Interview with Anne Drewer

Anne Drewer, Global Head of Homecare and Industrial Solutions at BYK-Chemie
BYK-Chemie

BYK-Chemie is usually associated with paints and coatings. How long have you been active in the detergents and cleaning products market? 

The acquisition of Rockwood Rheology Additives in 2013 also included the areas of cosmetics and the H I&I market. All of the cosmetics products were amalgamated in the End Use Cosmetics portfolio of our sister company ECKART. The household and industrial cleaning applications were integrated into BYK’s Industrial Applications Business Line. 

As Head of Global End Uses Homecare and Industrial Solutions, I am responsible for this market at BYK. 

Could you give us a brief introduction of BYK?   

BYK Additives & Instruments is a worldwide leading supplier in the field of additives and measuring instruments. The coatings, printing inks and plastics industries are some of the main application areas for BYK additives. New application areas are detergents and cleaning products, adhesives and sealing compounds, and the oil/gas industry. BYK additives are also used in construction chemistry. 

BYK offers additives for virtually all requirements and application areas from one single source: wetting and dispersing, surface additives, rheology additives, defoamers and air release agents, wax additives, adhesion promoters and coupling agents, viscosity depressants and processing additives. With its ongoing research into state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly systems, BYK is close to its customers and scores highly with its technological and application technology expertise.

The instruments division develops measuring equipment for assessing color, appearance and physical properties. BYK is one of four divisions of the ALTANA Group. With its headquarters in Wesel am Niederrhein/Germany, BYK has around 2,200 employees worldwide, of which 22 percent are active in the areas of research & development as well as application technology. As a global specialty chemicals company, BYK has production sites in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA and China. In 2018, BYK achieved sales of one billion euros worldwide.

What product portfolio do you offer for the household, detergents and care products area?

BYK has significantly expanded its rheology portfolio by acquiring Rockwood. Alongside natural and synthetic phyllosilicates, we offer liquid rheology additives such as acrylic and associative thickeners. Our liquid urea-based additives are a very special product group. They can be post-added, have only a very minor influence on the transparency, and have a broad pH stability – from very acidic through to basic. 

BYK offers a wealth of technological possibilities in the wax additives area too. We develop wax emulsions, wax dispersions and micronized wax additives specifically for the care products market in the area of floor, leather and car care. Our wax additives are based on natural waxes such as carnauba or sunflower wax, and, of course, also synthetic waxes such as HDPE, to adjust the surface protection of different surfaces.

Moreover, BYK supplies a large range of surface additives which can improve or even prevent surface defects.  Numerous faults and surface defects can arise when applying care products to surfaces. One of the causes of this can be the very differing surface tensions. If the surface tension of the care product is, for example, greater than that of the substrate, this is then reflected in the poor wetting (high contact angle) which, in turn, leads to an unfavorable leveling. This situation can be remedied using our silicone surfactants, for example, which are an excellent alternative to fluorosurfactants.

BYK provides defoamers which can be used in a variety of different applications such as in care products and detergents. These are divided into three main groups: silicone oil, mineral oil, and polymeric defoamers. Our defoamers prevent and destroy the foam bubbles, therefore enabling an improved processing, as well as a perfect surface for flooring care products.

BYK’s wetting and dispersing additives result in a fine and homogeneous distribution of solid particles in liquid media, and ensure the long-term stability of such systems. Among others, the additives stabilize fillers and abrasives in, for example, scouring agents or abrasive pastes. The liquid phase can comprise water and the entire range of organic solvents of varying polarity. They prevent particles flocculating by various mechanisms (electrostatic effects, steric effects).

Are you appearing at the SEPAWA this year?

Yes, we are at stand 124/125. 

What will you be presenting there?

One of the products will be our phyllosilicate-based pickering emulsions.  A pickering emulsion is stabilized by means of solid particles which adsorb onto the interface between the two phases. This type of emulsion was named after S. U. Pickering, who described the phenomenon in 1907. The process is used to produce emulsifier-free W/O and also O/W emulsions. 

A second theme will be our additives for use in car care products: starting with wax, rheology and surface additives for car polishes through to our unique sunflower wax for care of the interior.