MATERIALS | MINERAL FILLERS
Figure 1: Light transmission rate in range 400 - 500 nm for a 1 litre UHT milk bottle with side wall thickness of 380-420 microns with various OmyaPET addition levels Source: Omya
has a long history in the oolitic aragonite sector. “Pisa Carolina is the largest distributor of aragonite and other Bahamian calcification sands,” he says. Asbury took a 47% share in Pisa Carolina in
2019. “Our interest in aragonite pre-dates the establishment of the joint venture,” says Julian. “We carefully vetted potential partners before selecting Pisa Carolina as the right partner.” Independent consultant Chris DeArmitt, who
works with Arctic Minerals, says its product is called AquaFlex and that samples are available on request. “Because it’s calcium carbonate, people are comfortable with it,” he says. “There’s been a lot of interest.” Oolitic aragonite was first covered in Com- pounding World back in 2014. Then the material was being supplied by a company called US Aragonite Enterprises, under the name Oshenite. That company is no longer active.
Renewable claims One of the attractive claims for oolitic aragonite is that it is derived from a renewable source. Coinci- dence or not, the Calcium Carbonate Association – Europe (CCA Europe), a sub group of the Indus- trial Minerals Association Europe, issued a statement last November headlined “Calcium Carbonate is a renewable material”. It claimed that CaCO3
“is continuously replenished by means of
natural cycles in rivers, lakes and oceans or formed as minerals in the form of shells, skeletons, stalac- tites and stalagmites.” The association went on to say that “while a substantial increase of the use of calcium carbon-
24 COMPOUNDING WORLD | June 2021
ate has been observed over the last decades, there is no scarcity of calcium carbonate deposits and there are proven reserves/resources for many centuries…the annual replenishment rate (accord- ing to the ISO 14021 definition) exceeds the consumption rate…In addition, the footprint of extracting and processing calcium carbonate (Ground Calcium Carbonate and Precipitated Calcium Carbonate) is low as shown by life cycle inventory data compiled by CCA-Europe.” Omya International was the initiating company behind the CCA-Europe renewability statement. “In the Bahamas, the [renewal] process can be seen at a local scale. Our approach is that the relevant way to assess renewability is the global scale, on both natural generation and industrial consumption,” says Ernest Barcelo, the company’s Vice President Sustainability based in Oftringen, Switzerland. “When special cases are identified, they must receive the positive credit, like oolitic aragonite on the Bahamas [but it will] not be the solution to a global problem.” Barcelo points out that truck transport can often cause more CO2
emissions than mining does so
locality can be important. “One key advantage of industrial minerals, CaCO3
included, is that they
are very abundant in different places on our planet,” he says.
Substituting TiO2 In May, Omya launched OmyaPET, a family of
functionalised calcium carbonates intended for use as a cost-effective opacifier for use in white opaque PET bottles or white opaque BOPET film. “It ensures a lower environmental footprint in, for example, UHT milk bottles,” the company says. “OmyaPET improves the production costs for bottles without compromising on mechanical and optical properties.” According to Karsten Schulz, Business Develop-
ment Director Polymers, OmyaPET is made from Bureau Veritas-verified 100% recycled feedstock that would otherwise have been disposed of. “It is not a post-consumer recycled material and therefore meets the requirements for food contact use. To achieve OmyaPET functionality, the product surface is modified to meet the high requirements of PET,” he adds. The additive functions in two ways, he explains.
“Standard calcium carbonate causes too much PET degradation in extrusion, with the result that the PET changes colour and the properties deteriorate. With OmyaPET, PET remains much more stable. In applications such as BOPET and stretch blow moulding, where the PET is stretched, OmyaPET
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