Envalior launches Pocan PBT compounds range with bio-based BDO

Envalior (Düsseldorf, Germany), a Lanxess company, announces the launch of the Pocan X-MB series of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) compounds — with glass fiber reinforcement — based on bio-circular 1,4-butanediol (BDO). The thermoplastics’ sustainable content is certified and classified in accordance with the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification ISCC PLUS standard. The BDO precursor is used cooking oil, a second-generation feedstock. 

In addition to used cooking oil, other sustainable raw material sources are currently being explored, including postconsumer recycled materials (PCR). According to Envalior, the material innovations have extensive potential in typical PBT applications, such as connectors and housings, as well as structural and functional components.

Three product variants of Pocan X-MB with glass fiber contents of 20% and 30% are currently certified in line with ISCC PLUS. In principle, the entire Pocan range can be produced on the basis of bio-circular BDO, including the hydrolysis-stabilized, flame-retardant and/or laser-transparent product variants. “We will rapidly expand the new product range in close collaboration with our customers,” says Marc Marbach, global business director for PBT at Envalior.

The PBT base resin of Pocan X-MB offers customers a sustainable material content of 26%. The company says this proportion can be significantly increased in the compounds if, for example, PET from postconsumer recyclates and recycled glass fibers (rGF) are used in addition to sustainable BDO. This is the case for Pocan T3230 RC X-MB, which contains a total sustainable share of around 71%.

The carbon footprints of these products are said to be more than 30% smaller than those of equivalent standard compounds. Efforts to calculate these footprints precisely for each compound and make them available to customers are ongoing. “In doing so, we also aim to help ensure that our customers and theirs, too, can prepare full life cycle analyses for their products,” says Marbach.

BDO produced from used cooking oil is chemically and physically identical to BDO of fossil origin. Therefore, the PBT compounds produced from it have the same chemical, physical and processing properties and the same quality as their fossil-based counterparts. They meet the same technical specifications and certification standards. In this way, Envalior customers are able to use the X-MB compounds as “drop-in” solutions to substitute equivalent PBT products that are fossil-based, and to employ ongoing production processes.

Envalior notes that the Pocan X-MB series’ ISCC PLUS certificate does not apply only in Germany and to circular BDO. It can be extended to all plants worldwide where the company produces PBT compounds. Envalior will manufacture the Pocan X-MB range at various sites worldwide and sell it from there as certified products. The company’s sustainability efforts are geared towards the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Prior to Pocan X-MB, Envalior has already been offering ISCC PLUS-certified PBT compounds — containing rGF from industrial glass waste, and in some cases, mechanically recycled post-consumer PET — under the Pocan Eco name. Product examples are Pocan ECOB3235 with 30% rGF content by weight; Pocan ECOT3230 with 30% recycled PET (PCR) by weight and 30% rGF content by weight; and the halogen-free, flame-retardant PBT Pocan ECOBFN4231, containing 25% rGF by weight.