New Generation of Flame Retardants

ICL Industrial Products is making significant breakthroughs in the marketplace by expanding its new generation of its flame retardants portfolio. These new products are in line with ICL-IP resolution to provide sustainable and efficient flame retardants to the marketplace. This includes the potential adaptability into a circular economy. \

Flame Retardants - No ignition, No Fire

ICL Industrial Products is making significant breakthroughs in the marketplace by expanding its flame retardants portfolio. ICL-IP offers PolyQuel®P-100, a polymeric and reactive solution for Fire Safety in Electronic Printed Circuit Boards. For Polyurethane Foams, the company has recently launched VeriQuel R-100 for thermal insulation rigid foams and VeriQuel F-100 for flexible foam applications. These new products are in line with the ICL-IP resolution to provide sustainable and efficient flame retardants to the marketplace, as done in recent years with the launching of FR- 1025, FR-122P and TexFRon®4002, and represent a significant addition to the wide portfolio of polymeric products such as FR-1025, FR-803P and high molecular weight brominated epoxies.

In addition to creating new products, ICL is also working to improve the use phase of its products. ICL has created the SAFRⓇ methodology to help customers choose which products to use for different applications.

ICL-IP FRs Readiness for Circular Economy

In recent years, circular economy has become a prominent issue for modern societies in developed and emerging countries. In that context, a major aspect is the ability of plastic based articles to be recycled, enabling thus re-use and significant waste saving at the post-consumer stage. For fire safety reasons, plastics used in the electronics and electricity industries and applications comply with stringent standards. Such compliance is achieved by introducing flame retardants at the compounding stage, ensuring injection molded articles comply with these very standards.

A major issue associated with recycling of flame retarded compounds is properties' resilience, or to what extend do recycled articles maintained their initial characteristics and more specifically their mechanical properties.

In that context, ICL-IP has invested significant resources: not only by developing sustainable and recyclable flame retardants, but also by putting them to work in a wide range of applications and formulations. ICL reviewed the use of FRs in two major electric and electronic (E&E) applications and how the product performed as a recycled product. It reviewed how the plastics and the FRs in them reacted to being recycled and reused.

From the findings of this review it seems that ICL-IP’s Polymeric Brominated flame retardants not only allow mechanical recycling over several cycles but contribute to maintain critical mechanical properties over time.

9.4

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

12.4

By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment

12.5

By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse

Innovative, Sustainable and Cost-Efficient Flame Retardants: VeriQuel®-phosphorus based FR series for rigid and flexible PU foams; PolyQuel®-reactive, polymeric phosphorus-based FR series for Printed Wired Boards.

TexFRon®4002

The TexFRon®4002 is a polymeric flame retardant for textiles. It is designed to provide a high-level fire-retardant solution for textile and adhesive products. The product was the first bromine-based flame retardant to be awarded recognition in accordance with the Oeko-Tex standard 100, “Confidence in Textiles”.

These products, with a polymeric backbone, provide superior fire safety benefits, without potential environmental drawbacks like bioaccumulation.

Flame Retardants

Flame-Retardant Carbon Footprint

ICL-IP conducted a carbon footprint Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) research. The study was done by Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), a global strategic consultancy assessing the carbon footprint of a number of plastic TV Housings.

There are a number of options available to manufacturers of electronic housing components, including flame-retarded plastics or metals with inherent fire-retardant properties. This assessment highlights ICL’s FRs benefits in the context of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, compared with emissions from other electronic equipment housing options.

The results of this study conclude that among existing plastics options, flame retarded HIPS by ICL-IP FR-245 is the best option of those assessed, with significantly lower carbon footprint than flame retarded PC/ABS by BDP. Results indicate that the carbon footprint of flame retarded ABS by F-2100 is lower compared to the PC/ABS option.

Metallic options did not appear to emit as much GHG emissions per unit as expected, given their relative weight and carbon intensity. Steel was slightly above the ABS product but better than PC/ABS, while aluminium (if 60% recycled is selected) was similar to or slightly worse than HIPS, subject to uncertainty.