally compliant products that meet
performance requirements is a constant challenge for surfactant manufacturers.
“Regulations in this area can increase the formulating challenge for stability,” said Stewart. “We’ve anticipated these challenges and we’re working closely with our customers to deploy
the solutions to help them successfully address the new regulations balanced with their performance objectives. As a result,
we’re seeing much greater optimization of formulations that
maintain performance within these more stringent requirements.
The new regulations are driving the industry to rethink formulation strategy, which in turn, is driving adoption of new surfactants and other additive technologies and product offerings.”
“Performance is always key,” said Pierre Hennaux, global
market manager for emulsion polymerization, Rhodia Novecare.
“As the market is evolving toward zero-VOC systems, new sur-
factant technologies are needed to maintain high performance.
Rhodia has seized this opportunity to create additives that im-
prove resistance in zero-VOC systems. Sustainability is a theme
underlying most discussions in the coatings industry. Conversion
to APE-free products in picking up in the Americas and Asia.”
Another key trend is cost reduction.
“The principal issue today in the industry remains the economy, the rising cost of oil and chemical raw materials, an issue
that causes coatings manufacturers to look for better ways to
cut these costs,” said McNair. “Profit margins for coatings are
reduced in some cases to about one-half of historical levels,
and manufacturers are looking for lower cost sources of chemical raw materials, including products that are normally used
in relatively small quantities in a formulation, such as additives and surfactants.
“Coatings manufacturers remain resistant to accepting price
increases on raw materials such as pigments and surfactants,
even when faced with shortages and allocations,” McNair said.
“However, prices of raw materials imported from China, India
and other parts of the Far East are entering a new phase of
global competition with the trend towards higher prices. It even
costs more today to ship raw materials from the Far East to the
United States.”
“Changing economies are creating a world of new opportu-
nities for binder technologies and the surfactants that enable
them,” said Hennaux. “For example, on one hand you have the
rising costs of key raw materials, such as acrylic monomers and
titanium dioxide. On the other hand you have an influx of shale
gas to the market, which seems like an attractive long-term eco-
nomic advantage for derived monomer. This changing economic
landscape is exciting for paint and coatings manufacturers who
can potentially reduce their costs with the help of solution
providers like Rhodia. For example, specialty surfactants have
been used to enable Vinyl VeoVa, binders to substitute styrene
acrylics in high PVC formulations.”
“This is a very exciting time for formulators. At Dow for
example, we’re introducing an expanded additives innovation
platform that offers much deeper formulating insight including
relationships with our binder and opaque polymers,” said
Stewart. “Formulators have access to increasingly sophisti-
cated products and accompanying research to help them
achieve their objectives. Included are new surfactant offerings
that can represent a lower risk, higher yield investment for cus-
tomers balancing environmental objectives, raw material costs,
and performance.”
Dow has been dedicating significant R&D and commer-
cialization emphasis on broadening its Ecosur surfactants
portfolio, which balances the ongoing need for high per-
formance with the growing need for low-VOC options. “All
of our Ecosurf surfactants are APEO-free; the majority are
also readily biodegradable and several are low in aquatic tox-
icity,” said Stewart. CW
www.coatingsworld.com
March 2012
