plasticisers | PVC European and global plasticiser usage by type
suitable for the application and the company says it was able to scale-up, produce and deliver the L9TM product within a week of receiving the purchase order. At Oxea, Commercial Business Director for Specialty
Source: ECPI/IHS
Plasticisers: A European regulatory update
Few chemicals have found themselves more central in the regulatory spotlight than phthalate plasticisers. For those that may not have kept pace with developments in this area in Europe, Cefic sector group ECPI (Euro- pean Council for Plasticisers and Intemediates) has provided this update. Over the last two decades, DINP has become the major plasticiser in the EU and one of the main alternatives to classified phthalates such as DEHP. More than one and a half years ago, the Danish EPA said it would submit a dossier to ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) requiring the harmonised classification and labelling (CLH) of DINP. This has still not been submitted and DINP can continue to be used in all current applications. In December 2012, the ECHA RAC (Committee for Risk Assessment)
rejected a proposal from the Danish EPA for the broad restriction of four phthalates in articles (DEHP, DBP, DIBP and BBP). Since then, the use of DBP, DIBP, and BBP in flexible PVC applications within the EU has been completely phased out. The use of DEHP has been further reduced due to replacement with alternative plasticisers. In September 2014, the ECHA RAC and SEAC (Committee for
Socio-Economic Analysis) recommended the authorisation of DEHP for a number of specific PVC compounding applications and in recycling of flexible PVC made with DEHP. In April 2016, the European Commission granted a four year authorisation for the formulation and use of recycled soft PVC containing DEHP to VinyLoop Ferrara, Stena Recycling and Plastic Planet.
ECHA and the Danish EPA are now proposing restrictions in articles of the same four phthalates for which RAC has already concluded that there is no risk. It is now appropriate for the REACH Committee to confirm authorisation of the use of DEHP in PVC compounding and the manufacture of original PVC articles, with restrictions only for non- authorised uses. Nevertheless, a decision on authorisation of DEHP for manufacturers (currently only the Czech company DEZA) has not been taken yet. Companies that have applied for authorisation are eligible to continue to produce DEHP and their customers in their downstream supply chain may continue use as specified in the applications (Regula- tion EC No 1907/2006, article 56, 1d). ❙
www.ecpi.org
38 COMPOUNDING WORLD | August 2016
Esters and Amines Jacco de Haas highlights the company’s Oxsoft and Oxblue ranges. Oxsoft is primarily focused on the continuing trend to move away from phthalate products. “Another trend is the concern about migration in general. Simply said, if a plasticiser is not migrating at all nobody would be concerned if the product is a phthalate or not. So next to moving away from phthalates, we clearly see a trend to move to products with a better migration profile,” he says. “Certainly in automotive applications migration is a
concern. The ‘new car’ smell is actually nothing more than the smell of plasticisers migrating out. There is a global trend that in automotive this migration should be reduced and trimellitates are benefiting from this,” according to de Haas. Oxea offer two kinds of trimel- litates, Oxsoft TOTM (trioctyl trimellitate) and Oxsoft L9TM. He says the latter in particular is growing in automotive applications. Outside automotive, de Haas says his company sees
clear concerns concerning VOCs and migration in areas such as paints, artificial leather and wallcoverings. Larger molecules show better performance and are growing in importance, he notes. In addition to OTM and L9TM, Oxea also sells special products such as Oxsoft Duo 1 and 2. “Normally bigger molecules how lower migration but they are also harder to handle, basically due to their high viscosity,” de Haas says. “The Duo products are developed to combine low migration with good handling properties.” Oxblue, meanwhile, is a partly bio-based plasticiser based on succinic acid. “The Oxblue product range was developed to try to combine the best of petrochemistry and best of biochemistry,” de Haas says. “We saw with 100% bio-products that performance is not always good enough. This makes sense as they will biodegrade much easier. However, in PVC applications that is exactly what you want to prevent. The goal is to have products with a long life time.”
Affordability focus De Haas says the company also determined it could make the products much more affordable through the combination of petro and bio-based chemistries. “This indeed is and was a reason for success. At the moment, bio is still interesting for our customers but really more for marketing reasons - everybody just wants to have a bio product on the portfolio. And also, very clearly, no customer is prepared to pay a premium. Still Oxea is committed to promote Oxblue products, but we believe
www.compoundingworld.com
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