Clariant's Licocene waxes reach German 2015 innovation final

CLARIANT’S Licocene® waxes are competing in the final of the Large Company category of the Innovationspreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft 2015.

 

This marks the second time Clariant was recognized by the prestigious German business innovation award. The company’s Exolit® halogen-free flame retardants qualified for the 2012/2013 final.

 

Clariant’s Licocene polyolefin-based waxes are being recognized for advancing sustainability in textiles, plastics, and coatings manufacturing and improving the environmental profile of a wide range of applications. The waxes enable manufacturers to reduce manufacturing ingredients and steps, and use less resource-intensive production processes. Clariant’s collaboration with German coatings and laminate specialist LACOM GmbH on textiles resulted in a less energy-consuming process of hot melt coating using very low amounts of Licocene additives as opposed to the previous energy-intensive, water-based textile coating technology.

 

The product’s capability to promote sustainability is valuable in energy-intensive sectors such as technical textiles for mattresses, and furniture and carpets for automotive and aerospace interiors. The Licocene waxes are also ideal for the manufacture of masterbatches and engineering plastics, and in industrial coatings, and printing inks and adhesives for packaging applications.

 

Meanwhile, the product’s environmental benefits stem from its ability to improve the recyclability of textiles and reduce product weight.

 

Clariant’s use of home-grown R&D and technical processing within Germany was also being lauded by the award’s jury of leading science and business representatives. Development work for the Licocene waxes involved collaboration between Clariant’s researchers in Höchst and researchers at the University of Hamburg, which led to the piloting and building of a full-scale production unit in Germany. 

 

A world leader in specialty chemicals, Clariant continues to work closely with its customers both in and out of Germany to use Licocene to bring sustainability advances to the market. It expects to boost production capacity for this line by 50% next year in preparation for growing demand and applications.  

 

According to Oliver Kinkel, head of Business Unit Additives at Clariant, “This accolade for Clariant reinforces the increasing importance placed on sustainability within society today. With Licocene systems users can achieve significantly higher efficiency levels, supporting efforts to address current global challenges such as the efficient use of resources and energy.”