The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is working with major specialty chemical manufacturer Croda Europe, NiTech Solutions and The University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing on a collaborative research and development project to develop a novel method for the continuous production of a range of market-leading surfactants.

Ashland Specialty Ingredients, a business unit of Ashland Inc., is helping paint manufacturers meet the growing demands of the coatings industry with an expanding line of additive ingredients, research and support.

Market research firm Ceresana has again analyzed the global market for surfactants and projects growth of approximately 2.5 percent per year going forward.

Stepan Co. has appointed Dowd and Guild Inc. as its exclusive distributor for liquid polyester polyol products sold into the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomer (CASE) industries for the western and southwestern United States.

With stringent regulations in Europe and the green movement in the United States, Canada and other regions, introducing an alternative to APE in coatings formulations has become highly important.

The knowledge of the role of APE-free surfactant system on the number of particles through nucleation and growth stages was shown to be important for developing latexes with high solid contents.

Additives belong to a broad and diffuse category of key components in a coating formulation. The following is a brief description of many coating additives, along with some examples.

 A method to improve the hiding power of latex coatings by using a phosphate ester-based reactive surfactant and, thereby, reduce TiO2 usage is also discussed. 

Evonik Goldschmidt Corp., a provider of specialty surfactants, will merge into its parent company, Evonik Corp., on January 1, 2014.