The market for biocides continues to be driven by both new construction and the demand for higher quaility paint products. “Overall global demand for biocides has remained stable,” said David Tierney, head of global sales at Lonza. “North America and Europe have reduced slightly, while modest growth has been seen in South America and Asia.”

Troy has seen an overall increase in global demand for biocides over the past year. However, there have been disparities in regional activity, said W. Brian Smith, vice president of Troy Corp. “The Asia/Pacific region continues to grow, although not as aggressively as in years past. Growth is driven not only by new construction, but also by the increasing demand for higher quality paints and coatings with greater and more sophisticated wet-state and dry-film protection.

“Troy is in a strong position to supply these regional markets with the right technologies that offer high levels of performance, environmental responsibility, and cost-efficiencies, backed by regional distribution, regulatory assistance, and expert technical service and support,” Smith added.

Last year, Troy unveiled a state-of-the-art 1,500m2 logistics center in Thailand to service customers in Asia. Troy also doubled the size of its Thailand manufacturing site, significantly increasing the versatility and capacity of production. Troy recently opened its new Technical Service and R&D Center in Bangkok, Thailand. The new facility represents a major expansion of laboratory facilities for new product development, technical service, and field testing. Troy has been a dedicated supplier to the Asia-Pacific coatings industry since 1970, and has manufactured products in Asia since 1997.

Biocide manufacturers report that it is not enough to simply offer a reliable product, customers expect a full range of value-added services such as lab testing and technical support. Troy said that its customers are looking for class-leading protection in the wet-state and on the film surface; ‘green’ attributes, such as minimized environmental persistence, lowest toxicity, and safe handling attributes; and, of course, cost-efficiency.
“World-class regulatory support is a value-added service that Troy provides to its customers,” Smith said. “Different regions and countries around the world often have complex procedures and protocols that necessitate the assistance of suppliers like Troy who have experience in these areas. Troy has a long history of regional and local regulatory expertise, and has been serving customers in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East/Africa for several decades.”

“There is an increased awareness regarding environmental impact of coatings and our customers are interested in longer term protection and lower leaching biocides for external applications,” said Tierney. “Additionally customers require efficacy against different target organisms as climate change affects the nature of surface spoilage.”

“Paint and coatings manufacturers continue to address the challenges created by microbial contamination, which can cause gas production and bulging containers, phase separation, viscosity changes, poor stability, loss of film-forming properties and foul odors,” said Beth Ann Browne, North American customer application specialist, Dow Microbial Control. “Our customers continue to seek more sustainable product options, including low-VOC (volatile organic compound) formulations.”

Dow Microbial Control offers a wide range of solutions for in-can preservation and dry-film protection. “ In addition, our world-class team of application scientists is on hand to assist customers by offering our expertise in biocide technology and regulatory issues, conducting microbiological audits of manufacturing facilities, providing in-person and online training, as well as analytical support,” said Browne.
“We help customers protect against microbial contamination by providing customer-specific formulation testing for microbial efficacy for in-can preservation, biocide stability, dry-film fungicide/algaecide efficacy and time-kill testing for product decontamination.

“Our proprietary TAUNOVATE High-Throughput Testing technology is a microbial testing platform developed specifically for aqueous industrial products, including coatings,” she added. “It offers numerous benefits, including efficient, simultaneous evaluation of several biocide combinations to provide optimal solutions for each customer’s product matrix. Discovery of synergistic combinations and concentration ratios to provide optimized cost-to-treat and allowing for environmentally conscious decision-making in the various antimicrobial approaches is enabled and accelerated by TAUNOVATE methodology. TAUNOVATE Testing also provides an environmental benefit over standard testing methods due to a decrease in the volume of sample required, consumables used and waste generated.”

Many climates around the world are subjected to algal growth.  The conditions that promote algae – humidity and rainfall – are common in many global areas which are experiencing high rates of coatings industry growth, such as the Asia-Pacific region. Because of this, biocide suppliers have been concentrating on the incorporation of anti-algal protection into dry-film preservatives. Troy has offered high performance Polyphase fungicide + algaecide products successfully for many years. Polyphase 663 is Troy’s current leading product for anti-fungal and anti-algal protection in one zero-VOC preservative.

“Troy is also introducing the most advanced and effective line of controlled release dry-film preservatives, Troysan CR, for unparalleled long-term anti-algal protection.” Smith said. “Troysan CR preservatives incorporate the world’s leading algaecide technology in a unique controlled release mechanism that provides unparalleled resistance to leaching as well as long-term coatings protection. Troysan CR outperforms not only conventional algaecides, but also competitor encapsulated products, as Troy’s extensive field testing has shown.”

Lonza recently launched two new dry film preservative blends. Densil ZOD and Densil FAZ Antimicrobials are formulated to provide long term protection, especially in tropical environments. Lonza has also expanded pyrithione production at its two strategic manufacturing facilities in Rochester, New York and Suzhou, China.

Dow Microbial Control has developed a number of high-performing and sustainable antibacterial, antifungal and antialgal products and solutions for coatings. “We recently introduced MBIT (N-Methyl-1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-one), the only new active ingredient launched this century for in-can preservation. MBIT enables customers to maintain excellent in-can preservation in a sustainable and cost-effective manner,” Browne said.
BIOBAN 557 is an MBIT combination product scheduled for release in the U.S. in 2014. This next generation in-can preservative product for paint, colorants and latex emulsions is suitable for low-VOC water-based systems and is compatible with major coating ecolabeling schemes. It does not contain or release formaldehyde, and does not contain bronopol. It is a versatile combination product that closes performance gaps in other single-active isothiazolinone products and demonstrates long-term in-can preservation efficacy against bacteria and fungi, including resilient environmental isolates. Outside of the U.S., the MBIT-containing product BIOBAN 551S is already used to preserve paints and latex in regions including Southeast Asia and South America.