Dow Produces First XPS Insulation Material With New Sustainable Polymeric Flame Retardant

STYROFOAM in Japan converted in time to meet stringent regulation

Dow Building Solutions, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, has successfully completed the conversion of its three STYROFOAM extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam plants in Japan to the new Polymeric Flame Retardant technology. Dow Kakoh, a joint venture of Dow Building Solutions, has started producing STYROFOAMTMcontaining the new Polymeric Flame Retardant (PolyFR).

“The new product has been extensively tested and has proven to maintain its flame retardant performance while having a more sustainable profile,” said Takahiro Sugiyama, president of Dow Kakoh. “We have made the new PolyFR containing product available to customers in commercial quantities in order for the construction industry to meet the Japanese regulations banning the use of the flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) as of May 2014.”

Dow Building Solutions will convert all of its STYROFOAM™ XPS foam plants in North America, Europe, Middle East, and Japan to the new PolyFR technology. Because of the vast number of plants, this is a phased process that started in Japan in 2013 and will be followed by the conversion of plants in Europe and North America.

“This allows for a controlled conversion process that meets our quality requirements in every region and at the same time ensures product availability meeting global regulatory demands,” said Inken Beulich, research & development director for Dow Building Solutions Europe and project leader for the new PolyFR.

EPA recognition for the new PolyFR

In September 2013, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) released a draft report on alternatives for the flame retardant HBCD. The agency presented the findings in the report to help manufacturers identify safer alternatives to the use of HBCD in polystyrene building insulation. In the report, the EPA states that “the butadiene styrene brominated copolymer [new PolyFR, ed.] is anticipated to be safer than HBCD.”

Dow introduced the invention and development of the PolyFR, a stable, high molecular weight, non-PBT (persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic) substance in 2011. This more sustainable additive provides a fire safety solution for XPS and EPS foams, enabling these thermal insulation materials to continue to meet the increasing demands of global energy efficiency regulations and sustainable building design.

The new PolyFR technology has received a number of high-profile business innovation awards including the 2012 R&D 100 Award, the 4th Annual Michigan Green Chemistry Governor’s Award, and the 2012 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Runners-up Award in the ‘Materials and Other Base Technologies’ category.

Dow has made the PolyFR technology available to the global extruded polystyrene (XPS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam insulation industry through three manufacturing and marketing licensees. The international licensees, Chemtura (Emerald Innovation 3000), ICL (FR-122P) and Albemarle (GreenCrest), have built commercial production capacity for the new polymeric flame retardant amounting to more than 14,000 MT at the end of 2013 which will be expanded to more than 25,000 MT by the end of 2014.