5 May 2009

AGC’s Fluon® PTFE will be free of PFOA

AGC has announced the launch of a new range of PTFE products, the Fluon® PTFE E-SERIES.

Applications of the Fluon® PTFE E-SERIES include wire and cable insulation, hose and tube and non-stick coatings.

The E-Series production process will not use ammonium salts of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as a polymerisation surfactant. Conventional PTFE manufacturing uses PFOA in its process but there have been concerns expressed about its persistence and widespread presence in the environment.

AGC has already started commercialising the E-SERIES and the target for complete conversion of its current PTFE range to Fluon® PTFE E-SERIES is the end of 2010.

This announcement of further investment into Fluon® PTFE  product development and manufacturing at the Hillhouse site in Thornton Cleveleys (UK) follows the recent £20 million construction of an ETFE manufacturing plant alongside the existing PTFE production facility.

Fluoropolymer and fluorotelomer manufacturers were invited in January 2006 to participate in a programme to voluntarily reduce and ultimately eliminate facility emissions and their product content of PFOA, PFOA precursors and related higher homologue chemicals. AGC is one of 8 companies in this global stewardship programme.

Since concerns about PFOA were raised, AGC has worked to reduce PFOA emissions in the environment and has developed a new high-performance surfactant as an alternative to PFOA. This new surfactant is being registered in the EU under the REACH programme.

AGC will convert all its fluorinated products, including the water and oil repellent Asahi Guard®, into PFOA-free products (free of PFOA at or above detection limits) by 2012.

Glossary

PFOA – PFOA is used as a polymerisation aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers and is present in trace quantities as impurities in fluorinated water and oil repellents

Surfactants

Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid. They can reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water by absorbing at the liquid-liquid interface.

Precursors

Precursors are substances that change into other substances via decomposition. In this case, those chemicals that decompose to generate PFOA and/or related higher homologue chemicals.