Dow Building Solutions, a global business unit of DowDuPont Specialty Products division, announced that all STYROFOAM Brand extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam plants in the United States are now producing the insulation with BLUEDGE polymeric flame retardant technology, a sustainable flame retardant alternative. As a result, Dow’s conversion of foam plants to BLUEDGE across North America is now complete.
“Building science innovations are crucial to sustainability advancement, and we are excited to continue leading the transition to a more sustainable future as we take one more step toward a global conversion,” said Tim Lacey, general manager for Dow Building Solutions. “Our objective is straightforward — offer more sustainable solutions that work in many environments to meet the growing demands of energy-efficiency regulations and architectural design.”
Dow took a phased approach to the conversion of STYROFOAM XPS foam plants to BLUEDGE, starting with Japan in 2014, Europe in 2015, Canada in 2016 and the United States in 2017. This allowed for a controlled conversion process to ensure business’ regional quality requirements were met while, at the same time, product availability met regional market demands.
BLUEDGE was invented by Dow as an answer for a sustainable flame retardant solution for polystyrene foam. It is a drop-in technology to replace hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a common flame retardant with a less favorable environmental profile. Today, BLUEDGE technology is incorporated in Emerald Innovation 3000 marketed by Lanxess Inc., FR-122P marketed by ICL and GreenCrest marketed by the Albemarle Corp. This next-generation sustainable flame retardant alternative is available to other extruded polystyrene and expanded polystyrene insulation manufacturers transitioning away from HBCD-based flame retardants through these suppliers.