TAGS: Biocides/ Antimicrobial Agents
Preservatives
or biocides are important additives in various applications such as:
- Adhesives and sealants (A&S)
- Paints
- Food and more
They are used to preserve the products from biological decomposition caused by various microbes.
Usually, the regulations surrounding biocides take center-stage but recently there were several news stories around the shortage of BIT or Benzoisothiazolinone - one of the most commonly used biocides.
BIT belongs to the group of Isothiazolinones, which are electrophilic in nature. It inhibits the metabolism by interacting with the SH or NH2 functionality present in the protein in the microbes.
Along with BIT, other Isothiazolinone
biocides are equally important for example:
Besides Isothiazolinone many other groups of
biocides exist and their usage highly depends on the target application.
Mostly, the formulators use a
mixture of biocides for better performance over a wide range of microbes, because every
biocide is specific to microbes. This enables the usage of a lower total amount of
biocides.
While choosing a
biocide, formulators need to consider:
- The target microbe
- The effect of the chemical environment for example water on the biocide
For example,
BIT is easily solvable in water. Therefore, it is preferred in
water-based applications e.g.
architectural coatings and A&S.
Let's read in to know more about the current situation...
How Did the Shortage Occur?
2-Nitrochlorobenzene is a key raw material for the production of BIT. It is a coproduct produced during the manufacturing of 4-Nitrochlorobenzene via nitration of chlorobenzene. This process is not environmental friendly. Therefore, key producers moved to regions with
low regulatory standards such as China.
- The shortage in production of 2-Nitrochlorobenzene occurred after the Chinese government closed the chemical park in Jiangsu permanently following an explosion in a chemical plant located in this park causing the death of 78 people on March 21, 2019.
- The
Chinese authorities became more sensitive to such issues after several similar accidents in chemical plants caused the death of hundreds of people and destroyed the environment.
Consequently, it is unlikely that China will reopen this chemical plant without upgrading to a higher safety standard enforced by the authorities.
- Even though, 2-Nitrochlorobenzene production is concentrated in China, the production of BIT is located globally for instance in the EU and the USA.
- Producers outside China import 2-Nitrochlorobenzene, similar to many other key chemical precursors. Consequently, leading suppliers of BIT warn of a possible shortage because of a lack of 2-Nitrochlorobenzene that is imported from China.
However, currently there is still a sufficient amount of BIT available, but the industry worries about an upcoming shortage of BIT.
Possible Impact and Response
The alternatives to BIT listed by regulatory bodies (e.g. EPA for instance) are only useful in certain limited applications. Some alternatives are:
For the majority of applications, this substitution is not possible due to a lack of performance.
Independent of the shortage, certain industries have already substituted BIT in applications where it is possible, with less skin-irritating and less environmentally harmful substances, for example,
sodium benzoate in consumer goods like cleaning agents and skin-care products, because of the
increasing sensitivity of the customer. However, in certain applications, it is difficult to achieve the same performance similar to BIT. For example in the paint industry, where BIT is the dominant
biocide in use with approx. 95% market share.
Leading paint producers claim that creating formulations that fulfil the regulations, do not contain BIT and match quality standards is one of the main challenges they are currently facing.
At the moment there is no alternative water-based paint formulation available, which substitutes BIT one-to-one successfully.
How Formulators Can Resolve BIT Shortage?
If the predicted shortage occurs, the formulators are forced to change their existing formulations containing BIT, without compromising the performance and violating regulations. However, changing an existing formulation costs extra money & effort, and is therefore involved in certain applications, but achievable and in others almost unachievable.
Nevertheless, it could also be possible that formulators see this as an opportunity to initiate research on developing new, environmental friendly formulations containing less harmful
biocides than BIT, but this will take time.
The impending shortage of BIT could be resolved by
upgrading the environmental and safety standards in the existing production facilities of 2-Nitrochlorobenzene to the current state of the art, so that they fulfill the requirements of the Chinese authorities. However, such upgrading needs further investments. In this way, the production of 2-Nitrochlorobenzene could be continued in the existing facilities in China.
Alternatively, shifting the production of 2-Nitrochlorobenzene into less regulated markets such as India or South East Asia could overcome the impending shortage of BIT. However, the ongoing impact of sustainability in these emerging markets in the future might result in the same scenarios as in China. Thus, this could be a short-term solution to cover the possible shortage but not a sustainable alternative. In addition, this step could cause a negative image of all members in the value chain using BIT.
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Conclusion
It is quite clear that currently,
BIT is a key biocide with a limited substitution option. In certain applications, it will almost be impossible to shift to other preservatives. Even in applications where a substitution is possible: time, effort and money is required to change the formulation, making a sudden change impossible. Consequently, the majority of the industry will strive to keep BIT as a standard
biocide.
The producers of the key precursor 2-Nitrochlorobenzene will either try to adopt or upgrade higher safety standards in order to continue the production within the existing facilities or shifting their production to less regulated markets, even though it is not a sustainable option. Hopefully, the chemical industry will manage to find a sustainable solution.
View All Commercially Available Benzoisothiazolinone (BIT) Grades