MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has expanded its low 1,4-Dioxane line by adding several new ingredients to the existing range of Flex surfactants and polymers in North America, said the company.
The BASF Flex solutions allow brands in the cosmetics, personal care, and home care industries to use ingredients that are certified low in 1,4-Dioxane for their formulations.
A recently signed New York state law prohibits the sale of household cleaning and personal care products containing more than 2ppm 1,4-Dioxane and cosmetics products containing 10ppm 1,4-Dioxane by the end of 2022; For household cleaning and personal care products the limit will be further reduced to 1ppm at the end of 2023. The state of California is also assessing 1,4-Dioxane in home and personal care products through the Safer Consumer Products program and research is estimated to be completed in three years.
"Formulating with Flex helps our partners comply with regulations ahead of the 2022 deadline," said Scott Thomson, Senior Vice President, BASF Care Chemicals, North America. “Expanding the Flex range is an important step in providing our customers with a broad portfolio of flexible formulation options. It enables them to meet both their performance criteria and the new industry requirements."
1,4-Dioxane is a synthetic chemical that forms as a by-product during the manufacturing process of certain surfactants and emulsifiers and is miscible in water. It is used primarily as a solvent and historically as a stabilizer for chlorinated solvents that go into commercial and industrial applications.
As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of around EUR63 billion in 2018.
MRC