Albemarle (Baton Rouge, Louisiana / USA; www.albemarle.com) and Israel Chemicals (ICL, Tel Aviv / Israel; www.icl-ip.com) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture for polymeric flame retardants. The jv – which still has to meet regulatory approval and is expected to start operating in 2015 – will run a 2,400 t/y plant in The Netherlands as well as a 10,000 t/y plant in Israel, which ICL plans to commission in Q4 this year (see Plasteurope.com of 30.01.2012). Both facilities are located at ICL sites.

The joint venture will produce ICL’s “FR-122P” polymeric flame retardant – first introduced in 2013 – as well as Albemarle’s “GreenCrest” PolyFR, which also made its market debut in 2013 (for previous coverage, see Plasteurope.com of 15.07.2014). The two companies said they would continue to provide independent marketing, sales and technical services to their customers.

The announcement comes ahead of the EU’s “sunset date” for phasing out HBCD-based flame retardants as part of the REACH legislation (for more details, see also Plasteurope.com of 03.01.2014). Several other chemical players, including BASF and Dow, have already switched to PolyFR.

Commenting on the proposed joint venture, ICL Industrial Products vice president of Flame Retardants, Ilan Elkan, said, “Our joint production of polymeric flame retardants further demonstrates the industry’s overall commitment to offering environmentally-friendly fire safety products and solutions that meet increasingly stringent regulatory standards.”