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Some 140 members Europe’s PVC cable supply chain attended the third PVC4cables conference in Bologna, Italy, in October
Consult Director
Paolo Arcelli
PVC4Cables conference sees sustainable future for cables
PVC is over 100 years old, but its potential for growth endures in durable applications. That was the message delivered to some 140 members of the European supply chain at the third PVC4cables conference, which was held on 5 October in Bologna, Italy. Organized by ECVM, the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers, the event covered sustainability and the importance of using science-based standards to ensure a level playing field for all materials used in cable insulation and coverings.
According to Paolo Arcelli, Director of Milan-based consultant Plastic Consult, new opportunities for PVC cables are tied to the development of low voltage applications, where they remain the preferred solution. He said growth will occur in markets such as smart homes and electric vehicles.
One reason for this optimism is new compound formulations that make it possible to produce PVC cables with very low emissions of acid fumes in fires. Gianluca Sarti, Head of R&D at additive developer and producer Reagens, said it is now possible to produce PVC cables with very low emission of acidic smoke and which conform to Class Bca according to the EU Construction Products Regulation 305/11.
Smoke toxicity is a thorny issue. Camillo Cardelli, head of IPool, a spin-
off from Italy’s National Council of Research (CNR), said acidity provides an inadequate indication of smoke toxicity in fires and has little relevance when considering human safety in fires. Much more important in this context is smoke density, he said. Tests conducted on innovative compounds developed within a PVC4Cables sponsored project have produced excellent results in terms of reduced smoke (reaching Class Bca d0 s1b) as well as low CO emissions (smoke density is closely related to CO levels). IPool has been supporting academic research into new additives for PVC cable compounds and more sustainable PVC plasticisers.
Laura Mazzocchetti, Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna, highlighted the potential for new PVC formulations containing more sustainable components, including a non-classified FR alternative to antimony trioxide, in charging cables for EVs and showed they compare favourably with alternatives based on TPU.
Speaking in his role as chair of the Sustainable Use of Additives Committee of VinylPlus, Reagens CEO Ettore Nanni presented the Additive Sustainability Footprint (ASF) methodology, which allows users to evaluate and promote the production and sustainable use of
PVC additives throughout the entire product life cycle. He said it has been successfully applied in various building and construction applications in Europe, becoming a key element in obtaining the ECVM VinylPlus Product Label.
Recycling is a key element in the sustainability of PVC cables. Daniele Redaelli, Italian Regional Representative of Recovinyl, explained how, thanks to the collection and recycling schemes established within VinylPlus, around 1.5m tonnes of PVC from used cables have been recycled since 2000, with a saving in CO2 emissions of almost 3m tonnes. He discussed RecoTrace, a data collection system to monitor, verify, and report PVC recycling and uptake in Europe.
Recycling PVC cables, rather than sending them to incinerators or landfill, can bring significant economic benefits, said Alessandro Marangoni, CEO of Althesys. He cited a new Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) on cable recycling in France, Germany and Italy. While recent increases in energy costs have reduced the net benefits of recycling versus incineration with energy recovery, the possible future inclusion of incineration in the scope of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) could reverse this trend.
For more information visit
www.pvc4cables.org
info@pvc4cables.org www.pvc4cables.org
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