For years, BYK Additives has been supporting research projects that determine how products containing polyfluorinated alkyls (PFAS) can be replaced by more environmentally friendly alternatives. The company also wants to make it easier for its customers to phase out products containing PFAS. By the end of 2025, BYK Additives wants to be able to offer fluorine-free solutions for almost all applications in which PFAS-free additives are currently used. Additives containing PFAS will then no longer be supplied.
Proportion of PFAS-containing products already low today
The proportion of PFAS-containing products at BYK is already very low. BYK uses fluorinated alkyl compounds to a very small extent as raw materials in the production of selected additives. These are bound in the additives, are not volatile and are only used in closed systems. They can be found in various product groups such as defoamers, surface additives and wax additives and enable a variety of special effects in coatings, printing inks or as additives.
Facilitating the phase-out of PFAS-containing products
"We are convinced that we can make it easy for customers to phase out PFAS-containing products by offering them alternatives early on and showing them new, sustainable ways of formulating them," says BYK Business Unit Manager Dr. Jörg Hinnerwisch. Matthias Kramer, Managing Director Global Production: "BYK will not only produce all additives PFAS-free by the end of 2025, but will also have converted all production sites worldwide to PFAS-free firefighting foam. To this end, we at BYK have invested heavily in new or adapted fire protection systems."