How can Daydream-Dynovel help you embrace stringent PFAS regulations?

Educate, Advocate, Innovate together

Over more than two decades, Daydream-Dynovel have developed a strong expertise on the Fluorochemicals & Fluoropolymers market and more generally on the Polymers industry, working on hundreds of projects and networking with key players across the chemical value chain.

Our clients and clients’ clients have been impacted by the recent announcements related to PFAS in Europe & North America. As your solution provider to address your business challenges, we want to highlight a few options of what we can do to educate the market, sustainably position and develop new business.

What is PFAS?

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of over 9,000 synthetic chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products, worldwide, for over 70 years. This includes compounds such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (also known as “GenX”).

Most of these chemicals can be found in many products, such as clothing, carpets, fabrics for furniture, adhesives, food paper packaging, and heat-resistant/non-stick cookware. They are also present in fire-fighting foams or Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) used by both civilian and military firefighters. PFAS are persistent in the environment, and since they are used in the manufacturing of so many products, they are widespread internationally.

As some biological and environmental concerns have been raised about PFAS, this chemical group has been investigated more and more over the years, resulting in some studies showing that exposure to high levels of PFAS may impact human health. However, currently, scientists are still learning about the health effects of exposures to mixtures of different PFAS, as they are not all the same.

Government Regulation

In 2023, new regulations from both the European Union (EU) and the United States of America aim to greatly curb the prevalence of PFAS in the environment. The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) has proposed legislation that will ban all PFAS from being manufactured or used in the European Union by 2027. Following the EU, the EPA in the United States announced (March 14, 2023) a new policy that enforces strict monitoring of six different PFAS in drinking water. Both of these regulations will force companies producing or working with PFAS to change how they do Business, from formulation to production practices and waste disposal. (Industry Stances & Sources at the end)

Options for Chemical Companies

PFAS are a large group of chemicals, and not all of them are equal in harmfulness. Many PFAS used today are safe and stable molecules that have many important uses. The harmful effects of PFAS are due to the fluorosurfactants that are used to make them. Chemicals defined as PFAS such as PTFE, common in household applications (like non-stick pans for example), are inert, non-bioactive, and will not accumulate in living organisms. These chemicals, if safely produced, will not contribute to the negative environmental effects associated with PFAS.

How can Daydream-Dynovel help you embrace the new PFAS regulation and contribute to a more sustainable future with PFAS-free Fluoroproducts and other innovative alternatives?

Education and Advocacy

Helping our clients to educate their markets and customers on regulation change and on what fluoroproducts are actually PFAS-free and non-harmful to the environment and the people is a service we can provide. Our technically-educated team can work with current and prospective customers to help them better understand the use and safety of your PFAS products and educate your customers’ customers through prospecting campaigns along the value chain in order to impact the perception of the end market.

Innovation and New Technology

Companies may choose the path of embracing the transition of this market and developing new solutions. These solutions can be PFAS-free fluorochemicals or new non-fluorochemical-based alternatives, and consequently, entirely with PFAS-free technology. Clothing, food packaging, and firefighting foams are all examples where PFAS-free technology is gaining traction. For example, the US Department of Defense will stop using PFAS-containing fire-fighting foams by October 2024. Many alternatives to PFAS in clothing have been proposed including silicones/siloxanes, polyurethanes, and various nanoparticle technologies. For food packaging, cellulose-based alternatives, silicone, and other non-fluorinated coatings have been used.

By helping chemical companies understand market trends and customers’ performance requirements, we can help your company to:

navigate the increasingly stringent regulations on PFAS
develop your new alternative solution to substitute PFAS-based products
position your new offer and define its value proposition by encouraging your customers to sample and initiate trials for new formulations.

From investigating alternatives to PFAS-containing fluorosurfactants and evaluating market size of new opportunities substituting PFAS solutions, to profiling PFAS mitigation strategies, all are services that we can provide and that will contribute to building a better and safer future.

Next Steps: Stéphanie Lorini (stephanie.lorini@dynovel.com) in the USA, Jean-Louis Cougoul (jean-louis.cougoul@daydream.eu) in Europe and Yusi Chen (yusi.chen@daydream.eu) in Asia will be your points of contact to organize a meeting.

Industry Stances on PFAS

1950s- PFAS containing compounds are commercialized.
1970s- Biological and environmental concerns about PFAS first noted
1998- EPA first made aware of concerns about PFAS
May 2000- After discussion with EPA, 3M voluntarily commits to ending the manufacturing of PFOS by year’s end. This is the first major commitment by industry to reduce PFAS production.
January 2009- EPA publishes health advisory for PFOS and PFOA.
December 2009- EPA announces first long-chain perfluorinated chemicals action plan.
June 2019- European Union for the first time formally targets PFAS, announcing they would propose an action plan to eliminate all non-essential uses of PFAS.
July 2020- EPA regulation to prohibit the manufacturing, importing, processing, or using certain long-chain PFAS without prior EPA review and approval
October 2020- The European Council proposes in its Chemical Strategy for Sustainability a ban on PFASs in all “non-essential” uses.
March 2021- EPA announces that it will develop national drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS.
February 2022- European Chemicals Agency proposes ban of PFAS use in all firefighting foams in the EU.
February 7^th 2023- European Chemicals Agency proposes ban on PFAS production and use in the European union. The ban will encompass almost 10,000 compounds defined as PFAS.
March 14^th 2023- The United States’ EPA for the first time proposes national drinking water standards that limit the amount of PFOA and PFOS to 4 parts per trillion.

3M has recently announced that they will exit all PFAS manufacturing and discontinue the use of all PFAS in their products by the end of 2025.

DuPont is implementing systems to control the release of PFAS into the environment when manufacturing requires their use. On top of that commitment, they are working on pursuing alternatives to PFAS wherever possible.

Arkema has committed to ending their use of fluor surfactants by the end of 2024.

Chemours, whose trademark fluoropolymer is GenX, is committed to eliminating at least 99% of PFAS emissions from their manufacturing processes by 2030.