Benvic - Europe’s leader in polymer compounds, technical compounds and ecological biopolymers – will introduce its new-look materials portfolio to the Fakuma show for the first time.
Insight
The best of Benvic Environmental at Fakuma 2023
Benvic will use Fakuma 2023 to present the best of its environmental material solutions – both bio and/or recyclate based.
How to service a world with materials that have the lowest possible environmental impact?
Eric Grange, Benvic Marketing Manager answers that ‘to that simple question there is, unfortunately, no simple answer: However, complex does not mean complicated – merely that at Benvic, we use many and diverse material options, and we then integrate them into the most appropriate process for the circular economy.’
In the case of plastics, the initial analysis at Benvic focuses on all the incoming materials or ingredients that comprise a typical recipe or application formulation. This process typically begins with the polymerisation of organic precursors – establishing the primary base resins in order to arrive at finished plastic products.
Eric explains that ‘eco-friendly material solutions are now increasingly being asked for by our customers and business prospects in order to lower their own product environmental impact.’
Benvic delivers these new eco-solutions via a successful Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the material, usually combined with a much-reduced Green House Gas (GHG) emission. Polymer recyclate and biomaterials both contribute to the process in their differing ways: All such solutions are necessarily also of high commercial value – given that the original structural and performance integrity of the end part must also be maintained.
New ranges : ProVinyl-R & Dot-R
Aside from Benvic’s established recycled range of vinyls - ProVinyl-R - the company’s new Dot-R range is dedicated to non-PVC thermoplastics with recycled content. Flame retarded compounds featuring recycled content are typical here, especially for polypropylene-based applications.
‘Our use of recycled content will dramatically raise Benvic’s importance in the manufacturing value chain” confirms Eric. “Taking non-recurrent and heterogeneous feedstocks to manageable and approved materials is quite a challenge for which we are developing expertise in formulation, production and supply chain expertise.’
Even here, the recycled content - especially the post-consumer recyclate, needs to be maximized and optimized. Some customers cannot reach their environmental ambitions; failing to trade-off on the properties or the material performance. This is precisely where Benvic offers a very strong focus for the future.
To take one example where recycling affects color matching - Benvic chemists and engineers are developing new polyester-based compounds from specific recycled feedstocks in order to address color matching issues. This developmental work may lead to a completely new Benvic product family mid-2024. In all cases, cost control challenges remain, since little or no technical deviation from non-recycled materials can be tolerated and many such applications are for critical components in the automotive and electrical industries.
Bio sourcing can be considered as an excellent and complementary solution to recycling.
When it comes to the bio-sourcing of materials, this customer need is addressed by Benvic’s Plantura range: Eric explains that ‘the main attraction of bio sourcing lies in using new but renewable resources, principally from the biosphere, and usually from photosynthesis - from a closed carbon loop in other words. He adds that ‘the bio-versus-recycling option really needs to be assessed in terms of individual cases and overall environmental impact.’
However, bio sourcing can be considered as an excellent and complementary solution to recycling, particularly when the needs of the product make the use of recyclate very challenging; in food contact application, for example, or where color, aesthetics, or high stability is essential.
Benvic’s Plantura has taken the specificity of biopolymers to a whole new level in the sustainable marketplace. Instead of being viewed as a product with a typically short life span, Benvic Plantura now gives designers a great option to produce engineered and technical parts. Plantura has excellent GHG emission figures and has already scored significant orders such as the adaptive automotive grille shutter presented at the 2022 K show last year. Biobased materials can still be marginal for engineered parts but Benvic is solving such issues with original formulations. For instance, Plantura processability has been recognized as excellent by customer, and this is an effective guarantee to keep processing costs under control.
In summary, recycling and bio sourcing are solutions that allow engineers to design products with much reduced environmental impacts. Benvic’s long standing compounding expertise is key to this sea change in the plastics sector.
Eric notes that ‘this is a new science – without absolute solutions but a work in progress. Benvic is currently tackling multiple levels of materials technology - resins, additives, fillers, and recyclate. Our legacy foundations and our materials know-how put us in pole position here,
and our tailor-made approach means that we are able to give our customers optimum solutions at affordable cost.’
Benvic will exhibit its range of environmental solutions at the Fakuma exhibition, Southern Germany, October 17-21, 2023. Hall B5 - Stand 5220 !
