DÜSSELDORF,, Germany — October 16, 2024 — Envalior is excited to announce the launch of Pocan® X-MB series of new polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) compounds based on bio-circular 1,4-butanediol (BDO). The sustainable content of the thermoplastics is certified and classified in accordance with the ISCC PLUS (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) standard. The precursor for bio-circular BDO is used cooking oil, which does not compete with food production, as it is a second-generation feedstock. Envalior will be showcasing the new bio-based PBT compounds at the Fakuma trade show, October 15 to 19, 2024, at Friedrichshafen Exhibition Center. You can find Envalior in Hall B4, Stand 4302.
“With these compounds, we are enabling our customers to lower the carbon footprint of their products, reduce their dependency on raw materials from fossil sources, and conserve resources as a result. At the same time, the new compounds are an important milestone on our pathway of being able to offering alternatives based on biological and/or recycled materials to the entire Envalior product portfolio,” explains Marc Marbach, Global Business director for PBT at Envalior.
In addition to used cooking oil, other sustainable raw material sources are currently being explored, including post-consumer recycled materials (PCR). The material innovations have extensive potential in typical PBT applications, such as connectors and housings, as well as structural and functional components.
Sustainable raw material content of up to 71 percent
Three product variants of Pocan X-MB with glass fiber contents of 20 and 30 percent are currently certified in line with ISCC PLUS. In principle, the entire Pocan range can be produced on the basis of bio-circular BDO, including the hydrolysis-stabilized, flame-retardant and/or laser-transparent product variants. “We will rapidly expand the new product range in close collaboration with our customers,” Marbach added.
The PBT base resin of Pocan X-MB has a sustainable material content of 26 percent. This proportion can be significantly increased in the compounds if, for example, PET from post-consumer recyclates and recycled glass fibers are used in addition to sustainable BDO. This is the case for Pocan T3230 RC X-MB. It contains a total sustainable share of around 71 percent.
The carbon footprints of the new products are over 30 percent smaller than those of equivalent standard compounds. Efforts to calculate these footprints precisely for each compound and make them available to customers are ongoing. “In doing so, we also aim to help ensure that our customers and theirs too can prepare full life cycle analyses for their products,” Marbach said.
Replace fossil-based compounds easily
BDO produced from used cooking oil is chemically and physically identical to BDO of fossil origin. Therefore, the PBT compounds produced from it have the same chemical, physical and processing properties and the same quality as their fossil-based counterparts. They meet the same technical specifications and certification standards.
“This enables our customers to use the X-MB compounds simply as ‘drop-in’ solutions to substitute equivalent PBT products that are fossil-based, and to employ ongoing production processes for this. There are no substantial costs for conversion, such as tool construction,” Marbach explained.
Envalior is a member of the ISCC Association
The ISCC PLUS certificate is coupled with mass balancing. This provides an accounting-based comparison of the quantities of raw materials used and products launched. As a result, materials and their quantities can be tracked through multi-stage production processes, and the amount of sustainable raw material in the end product can be calculated and communicated to the processor and its customers precisely and transparently.
The ISCC PLUS certificate for Envalior does not apply only in Germany and to circular BDO. It can be extended to all plants worldwide where the company produces PBT compounds. The company will manufacture the Pocan X-MB range at various sites worldwide and sell it from there as certified products.
“With the ISCC PLUS standard becoming increasingly important to the chemical industry, Envalior has joined the ISCC Association. We aim to play an active role in enhancing the ISCC PLUS standard and advancing the use of sustainable raw materials,” Marbach said.
High demand for PBT compounds based on mechanical recycled materials
For some time now, under the Pocan ECO name, Envalior has been selling ISCC PLUS-certified PBT compounds, which contain recycled glass fibers from industrial glass waste and in some cases in addition mechanically recycled post-consumer PET. Product examples are Pocan ECOB3235 with 30 percent recycled glass fiber content by weight, Pocan ECOT3230 with 30 percent recycled PET (PCR) by weight and 30 percent recycled glass fiber content by weight, and the halogen-free, flame-retardant PBT Pocan ECOBFN4231, containing 25 percent recycled glass fiber by weight.
“Demand for these types of recycled material has soared recently, particularly in the automotive industry — not least because of the upcoming new EU Directive on the environmentally sound disposal of end-of-life vehicles,” Marbach said.
Compliant with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Envalior’s sustainability efforts are geared towards the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, the company is focused on four of these goals: “Affordable and clean energy”, “Climate action”, “Partnerships for the goals” and “Responsible consumption and production”. “The last of these four goals was one reason behind the development of Pocan® X-MB. In addition, it gave us impetus to successively offer our entire product range in variants based on recycled and/or biological materials in order to develop material cycles,” adds Marbach.
Envalior was established in 2023 through the merger of Lanxess Performance Materials and DSM Engineering Materials.
Posted: October 16, 2024
Source: Envalior
