Coatings World - March 2013

Surfactants Update

Environmentally friendly technologies, meeting customer needs are among the key
challenges that surfactants manufacturers are facing.

Bridget Klebaur, Associate Editor

Surfactants play a key role in the paint and coatings industry and there are some important issues facing the surfactant market in 2013. Shruti Singhal, global marketing director, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, elaborated on these issues, and explained that stricter regulations are fueling the move to lower-VOC and APEO-free formulations and are driving the global change in demand for unique surfactants.

“In addition, customers want to combine functionality such
as high solids, substrate wetting, better flow and leveling with
performance attributes to reduce the total number of raw ma-
terials used,” Singhal explained. “This reduces the number of
steps required to achieve desired formulations, thereby lowering
overall costs.”
Scott Hanson, business manager, 3M Advanced Materials,
explained that 3M’s business focus is on the fluorochemical sur-
factants market.

“The environmental challenges of this market segment are providing solutions for low or no VOC formulations. Paints and coatings formulations continue to move from solvent-based to water-based formulations, so fluorochemical surfactants must meet higher performance requirements in wetting and leveling,” Hanson said.

Simon Mawson, global director, Solvay Novecare, explained that sustainability, housing market, performance, raw material availability and cost are the primary issues facing the market today.

“Sustainability remains a top driver in the surfactants for
coatings,” Mawson said. “Significant efforts are engaged to ac-
celerate the conversion to APE-free and VOC-free products due
to regional regulatory guidelines set to limit emissions for paint
varnishes and refinishing products.”
Dr. Dieter Schaefer, Evonik Industries AG, found that the big-
gest challenge facing the coating market right now is the econo-
my, specifically in Southern Europe.

“Besides these economic issues, regulatory requirements become more and more important for surfactants as well as for all other ingredients of coating. Topics like customer requests for APEO-free products or printing inks for food packaging that comply with the Swiss Ordinance on consumer goods limit the portfolio of surfactant chemistries that additive customers can choose from,” Schaefer said.

Photo courtesy of Clariant International Ltd.

Salvatore J. Monte, president of Kenrich Petrochemicals Inc., explained that customer needs are a main priority for Kenrich.

“Our main driver is filling customer needs, solving their
problems, which often arise from heightened performance re-
quirements demanding reformulation. The performance require-
ments can come from just old fashioned ‘better, faster, stronger,
longer, cheaper’ product property demands from the market, or
from political shifts created by environmental, legislative and
regulatory compliance that force reformulation.”
According to Dr. Izzy Colon, VP/general manager additives,
Troy Corporation, the main issues facing the surfactants market
are environmental and regulatory.

Colon explained that these issues remain a prominent factor in the development and marketing of surfactants, particularly with regards to compliance with REACH standards.

“The elimination of APE surfactants (alkyl phenol ethoxylate), which have been the workhorse of the industry for years, creates serious formulation issues. Some suppliers have invested in developing ‘green’ products in anticipation of these concerns.” Colon said.