Low temperature, high impact
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With Henkel’s appearance at Asia CanTech fast approaching, Alex Rivers speaks to Emily Mullins, global market strategy manager for surface treatment solutions, and Damien Fourcade, sustainability manager for metal packaging, about the company’s low temperature beverage cleaner
Damien Fourcade and Emily Mullins
With 22 years of experience working in process engineering and now strategic marketing at Henkel, Emily Mullins is more than qualified to be discussing the company’s latest development at the 2023 Asia CanTech conference on 1 November.
The Bonderite C-IC 72000 series, as Henkel’s new low temperature beverage cleaner is named, has been rolled out across all regions and has shown success in lowering a plant’s carbon footprint. During a recent trial, a customer was able to reduce its natural gas use, which contributed to a 38 per cent reduction in its carbon emissions compared to traditional cleaning methods.
Inception
Emily Mullins discusses the drive behind the development of Bonderite C-IC 72000: “The idea for this new product came from our product development team in Brazil, to support Henkel’s strong commitment to sustainability.
“We wanted to look at ways of, not only how we can impact sustainability in our own operations, but also how our products can impact our customers’ sustainability goals. With the new beverage can cleaner, the idea is that by operating at a lower temperate, we can help our customers to save on natural gas use.
“Typically, the washer is heated by a boiler that is most commonly fuelled by natural gas. By reducing natural gas use, we’re helping customers reduce their carbon footprint and their CO2 emissions. At the same time, costs of energy and natural gas are rising very steeply. So the low temperature beverage cleaner not only helps us to address sustainability objectives, but also in a more practical manner, it helps our customers reduce their total operating costs, by acting as a way to offset some of those rising utility costs.”
Main features
“The primary benefit is that we’re reducing the temperature where the cleaning happens,” said Mullins.
“Typically, the cleaning temperatures would be 60°C or 140°F – sometimes even a little higher than that, as it’s necessary to help remove the oils and lubricants from the can. With our new cleaner, we’re able to reduce that temperature down to as low as around 43°C, or 110°F.
“There are of course other benefits to the product aside from its low temperature; it is also formulated to be low foam. Foam has always been a challenge for customers, so by having this low foam product, it’s easier to manage, and can also help to contribute to water reduction.
“Additionally, we’re able to better manage our customers’ water overflow in the rinse stages, and because we’re operating at that lower temperature, less water is lost to evaporation. The process then also uses less water to replenish the bath, because the customer is not losing as much of it in steam and humidity.
“Another benefit of the lower temperature also makes for a much more comfortable working environment for employees who are working around the washer on a daily basis.
“The cleaner itself is also less corrosive at this lower temperature. We expect it to reduce maintenance burden on a plant too, with parts needing less frequent replacement and repair.”
Henkel has launched the product as a ‘single pack’ formulation, which combines the cleaner and fluoride etchant, for ease of handling and convenience to the customer. However, for those that require the traditional two-pack systems using separate etchant additions, this is also available.
Challenges
The main challenge during the initial stages of the Bonderite C-IC 72000’s development was finding the optimal selection of surfactants to achieve the desired performance attributes, commented Mullins.
“With typical or mainstream chemicals, it would be very difficult to just take the cleaner we run today and reduce the temperature. That would not clean as effectively, and there would be a great deal of foam.
“Henkel undertook a great deal of work in our laboratories to evaluate stability, cleaning performance and the different temperature range, to gauge how low we could go, so that we could ensure the same level of cleaning performance without sacrificing those key aspects.”
Henkel announced the release of this cleaner in April 2023, but according to Mullins, the company has been conducting customer trials and validations in all regions, and working on converting the first customers to the cleaner over the past year.
A key part of the launch was at this year’s Metpack trade show in Essen, Germany. Mullins remarks that the cleaner was “incredibly well received” by both existing customers and new prospect visitors to the company’s booth.
She says she hopes to bring even more attention to the cleaner at this year’s Asia CanTech conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sustainability
Damien Fourcade has 11 years of experience at Henkel, with more than five of those dedicated to focusing on the group’s metal packaging segment.
When asked how the development of Henkel’s latest product aligns with the group’s own sustainability goals, he commented, “Sustainability is a strategic and competitive edge for Henkel and we strive to be at the forefront of this.
“We have a central team and in each business unit, there is a sustainability manager driving the strategy of the business to incorporate sustainability and innovation. We want to have an impact around environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).
“We also want to be the first global adhesive player to have climate positive operation. Our goal is to have converted to 100 per cent renewable energy across more than 100 plants globally. So far, we have achieved 70 per cent of our purchased electricity coming from renewable sources.
Fourcade highlights that Henkel has other initiatives in the pipeline too, which include eliminating the substances that are still currently ‘under discussion’ such as PFAS and BPA, referring to coatings. In terms of surface treatment, Henkel has a complete portfolio of coolants which are formaldehyde free, as the company “recognised early on that [formaldehyde] wasn’t sustainable,” as Fourcade noted.
“Overall, we put a lot of emphasis on transparency and lifecycle assessment.
“We see an increased scrutiny nowadays from consumers looking for sustainable packaging, which drives brand owner requirements and thus impacts the whole value chain. There’s definitely been a change of pace in demand here,” Fourcade emphasised.
There is certainly a lot to be said for undertaking a proactive approach to safeguarding for future generations.
Outlook
In terms of where Mullins sees the development of cleaning technologies for metal beverage cans heading in the next few years, she stated, “I think that this type of technology is going to quickly become the new market standard.
“One thing I didn’t mention is that it is very easy for customers to make the change to our low temperature beverage cleaner. They don’t need to make any other adjustments on their line; they don’t have to change their spray pressures or add more nozzles.
“It’s great that new materials have allowed us to kind of make these advances.
“I believe there will be greater emphasis on water conservation in the near future, which will set the path for new technologies.”
Along with the product and the chemistry aspects, Henkel is working the process side of things as well, with an emphasis on digitalisation, Mullins noted. This includes bringing more transparency to the process, by incorporating sensors and digital remote monitoring of the parameters of the line.
“Additionally, the industry is facing a lack of skilled workers, so we hope that the digitalisation of the process will assist in maintaining a better line, to improve quality, reduce spoilage and minimise chemical usage,” Mullins concluded.
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