Archives January 2021

• CAS: 73513-42-5
• Molecular Formula: C6H14

• Manufacturer: Junyuan Petroleum Group
• Molecular Weight (g/mol): 86.178

Isohexane (C6H14) is a saturated six-carbon branched-chain hydrocarbon. It is any of several isomers of hexane, or a mixture of these isomers used as a solvent.

Specifications

The Author: George E. Anderson, Crown Iron Works Company, P.O. Box 1364, Minneapolis, MN 55440 USA.

Background
One of the most basic needs of mankind is an abundant and reliable food supply. In the modern world, one major source of protein and vegetable oil is from oilseeds, particularly the soybean – an abundant resource which is largely processed using solvent extraction, an efficient and reliable means to separate the high-protein meal solids from the high-energy edible oil. The second most prevalent solvent-extracted oilseed is rapeseed and/or the varieties called Canola [1]. Sunflower is also quite high in volume.

A much lower volume or secondary use for soybean oil and rapeseed oil, gaining popularity in recent years, is as a feedstock for biodiesel fuels for diesel engines. There are many other products such as oleochemicals made from oilseeds – and often these are provided with a solvent extraction system as a part of the total supply process.

I mentioned “Efficient and reliable”. All through history, not just in the present century, there has been a premium on providing food with the least work or energy required. Indeed, in the distant past when the work was done by hand – often your own hand – it was nearly automatic that everyone would be sincere about energy efficiency! The same is perhaps true on the smaller or better-managed farms of today. For most of us in the modern food processing industry, however, the commitment is far less directly related to our personal labor and has become more intellectual and economic, motivated by survival in economic competition. Our processes continue to improve, the tools for improving efficiency are themselves better than ever, and with greater detail and elegance we realize our world is a far better place if we make efficient use of our resources and limit the damage we do to the environment and other forms of life. We might call it “good stewardship”. Because the commitment today less often results in actual physical labor for the decision maker, it is essential that each of us at all levels of government, family, or industry (and even in retirement) remember to make real and nearby energy improvements in all our personal actions as well as professional decisions.

Why solvent extraction? One early means of separation was physical pressure to ‘squeeze the oil out’. The most energy efficient, practical embodiment of that method is the modern screw press. This is a conveyor screw with a slotted cage surrounding it and a screw with diminishing space for the solid material as the material proceeds from pitch to pitch of the screw. Eventually, as the free space is progressively restricted, the oil is squeezed out of the solids and through the slots. More than half of the oil is easily removed in this way, but perhaps 7% or 8% residual oil is left in the solids, the process uses considerable horsepower, there is considerable wear and maintenance, and it takes many machines for high capacity. In comparison, solvent extraction with hexane (the primary solvent used worldwide) will remove all but about ½% of residual oil, uses less horse power, and requires less maintenance. It is relatively efficient and reliable, and this is one reason why solvent extraction is the primary means of separating large tonnages of oil from protein meal.

Why hexane? Actually, it is not a pure n-hexane but a mix of isomers with very similar properties sometimes called extraction hexane or commercial hexane. The properties shown in Table 1 are listed in the NFPA-36 safety standard for solvent extraction [2]. It does appear to have slightly greater ability to extract oil from oilseeds than does pure n-hexane, perhaps due to the variety of isomers present. Hexane has about the best characteristics of the many solvents tried over the years. With a boiling point of 156°F (69°C) it is a liquid in all but the most extreme climates of the world. With a fairly high volatility and a low sensible heat of 144 Btu/lb (335 kJ/kg) it is relatively easy to remove from the solids and oil with low energy use. It has an azeotrope, a slightly reduced 143°F (61.6°C) boiling temperature when in the presence of water or steam and resulting in a vapor coming off at about 95% by weight hexane and 5% by weight water. The azeotrope is convenient for efficient removal of the solvent from solids (or “meal”) using direct steam contact. Hexane has a long record of use without as much irritation of human skin or the immediate or severe toxicity of many competitive solvents. It does not mix with water, allowing fairly simple processes to keep it in the system while water passes through the extraction process as moisture in the seed, meal, oil or air. Hexane has a good and aggressive capability to dissolve and mix with vegetable oils so that it can wash the desired oils out of a fibrous or solid material. It is selective and leaves the proteins, sugars and some undesired gums largely undisturbed in the meal. Last but not least, hexane has a relatively ‘tolerable’ odor and a low tendency to cause discomfort when one is subjected to a brief exposure.

Table 1. Physical properties of typical commercial hexane and isohexanePropertyHexaneIsohexane mixed isomers Flammable limits (percent by vol.)1.2-7.71.0-7.0 Ignition temperature (°C)225264 Flash point (°C), closed cup-26-18 Molecular weight86.286.2 Melting point (°C)-94-154 Boiling range at 1 atm (1.0 bar) (°C)67-6956-60 Specific gravity at 60°F (15.6°C)0.680.66 Pounds per gal at 60°F (15.6°C)5.635.52 Vapor density (air = 1)~3~3 Latent heat of vaporization at 1 atm (1.0 bar), (kcal/kg)79.6N.A. Vapor pressure at 37.8°C (kPa)38.139.4 Specific heat liquid (kcal per kg-°C at 15.6°C)0.531N.A. Specific heat vapor (kcal per kg-°C at 15.6°C)0.339N.A. Solubility in water [moles per L at 60°F (15.6°C)]negligiblenegligibleN.A. – data not available. Adapted from NFPA-36, 2009. 

Other solvents? Hexane has maintained the dominant position as a solvent for the major plants which extract oil from oilseeds. Every so often the media discusses a new solvent or means of extraction which may replace solvent extraction with hexane, but (so far) the existing technology has sufficient virtues to maintain credibility while it continues to be developed in a competitive market. Widespread use and familiarity ensures that many people and resources will continue to improve on stubborn problems and optimize the hexane process. There is also the advantage of well-understood industry expectations for performance, the availability of trained personnel, and established standards for safe use. Any proposed replacement must exceed hexane’s basic advantages and still might be expected to require a lot of time, development and capital investment to work as well.

It should be noted that other solvents may be required to produce different and specific products. For example, an alcohol-water mixture is used in an additional extraction step (after hexane extraction) to produce soy protein concentrate (or “SPC”) by removing the sugars from standard soybean meal. Various alcohols, isohexane, heptane, butane – many other solvents have found applications in niche markets. For the standard oil removal plant, only isohexane – an isomer with properties very close to hexane – has replaced hexane in a significant number of extraction plants. Hexane is the focus of this article since it is still the highest volume and most commonly used.

Flammability. Hexane does have one weakness which is universally mentioned: when hexane vapor is mixed with air in roughly a range from 1.2% to 7.7% by volume, the mixture is flammable. Over the last century, many processing plants have had fires or even explosions which caused serious damage. The NFPA-36 standard is one result: a set of rules for construction of these plants which, if followed and well managed, should provide a very safe working environment and a reliable means of production. It should be noted that gasoline is also inherently and potentially dangerous, yet millions of grandmothers top off their gas tanks weekly. Apparently they have mastered a few simple and reliable rules about not smoking, avoiding static electricity, avoiding significant personal contact with liquid or vapors, and maintaining a vigilant attitude during fueling, etc. I do not say this to minimize the danger – but it should be evident that fire hazards can be dealt with effectively, there are other hazards to any process in addition to fire, and thus far the flammability of hexane has not kept it from out-competing other solvents or means of extraction. One result of this flammability, however, is the necessity to avoid significant amounts of hexane from escaping from the plant process in the process air, water, meal or oil, or simply in losses due to poor equipment maintenance, frequent shutdowns, or poor housekeeping.

The typical percolation extractor is designed to operate at a very slight vacuum of perhaps -0.4” water (-10 mm water) in an effort to enhance safety. As noted, a mixture with about 5% hexane in 95% air is in the flammable range, but 5% air uniformly mixed with 95% hexane is not flammable. Therefore, a slight leak of air into the pure hexane inside the machine may not usually or quickly result in a fire or significant explosion hazard, but a slight leak of hexane out of the machine and into the pure air of the extraction room may more often be possible to ignite and perhaps cause a more energetic explosion. It is also often true that the interior of a vessel or machine may not have a source of ignition – no spark, gasoline engine, open flame, etc. – whereas the outside environment may be less predictable. (Caution: read up on safety and discuss the issue with experienced people before presuming that the shallow understanding of any one simple rule is a guarantee of safety!)

Hexane is also costly, and it is considered a pollutant if it escapes from the process. These are additional reasons to avoid the escape of hexane from the process.

The Process Schematic

Plant Location. Most extraction systems are located near the farm fields which supply the oilseeds, or on ports or rail lines suitable to moving the very large volumes of oilseed and products. The plants are often large enough to process perhaps 1000 to 6000 tons of seed per day, and it may be beneficial to be near a city large enough to provide mechanical services, operating staff, reliable electric power, housing for visiting technicians, etc. There are perhaps 55 commercial-scale plants in the USA.

Figure 1 shows a schematic of how a typical plant for soybeans may be organized. Seed is received usually from large trucks (or rail cars, or barges), cleaned, weighed, dried if necessary for safe storage, and put in bins. It is then drawn from storage as needed to provide feed for the extraction process. It may be put in a ‘day bin’ to allow processing from the various silos in the best sequence according to age, moisture, or quality of seed. While the process is in operation, seed may be dried or otherwise sorted in bins to improve the smooth operation of the plant. Flow from the day bin would be continuous, (one would hope) allowing the entire process system to run very smoothly and evenly for maximum efficiency.

Figure 1. Processing of soybeans.

Figure 2 is the process for rapeseed or other high-oil seeds. The seeds differ in that soybeans have about 20% by weight of oil, and rapeseed has about 40% oil. The higher oil products often require an added step called pre-pressing. Put simply, the high oil content makes it difficult to adequately flake the oilseed and cook it for solvent extraction without oil coming free of the seed and fouling equipment. Furthermore, the 40% oil content would require much more than the optimum energy for removal of solvent from miscella in extraction. Therefore, the screw press technology is used before extraction to better prepare the high oil seeds for the extraction process. It is partly practical experience and partly better balancing or optimization of the plant for low energy – but most high oil percentage seeds have pre-press systems before extraction. Such seeds are commonly rapeseed, canola, sunflower, safflower, and the like.

Figure 2. Processing of canola/rapeseed.

In general, a pre-press system followed by solvent extraction may be an option when the oilseed contains more than about 23% oil. This combination combines the best of each system: the pressing operation removes the higher percentages of oil which are by far the easiest to squeeze out of the solids, and the solvent extraction process is best at removing oil from about 20% down to near ½%. In Figure 2, it is worth noting that a plant to process rapeseed with pre-pressing followed by extraction will often reduce the oil content from about 40% to 20% in the presses and from 20% to 0.8% in extraction, and that (after adjustments for moisture changes during the process) the press oil produced may be roughly 25.8% of the raw seed, while the extraction oil may be about 13.7% of the raw seed. Most of the oil will be press oil.

The Extraction Area and Controlled Area

As was noted, hexane is flammable and it is therefore essential to do two things: first is to protect adjacent properties, public roadways, and untrained people who may experience gasoline filling stations but are otherwise not used to the hazards of flammable liquids being present in their environment. Second is to protect the process system and operators from the hazards of people who are not specifically trained in the safe handling of flammable hexane – with their smoking, hot automobile engines, sparking lawn mowers, cell-phones, kids with matches, and scratchy boot nails. Therefore, the extraction process where hexane is present is confined to a building about 100 feet from “the rest of the world”. This process is specially constructed to safely contain the solvent in the vessels and to eliminate sources of ignition. Only trained personnel are admitted in to this area. Usually, the process area is located in the center of a restricted area (inside a fence) and a larger controlled area (perhaps in a fence, but in some way defined and having limited access.)

Long conveyors move the material in to the solvent extraction area, and another conveyor moves the meal back out while the oil is pumped out to storage tanks. All conveyors and piping systems are designed to minimize the chance of solvent liquid or vapor being transferred out of the extraction area. Figure 3 is a simplified layout of an extraction plant

Figure 3. Solvent extraction – distance diagram. Reference NFPA-36, (2009 simplified).

The Solvent Extractor

Percolation Extractor: At the center of the extraction plant is the extractor. A percolation-type extractor is by far the most commonly used for the removal of oil from oilseeds such as soybeans, canola, or sunflower. Figure 4 shows that in ‘percolation’ a liquid drains down through a porous bed of material and through a screen which supports the material – similar to a coffee percolator. As the solvent (usually hexane) passes down through the bed of oil-bearing material, the oil is dissolved in the solvent and carried away. When properly carried out with stages of extraction (as will be described), the extraction process results in a very good separation of the edible oil from the solids or nutritious meal fraction.

Figure 4. Diagram of percolation extractor.

Three Common Types of Extractor: Figure 5shows several common types of extractor. These machines might be categorized in the following manner (with approximate bed depths): The Crown or ‘vertical loop’ extractor typically has a relatively shallow bed (0.3-1 m) and a bed useful length about 50 times as long as it is deep, but curved into a loop for compactness. The straight-line linear units often have a medium depth (0.9-1.8 m) and length about 15 times as long. The round extractors commonly have a deeper bed (1.6-2.9 m) held in wedge-shaped cells defined by distinct, solid cell walls; often there are about 16 to 24 cells. (One perhaps unusual machine operating on expanded soybean collets had well over 3.7 m bed depth.) The proportions of this geometry require that the bed be contained in cells or baskets such that material will not be washed out of position, and the cell walls force the miscella to travel within the column and into the correct tank below.

Figure 5. Designs of three extractors

Common to all these machines is the need for a large volume of material in full contact with the solvent. Actually, there is only a moment of contact with the pure solvent, near the point where the solvent enters the machine, because the solvent immediately begins to pick up some oil and then becomes a mixture called ‘miscella’. One can see in Figure 5 the volume of the bed in each machine is the bed length times the bed depth times the bed width. No extraction will occur before the first wash initiates contact of solvent and solids, and no oil or solvent can be removed after the final drainage area where the screen ends. Therefore, we will only consider that part of the flake bed as the useful volume or wet volume. All of the extraction work must be accomplished in this volume of flakes, and this also defines the effective retention time of the machine.

These machines are large. For example, one brand of extractor capable of 9000 metric tons per day soy input capacity has a bed depth of 1.0 m, width of 4.3 m, and machine overall length of more than 46 m. The other manufacturers will achieve a similar or even larger useful volume using dimensions appropriate to their particular shape of machine. Each type of machine has gone through many years of improvement and optimization of features, with the result that equipment of each design from major manufacturers is generally reliable and efficient.

Most of these extractors will operate on most common oilseeds with little physical changes to the extractor or surrounding equipment. Of course, the preparation of the seed may be different as mentioned above and in other articles in the Lipid Library. As to the extraction machines, the most frequent difference is additional stainless steel components for oilseeds or solvents which are more corrosive. Many of the factors important for the efficient extraction of soybeans are very similar for other oilseeds, though certain extraction settings and the relative size of the various pieces of equipment may need to be altered.

Shallow and Deep Bed Machines: The appropriate dimensions for different shapes of extractor lead some to have a deeper depth of bed to attain the required volume. Some tend to call an extractor with a bed up to about 1 meter as a “shallow bed machine” and one with much more than 1 meter as “deep bed”. Both shallow and deep bed machines can extract very well. It is clear, however, that there are differences in preparation of the seed and other operating settings to provide the greatest efficiency with different design machines. For example, in a significantly deeper bed there is more weight of material (and sometimes liquid) on the material down near the screen. Therefore, preparation for a deep bed machine may have expanders added to form rugged collets; this has the advantage of also increasing density and reducing the solvent retained after extraction. Shallow bed machines can use thinner flakes or more fragile and dusty materials; this has the advantage of eliminating expanders or other preparation equipment.

Importance of Adequate Washing: Some sources have suggested that extraction only occurs directly under a solvent or miscella wash, where the bed is fully saturated with miscella. Tests performed in commercial machines in the late 1960s compared extraction with numerous small washes per stage to extraction with the same total wash volume but concentrated in fewer large washes per stage. The tests indicated that extraction will proceed normally provided that there is sufficient fresh solvent to the extractor, good countercurrent stages, and the correct total volume of wash per stage to remove and replace miscella as it becomes laden with oil [3]. We also have the support of logic: a flooded bed has about 55% liquid by weight, and a partly drained bed (about 1 minute without wash) between stages has perhaps 40% solvent by weight (the fully drained bed, as a limit, may have about 30% after final drainage). At either 55% or 40% the amount of miscella is far more than the amount of oil in the bed – often only 1% to 5% – and the 40% undrained miscella is concentrated inside the particle where it is still quite aggressive in contacting and dissolving oil. It is important to have effective countercurrent stages, to have pure final solvent, to wash all particles uniformly, and to wash sufficiently to change out the higher concentration miscella in each stage.

Dry Loading versus Slurry Loading: To get good contact in some designs of deep bed extractor with `cells’ or `baskets’, it may be helpful to totally flood the irregular material surface with solvent so as to wet every area of the bed. There is also a potential for `channeling’ in which solvent runs down the side walls or cell walls and does not contact some bed areas sufficiently. Deep bed units counteract this quite often by filling in a slurry, to provide a good initial soak. Once the material is soaked it will tend to `wick in’ later solvent washes, reducing or preventing these ‘channeling’ effects. A shallow bed unit is usually loaded dry. But it is essential that the solvent be distributed evenly across the full width of the shallow bed as it travels by to get good contact with all the particles. Both the shallow and deep bed designs extract efficiently when run correctly.

Screens: Many extractors have screens which move with the bed. In some machines they are part of a hinged bottom of the cell in which each column of meal is carried. In others the screens are part of a moving belt under the bed. In many newer extractors, the screen is stationary and is made up of vee-shaped bars which run lengthwise, parallel to the motion of the chain and bed. The stationary screen is clipped securely into the casing or housing of the machine. The result is that the material slides over the smooth steel bars and smooth drainage slots and brushes obstructions along the slots until they fall through. The slots are relieved on the bottom side to allow more free passage of any particles which may be small enough to pass through the gap. (These particles are then pumped back on top of the bed by the recycle pumps.)

Automatic Level and Speed Control: One useful feature used on extractors from some manufacturers is an automatic level control system on the inlet hopper. The system adjusts the speed of the drive to exactly match the feed rate of material to the machine.

In several designs, the concept and hardware are fairly simple: There is a blade above the chain at the inlet area that always ‘cuts off’ the bed at the full operating depth. This means that the chain speed is directly proportional to the tons of feed material per day that the machine is processing. A sensor measures the depth of the material in the extractor feed hopper, and if the level is too high it gradually speeds up the extractor chain to pull more material into the extractor. If the level is too low it gradually slows down the extractor to allow material to build up in the inlet hopper.

The first benefit is that this is done automatically, without continual operator attention. A second benefit is that, because it is a continuous and automatic adjustment, it does not need to run with the bed only about 85% full to allow the operator a reasonable margin for error. Therefore, the extractor always maintains a full bed and always uses its maximum volume and retention to efficiently process the tonnage supplied.

Uniform Discharge Rate to Desolventizer-Toaster (DT): The discharge of solid material from a shallow bed extractor may be relatively uniform. In many extractors the bed is in about 20 distinct cells, and discharge consists of dropping a larger amount of meal at a time onto the discharge conveyor. In either case, it is an advantage if the flow be uniform in both flowrate and solvent content by the time it enters the DT. If the type of extractor does not discharge evenly, the conveyors may incorporate a retention bin with an agitator to smooth out the flow. If the flow is relatively uniform the desolventizer can run more steadily, with less damping of its controls and less surging which may harm its ability to desolventize and cook uniformly or use steam efficiently.

Hydroclone: Many plants worldwide for over 50 years have used hydroclones (also called hydrocyclones or liquid cyclones) to clarify miscella before it goes to the distillation system. Extractor miscella, containing a very small content of fine dust, enters the hydroclone at high velocity and spins rapidly. The heavier dust is thrown to the cyclone wall. This dust and a small amount of miscella fall down the cyclone walls, pass through the bottom discharge orifice, return to the extractor, and are distributed back on the flake bed surface. The bed filters out the fines and they go with the solids to the DT. Most of the miscella goes up the center of the cyclone and to the evaporator – with most traces of fines removed.

In most cases, soybean miscella from a properly operated hydroclone is clear enough to keep distillation equipment clean enough for plant operations and for lower-quality lecithin production – but not for higher-quality lecithin.

Basic Extraction Theory

Extraction theory can be put very simply: we are trying to soak oil out of small particles or flakes of material with a solvent, usually hexane. The solvent has to travel into the particles, soften up and dissolve the oil, and the miscella (the solution of oil in the solvent) then must travel out of the particles and be washed away by still more solvent.

Five Basic Requirements: To achieve effective removal of oil from most oilseeds using solvent extraction, we may speak of these basic requirements. All kinds of extractor require proper preparation of the oilseed to achieve good results and one often hears the phrase, “It all begins in preparation.” The first requirement is related to the preparation area and steps including conditioning, cracking, dehulling, flaking, perhaps pre-pressing and expanding:

• PREPARATION: The term “conditioning” means to heat the seed and hold it for proper time and temperature to soften and rupture oil-bearing cells, make the seed more pliable to reduce generation of fine dust in flaking, and keep the extractor warm. Correctly prepared materials have high porosity, a large surface area and thin flakes (or cell breakage in well designed presses) to allow rapid penetration by solvent, and ruptured oil cells so that solvent can reach the oil. The material must also allow good percolation – the rapid flow of solvent down through the bed and screen so that the oil can be transported out of the bed.

Once the seed is prepared into appropriate flakes, collets or cake, it is conveyed to extraction. Then we have four more requirements:

• SOLVENT: A high enough solvent ratio (the ratio of solvent to solids entering the extractor) and a sufficient number of effective stages of wash. These stages are to be “countercurrent” with declining oil concentration until the final pure solvent wash. A machine with more and better stages can operate with less solvent input (a lower solvent ratio and less solvent in the miscella) and lower costs in distillation. Efficient stages keep the miscella in later stages at the lowest possible oil content so that miscella trapped in particles going to the DT will not contain much oil.
• CONTACT: This requires correctly prepared material and an extractor designed to be “forgiving” – a design leading to the most effective washing and drainage with a wide variety of materials, even low-quality or damaged seed. A shallow flake bed helps reduce time at each stage and in final drainage. It also reduces the weight of the bed above which may otherwise crush fragile flakes. Specially designed stationary screens provide reliable flow of miscella and removal of solvent and oil.
• TIME: There must be enough time for the dissolving and flow processes to occur. Time is best utilized if an automatic control keeps the bed at full depth for maximum extractor volume and time, if the extractor drains rapidly at each stage and particularly at the final drainage so that time is not wasted, if the extractor is large enough, and if the material is made more dense – sometimes by use of an expander.
• TEMPERATURE: There must be a sufficiently high temperature at the extractor inlet to allow the entire extractor to operate at or near the boiling point of the solvent. Extraction consists of dissolving, mixing and flow processes; just like washing grease off a plate in the sink, it works better and faster when hot.

Temperature is a little more complex topic than most people realize. Because the extractor is usually designed to operate near ambient pressure (with very slight vacuum), the boiling point of hexane inside is about 156°F (69°C). However, because there is hexane and water held in intimate contact throughout the extractor bed, any vapor which comes off the bed will be near the azeotrope temperature of about 143°F (61.7°C) and that will be the approximate maximum for operation of the extractor. Even pure hexane heated to 156°F (69°C) before entry to the extractor will boil some as it contacts the water in the flake bed. Any such boiling in the bed will reduce drainage of solvent and hinder extraction. Therefore, the practical result is that the extraction bed will have a maximum efficient temperature of about 140-150°F (60-66°C) and it will resist going to higher temperatures by boiling off a lot of vapor. If material is introduced to the extractor too hot it will cause a great deal of boiling off of solvent and water – and reduce extraction drainage and reduce extraction efficiency.

Operate Near the Azeotrope! It is difficult to operate above the azeotrope. But it is very desirable to operate close to 142-145°F (61-63°C) at all points in the extractor. Operating at the hottest reasonable temperature makes the solvent and oil as low viscosity as possible and promotes rapid dissolving, mixing and flow. This allows the fastest possible extraction and better extraction results. Furthermore, since the extractor is only designed to operate near ambient pressure, any temperature below the azeotrope will result in a lot of air in the extractor. If temperature is very low the elevated air (and oxygen) content could even become a hazard for fire, but usually it is more of a concern due to internal corrosion of the extractor. Experience shows that where an extractor is cold inside, it has high air contact, and high oxidation of steel – and may eventually cut away enough metal to leak or have some structural problem.

Shallow bed and deep bed machines use different strategies and features to attain high efficiency. The following will provide more detail on various methods and features which may lead to efficient extraction.

Material Extraction Curve: Many investigators have presented their conclusions regarding the extraction rate of soybeans at various thicknesses of flake. Usually the data is presented as a single curve on a graph indicating the oil remaining in the solids at each point in time as the particles pass through the extractor. For the moment, I will call this the material extraction curve. Good discussions of the shape of this curve and presentations of both theoretical and test data are presented in an excellent early paper by Depmer [4], several versions by various authors are discussed in Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products[5], and an attempt at a rigorous theoretical approach is presented in two papers by Karnofsky [6,7]. It is not my purpose to discuss these at any length, but I should comment that there are significant differences in the conclusions of the various authors, and some of the results do not seem very close to practical results observed in real extraction systems. Each, however, documents the fact that thinner flakes typically extract much faster. When the soybean is cracked into somewhat large fragments or cracks and the final flake is relatively thin, that means that there has been considerable plastic flow of the material and more damage to the internal cell structure of the material. This creates fissures which allow more avenues for the free flow of solvent to contact the oil and increases the flow of all liquids in to or out of the particle. A thin flake also has more oil directly at the larger surface area and available for easy and rapid initial extraction. A thin flake also has a shorter distance for hexane to penetrate to reach and remove the last traces of oil. On Figure 6 I have provided two curves, and the lower red curve is the approximate material extraction curve as calculated by proprietary software we developed, based in theory but ‘informed’ by many data points in a long-term proprietary database. [8] Figure 6, however, also has an upper curve I have not seen except in our software; the lower curve is only “most” of the story about residual oil.

Figure 6. Material extraction curves for solvent extraction. Copyright: Crown Iron Works Company, 2011.

Countercurrent Flow: A primary objective of extraction is to remove as much oil as possible before the solids and any remaining liquids proceed to the desolventizer. One might think it is as simple as getting the undissolved oil left in the solids as low as possible, in accordance with the material extraction curve. However, there is also significant oil left in the miscella which is not completely washed off in the final solvent rinse. This can be understood better by looking at the extraction curves of Figure 6. It shows a lower curve, which shows the undissolved oil left in solids, and an upper curve which adds the oil in the miscella at each “stage” of extraction. To be clear, the difference between these curves is the amount of oil in the miscella, and the top curve is the total oil in what would remain if one were to take a sample of the miscella soaked bed at that point in the extractor and boil off the solvent so that all the oil in solids and the oil in miscella were left in the bed.

One can see that the flakes very near the inlet will still be close to their original oil content – 20% if they are soybean flakes. When this material is soaked in a nearly equal weight of miscella containing about 28% oil, the total oil in that same volume of extractor bed increases considerably; if one then were to quickly boil off the solvent before any drainage occurred, the result would be about 35% by weight oil in the flakes. (If one were able to wash off all the miscella with a quick and idealized rinse of solvent, the result would be close to the 20% – although in practice this will vary a lot because initial extraction is very rapid and all the miscella cannot be washed off from the surface and interior passages of the material.)

This “thought experiment” makes it obvious that one cannot allow high oil content miscella to be used near the discharge end of the extractor process because the solvent wash cannot remove all of it – and excess oil will go to the DT. Furthermore, the pure final washes of hexane should be very pure hexane or excess oil will be left in the material after much – but not all – of the solvent drains off in the last part of the extractor.

To avoid this problem, one could imagine a very simple extractor using a large amount of fresh solvent in every stage. However, it would be too costly to operate because this huge amount of solvent would all have to be distilled to recover the oil.

Therefore, fresh solvent use is kept to a minimum by the use of countercurrent stages of miscella. Figure 7 shows a simple diagram of this, a simple straight line extractor in which the solids are going from left to right in a machine, and the solvent is entering at the right end of the machine. The fresh solvent is first passing through the solids which have already been fairly well extracted. The solvent is then reused in multiple stages towards the left end, passing through the bed repeatedly, picking up oil and becoming a more concentrated miscella. This oil-rich miscella still has sufficient solvent content to extract effectively further to the left, where the solids contain more oil. Finally, the miscella exits at the left end of the machine. The flow of the solids from left to right is opposite of the flow of the solvent from right to left – and so we call this countercurrent or counter-flow. Virtually all commercial extractors make some attempt to use this basic flow method.

Figure 7. Diagram of countercurrent flow. Copyright: Crown Iron Works Company, 2011.

A Focus on Soybeans, the Most Common Oilseed

Soybeans are a special case in part because they are the highest tonnage of all the solvent extracted oilseeds world wide – about 56% of oilseeds processed by solvent extraction [1]. Because it is the most common oilseed processed and to maintain a clear step-by-step presentation, I will focus on the preparation and extraction of soybeans and point some of the differences when processing other seeds.

Soybeans are about 7% hull by weight. The hull is a paper-thin shell surrounding each seed that is high in fiber and low in oil; it is very low density unless ground quite fine, and therefore takes up a lot of space in costly process equipment. Being very low in oil, it is not particularly profitable to extract. It is also very low in protein and, when it is removed early in the process, the extracted meal has a significantly higher protein percentage and market value. For all these reasons, one of the first steps in the total process for soybeans is often a dehulling of the seed. In summary, removal of perhaps 90% of that 7% of hull reduces the volume going through extraction, reduces the energy for desolventizing, increases the meal protein percentage, and gives a by-product that has at least some value – the hulls. Most soybean systems in the USA and Europe, and increasingly in South America and the rest of the world, have dehulling systems. This dehulling function is usually integrated with other preparation systems to crack, heat and flake the material to make it ready for the solvent extractor. The dehulling process and the other steps in preparation are described elsewhere on this site.

Soybean Preparation: This should provide material with the following characteristics:

• Cracked into 4 to 8 pieces per soybean using sharp serrated rolls. Cracks should be large enough to provide good distortion during flaking, but not so large as to require excessive flaker power or reduced capacity.
• Dehulled: This is done mostly to improve the protein level of the meal. However, it also reduces the tonnage going to extraction and increases the density in the extractor – leading to more retention time.
• Conditioned: Material to the flakers should generally be about 158°F (70°C) and final flakes at the extractor should be about 147-154°F (64-68°C) and from 9% to 10% moisture.
• Flaked to cause breakage of cell structure to release the oil for ease of extraction. For shallow bed extractors, perhaps flakes of 0.012″ to 0.015″ (0.30 mm – 0.38 mm). For deeper beds, perhaps flakes of 0.013″ to 0.017″ (0.33 mm – 0.43 mm).
• Avoid unflaked particles! Less than 0.3% is reasonable to avoid high average residual oil and very uneven test results.
• Low fines content so that it will not block drainage of miscella or leave excessive fines in the miscella.
• Good draining material, appropriate to the extractor. Expanders may be used to form tough, porous collets (provide a cooler to reduce the temperature of the collets).

With properly prepared soybean material and sufficient extraction time, it is often possible to achieve about 0.35 to 0.60% residual oil in spent flakes.

Optional Use of Expanders: Many plants worldwide use expanders after the flakers to further prepare soybeans for extraction.

The advantages include:

• The same extraction with slightly thicker flakes.
• Higher density in the extractor.
• Better drainage (very important on deep bed units).
• Lower solvent content to the DT (very important on deep bed units).
• Increased lecithin yield.
• Possible reductions in phosphorus content of crude oil.

Disadvantages include:

• The cost, space and maintenance of added cookers, expanders, and the collet cooler.
• Increased steam and electric power use in preparation.
• Electric power and maintenance of the expander and accessories.
• Reported problems with cloudy miscella, foam, and fines deposits in distillation.
• Increases in neutral oil loss in the alkaline refining process (“higher NOL”), with a significant economic cost.
• Uncertain advantages: will the advantages be sufficient to offset the disadvantages with a given combination of equipment and market economics?

Many processors add a collet cooler after the expander to reduce the collet temperature to the normal 150ºF (65ºC) at the extractor, so as to avoid boiling of solvent in the extractor. Properly used expanders provide similar benefits in either a deep bed or shallow bed extractor. However, they will usually be of most benefit when using a deep bed extractor, to an inefficient plant due to a smaller than desired extractor or DT, or a plant with an extractor having specific drainage problems.

Take Care Not to Generate Fines: At all points in the process, from the flakers or presses through the conveying, extraction, spent flake conveying and to the entry of the DT – it is important to avoid generation of excess fines. Specifically, avoid unnecessary transitions between conveyors, avoid unneeded drops from a high elevation, avoid unneeded agitators in bins, and certainly avoid plug screws which have excessive rpm compared to that required for the tonnage.

Guidelines: “Residual Oil in Solvent Extraction”

To summarize, extraction depends on five basic factors:

• PREPARATION: As we have just discussed.
• SOLVENT: Pure, good-quality solvent, with enough flowrate for the tonnage processed, and with a sufficient number of effective countercurrent stages.
• CONTACT: Correctly prepared material with high surface area and good porosity, and a machine providing good contact for effective washing and drainage.
• TIME: Perhaps 30 to 50 minutes for soybeans depending on bed depth, flake thickness and other variables, to allow the dissolving and flow processes to occur.
• TEMPERATURE: Hot enough to maintain rapid extraction in the time available.

Figure 8 is a copy of a single sheet guideline entitled “RESIDUAL OIL ESTIMATE – SOY” [9]. It predicts the effects of major variables such as flake thickness and extractor temperature on the residual oil of extracted meal. The chart deals with soybeans – but most of the factors are similar for other products

The chart should be self explanatory, but here is a quick summary of how to use it: Enter part “A” with the correct, measured flake thickness and the wet time of the extractor (from first wash to the end of the final drain screen). If the extractor is operating with the average temperature of the bed lower than 140°F (60°C) then look at part “B” and reduce the time by the appropriate factor, enter part “A” again, and find a slightly increased residual oil prediction. If there are other problems such as unflaked cracked soybeans in the feed to the extractor (“C”) or poorly distributed solvent final wash such that not all particles are contacted (“D”) or oil contamination of the solvent (“E”), then add the appropriate values for increased residual oil. In the example, a plant which should operate at 0.52% is more likely to operate at 1.04% residual oil due to problems in all these areas. Management can use this guideline to identify problems, estimate the importance of each, and prioritize improvements they may wish to make to their plant or operating methods.

Keep in mind that this chart is intended to be used with correctly conditioned seed of good quality, and is only applicable with a shallow bed extractor. Deeper bed machines will usually require more time for several good reasons; a major one is the added time for final drainage through a deeper bed to reach a reasonably uniform and low hexane content, appropriate for entry to the DT.

A Word about Safety and Training

I have not concentrated on safety in this paper. However, safety is an important aspect in extraction plants due to the use of several chemicals, the flammability of hexane, the physical requirements of grain storage and handling, and the operation and maintenance of machinery of all sizes and descriptions. Most accidental injuries appear to be from mechanical causes such as falls and failure to lock-out machines being maintained. Fire or explosion, however, can be very sudden and very injurious if precautions are not observed. There are many codes and standards regarding safety and other topics essential to proper operations. For example, please obtain and read a copy of NFPA 36 “Solvent Extraction Plants” (illustrated). This is a national fire safety ‘standard’ in the USA and has been edited and improved regularly since 1957. Other standards exist internationally, for example the ATEX directives and standards in Europe.

Please note that all of the above information is very general and cannot be applied in any specific plant or situation until verified and adapted by the plant management.

Last but not least is the most important feature of a plant – the people. People with a healthy attitude, good training, honesty, and generosity, acting within a well-supervised system, are essential to the safety and efficiency of any business or industrial process.

References and Footnotes

1. Table 01: Major Oilseeds: World Supply and Distribution (Commodity View). USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, October 12, 2011.
2. NFPA 36 Standard for Solvent Extraction Plants, 2009 Edition, adapted from Table B-2, p.19.
3. Joe Givens, Robert Jordheim and George Anderson, tests performed at a 750 ton per day soybean extraction plant in Dawson, Minnesota, March 10, 1977.
4. Depmer, W. Preparation of soybeans and their effect on solvent-extraction, translated fromFette, Seifen, Anstrichmittel, Die Ernaerungsindustrie ( Industrieverlag Von Hernhaussen K.G. Hamburg), 65, 456-469 (1963).
5. Williams, M.A. Obtaining oils and fats from source materials. Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products, Fifth Edition, pp. 106-138 (John Wiley & Sons, New York) (1996).
6. Karnofsky, G. Design of Oilseed Extractors. 1. Oil Extraction. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 63, 1011-1014 (1986).
7. Karnofsky, G. Design of Oilseed Extractors. 1. Oil Extraction (Supplement). J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 64, 1533-1536 (1987).
8. George Anderson, Bill Stevenson and Irwin Irwin. The lower curve and upper curve are both generated by proprietary software of Crown Iron Works Company, developed from a review of theories and from records of field observations.
9. Copyright Crown Iron Works Company, 2011. Use of an accurate reproduction is permitted if the copyright notice is included.

Full Name: n-Pentane

Category: Organic > High Purity Compounds > Alkanes

Synonym: Pentane
Linear Formula: CH3(CH2)3CH3
Molecular Weight: 72.15
CAS Number: 109-66-0

Shelf Life on Ship Date: 24 Months – Store in a freezer at -18°C or below

Certification: ISO 9001 ✔

We are specialists in manufacturing of the following product lines:

n-Pentane, 95%, 99%, CAS 109-66-0
Isopentane, 95%, 99%, CAS #: 78-78-4
n-Hexane, 60%, 80%, 95%, 99%, CAS 110-54-3
Isohexane, 99%, CAS Number 107-83-5, CAS Number 92112-69-1
n-Heptane, 99%, CAS 142-82-5
n-Octane, 99%, CAS Number: 111-65-9
D20 Solvent, 111-65-9
Pentane Blend Specifications:
n-Pentane 80% – Isopentane 20%
n-Pentane, 60% – Isopentane, 40%
n-Pentane 70% – Isopentane 30%
Customized Ratios of Pentane Blends available

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PBAT Resin, CAS No. 55231-08-8
PBS Resin, CAS No. 25777-14-4

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Our Quality

Each standard is rigorously tested and analyzed as a finished product and accompanied with a certificate of analysis and material safety data documentation. Our products are manufactured under quality management system which has been introduced to the requirements of ISO 17034:2016 ‘General Requirements for the Competence of Reference Materials Producers’certifies that we meet every requirement for the competence in the very specific field of Reference Material Production

• Blowing agent
  Blowing agent plays a fundamental role in the production of polystyrene (PS), polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulations foam. A small quantity of blowing agent indirectly provides important performance characteristics to these foams as great thermal insulation properties.
• Pentane :
  Pentane is a hydrocarbon solvent coming directly from the natural gas and crude oil. The product is separated from the other alkanes in an oil refinery by fractional distillation and isomerisation. This gas is one of the most volatile liquid alkane at ambient temperature. It is also used as a solvent that can evaporate quickly and easily.

Polystyrene is a versatile plastic used to make a wide variety of consumer products. As a hard, solid plastic, it is often used in products that require clarity, such as food packaging and laboratory ware. When combined with various colorants, additives or other plastics, polystyrene is used to make appliances, electronics, automobile parts, toys, gardening pots and equipment and more.

Polystyrene also is made into a foam material, called expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XPS), which is valued for its insulating and cushioning properties. Foam polystyrene can be more than 95 percent air and is widely used to make home and appliance insulation, lightweight protective packaging, surfboards, foodservice and food packaging, automobile parts, roadway and roadbank stabilization systems and more.

Polystyrene is made by stringing together, or polymerizing, styrene, a building-block chemical used in the manufacture of many products. Styrene also occurs naturally in foods such as strawberries, cinnamon, coffee and beef.

Uses & Benefits
Polystyrene in Appliances
Refrigerators, air conditioners, ovens, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, blenders – these and other appliances often are made with polystyrene (solid and foam) because it is inert (doesn’t react with other materials), cost-effective and long-lasting.

Polystyrene in Automotive
Polystyrene (solid and foam) is used to make many car parts, including knobs, instrument panels, trim, energy absorbing door panels and sound dampening foam. Foam polystyrene also is widely used in child protective seats.

Polystyrene in Electronics
Polystyrene is used for the housing and other parts for televisions, computers and all types of IT equipment, where the combination of form, function and aesthetics are essential.

Polystyrene in Foodservice
Polystyrene foodservice packaging typically insulates better, keeps food fresher longer and costs less than alternatives.

Polystyrene in Insulation
Lightweight polystyrene foam provides excellent thermal insulation in numerous applications, such as building walls and roofing, refrigerators and freezers, and industrial cold storage facilities. Polystyrene insulation is inert, durable and resistant to water damage.

Polystyrene in Medical
Due to its clarity and ease of sterilization, polystyrene is used for a wide range of medical applications, including tissue culture trays, test tubes, petri dishes, diagnostic components, housings for test kits and medical devices.

Polystyrene in Packaging
Polystyrene (solid and foam) is widely used to protect consumer products. CD and DVD cases, foam packaging peanuts for shipping, food packaging, meat/poultry trays and egg cartons typically are made with polystyrene to protect against damage or spoilage.

Safety Information
In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) strictly regulates all food packaging materials, including polystyrene. All food packaging – glass, aluminum, paper and plastics (such as polystyrene) – contains substances that can “migrate” in very tiny amounts to foods or beverages. That’s one of the reasons why FDA regulates food packaging in the first place – to be confident that the amount of substances that might actually migrate is safe.

For every material used in food contact, there must be sufficient scientific information to demonstrate that its use is safe. FDA’s safety evaluations focus on three factors:

Material(s) used in the packaging,
Cumulative exposure to substances that may migrate into foods and beverages, and
Safe levels of that exposure.
Tiny amounts of styrene may remain in polystyrene following manufacture, so FDA has evaluated both the safety of the food contact material itself (polystyrene) and the safety of the substance that may migrate (styrene). The result of these evaluations: FDA for decades has determined that polystyrene is safe for use in contact with food.

The U.S. National Toxicology Program Director Dr. Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., was quoted widely in Associated Press reports in June 2011: “Let me put your mind at ease right away about Styrofoam … [the levels of styrene from polystyrene containers] are hundreds if not thousands of times lower than have occurred in the occupational setting…In finished products, certainly styrene is not an issue.”

In 2013, the Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group provided updated styrene migration data to FDA. The data show that current exposures to styrene from the use of polystyrene food contact products remain extremely low, with the estimated daily intake calculated at 6.6 micrograms per person per day. This is more than 10,000 times below the safety limit set by FDA (FDA’s acceptable daily intake value of styrene is calculated to be 90,000 micrograms per person per day).

Polystyrene Safety in Food Packaging
FDA has for decades stated that polystyrene is safe for use in contact with food. The European Commission/European Food Safety Authority and other regulatory agencies have reached similar conclusions.
Polystyrene foodservice packaging can help reduce food-borne illness in homes, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, cafeterias and restaurants.
Polystyrene foodservice packaging is preferred by the foodservice industry because it works better than alternatives. Hot foods stay hot, cold foods stay cold, and fresh foods stay fresh. From organic salads to spicy chili, polystyrene packaging offers more convenience and dining enjoyment for people on the go.
Polystyrene foodservice packaging generally is more economical – wholesale costs can be up to five times less than paper-based or reusable counterparts (reusable containers require extra equipment, labor, water, electricity, detergent, etc.).
Commonly used cups, plates and sandwich containers made of foam polystyrene use significantly less energy and water than comparable paper-based or corn-based alternatives, primarily due to foam polystyrene’s much lower weight.

Answering Questions
What do public health organizations say about polystyrene foodservice packaging?
Public health officials encourage the use of sanitary, single-use foodservice packaging (such as polystyrene) in appropriate settings. Single-use foodservice packaging can help reduce food-borne illness in homes, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, cafeterias and restaurants.

What do regulatory agencies say about the safety of polystyrene foodservice packaging?
In the United States, FDA strictly regulates all food packaging materials, including polystyrene. FDA has for decades stated that polystyrene is safe for use in contact with food. The European Commission/European Food Safety Authority and other regulatory agencies have reached similar conclusions.

What do scientific experts say about the safety of polystyrene foodservice packaging?
From 1999 to 2002, a 12-member international expert panel selected by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis conducted a comprehensive review of potential health risks associated with workplace and environmental exposure to styrene.

The scientists reviewed all of the published data on the quantity of styrene contributed to the diet due to migration from food contact packaging. The scientists concluded that there is no cause for concern from exposure to styrene from food or from polystyrene used in food contact applications, such as packaging and foodservice containers.

Is it common for substances from packaging to “migrate” into food?
All packaging – glass, aluminum, paper and plastics (such as polystyrene) – contains substances that can “migrate” in very tiny amounts to foods or beverages. That’s one of the reasons why FDA regulates food packaging in the first place – to be confident that the amount of substances that might actually migrate is safe.

Test data submitted to FDA indicated that the migration of styrene from polystyrene foodservice products is tiny and expected to be significantly below the safety limits set by FDA itself – 10,000 times less than FDA’s acceptable daily intake level.

Where does styrene come from?
Styrene occurs naturally in many foods and beverages. Its chemical structure is similar to cinnamic aldehyde, the chemical component that creates cinnamon’s flavor. Styrene also is manufactured as a building block for materials used to make automobiles, electronics, boats, recreational vehicles, toys and countless other consumer products.

How can people come into contact with styrene?
People can come into contact with styrene from the small amounts that may be present in air (primarily from automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke) and in foods and packaging. Styrene is naturally present in many foods, such as cinnamon, beef, coffee beans, peanuts, wheat, oats, strawberries and peaches. In addition, FDA has approved styrene as a food additive – it can be added in small amounts to baked goods, frozen dairy products, candy, gelatins, puddings and other food.

What is Styrofoam made of?
Many people incorrectly use the name STYROFOAM® to refer to polystyrene in food service; STYROFOAM® is a registered trademark of The Dow Chemical Company that refers to its branded building material products.

What are styrene uses?
For more than 70 years, styrene has been used as a chemical building block to make the materials used in a wide variety of finished consumer products, such as food containers, rubber tires, building insulation, carpet backing and boat hulls, surfboards, residential kitchen countertops, bathtubs and shower enclosures.

What is the difference between styrene and polystyrene?
The difference is chemistry. Styrene is a liquid that can be chemically linked to create polystyrene, a solid plastic that displays different properties. Polystyrene is used to make a variety of consumer products, such as foodservice containers, cushioning for shipping delicate electronics and insulation.

What is extruded polystyrene foam?
Extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam is a rigid insulation that has also formed with polystyrene polymer, but manufactured using an extrusion process. This type of insulation can significantly reduce a building’s energy use and help control indoor temperature.

What’s the difference between styrene and polystyrene? Although the names sound familiar, styrene and polystyrene are different and have completely different properties.

Styrene is a liquid that can be chemically linked to create polystyrene, a solid plastic that displays different properties. Polystyrene is used to make a variety of consumer products, such as foodservice containers, cushioning for shipping delicate electronics and insulation.

Polystyrene’s safety profile is so strong that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the safety of polystyrene used in direct contact with foods and beverages – and for 50 years, has confirmed polystyrene to be safe for this use

Two different chemistries

Polystyrene
The Basics: When styrene molecules are linked together into a polymer, polystyrene is created. Polystyrene is an inert plastic that can be used to make many products, such as disposable plates, cups and other foodservice packaging products.
How It’s Used: Polystyrene is used in many applications. One application is foodservice – polystyrene foam is a clean and affordable option to insulate food and to keep it fresher for a longer period of time. Polystyrene foam is a lightweight material, about 95 percent air, with good insulation properties. It is used in many types of products, such as cups that keep your beverages hot or cold. Polystyrene foam also is used in cushioning or protective packaging that helps keep computers and appliances safe during shipping. Many people incorrectly use the name STYROFOAM® to refer to polystyrene in food service; STYROFOAM® is a registered trademark of The Dow Chemical Company that refers to its branded building material products.
Styrene
The Basics: Styrene is a clear, colorless liquid that is a component of materials used to make thousands of everyday products. Styrene occurs naturally in many foods, such as cinnamon, beef, coffee beans, peanuts, wheat, oats, strawberries and peaches. Synthetic styrene, which is chemically identical to naturally occurring styrene, is manufactured as a chemical building block for materials used to make packaging, insulation, automobiles, electronics, boats and recreational vehicles.
How It’s Used: For more than 70 years, styrene has been used as a chemical building block to make the materials used in a wide variety of finished consumer products, such as food containers, rubber tires, building insulation, carpet backing and boat hulls, surfboards, residential kitchen countertops, bathtubs and shower enclosures. Styrene is not only polymerized to make polystyrene plastic, but also to make the ABS plastic used in children’s building bricks, and SBR rubber used to make tires, along with many other applications.

Biodegradable mulch films are an alternative to polyethylene films used in agriculture for weed control, improving crop productivity. This change could minimize the residue production and costs related to the final disposal.

Soil biodegradable mulch films composed of the polyester polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PBAT) are being increasingly used in agriculture. Analytical methods to quantify PBAT in field soils are needed to assess its soil occurrence and fate. Here, we report an analytical method for PBAT in soils that couples Soxhlet extraction or accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) with quantitative protonnuclear magnetic resonance (q-1H NMR) spectroscopy detection. The 1H NMR peak areas of aromatic PBAT protons increased linearly with PBAT concentrations dissolved in deuterated chloroform (CDCl3), demonstrating accurate quantitation of PBAT by q-1H NMR. Spike-recovery experiments involving PBAT addition to model sorbents and soils showed increased PBAT extraction efficiencies into chloroform (CHCl3) with methanol (MeOH) as cosolvent, consistent with MeOH competitively displacing PBAT from H-bond donating sites on mineral surfaces. Systematic variations in solvent composition and temperatures in ASE revealed quantitative PBAT extraction from soil with 90/10 volume % CHCl3/MeOH at 110-120 °C. Both Soxhlet extraction and ASE resulted in the complete recovery of PBAT added to a total of seven agricultural soils covering a range of physicochemical properties, independent of whether PBAT was added to soils dissolved in CHCl3, as film, or as particles. Recovery was also complete for PBAT added to soil in the form of a commercial soil biodegradable mulch film with coextractable polylactic acid (PLA). The presented analytical method enables accurate quantification and biodegradation monitoring of PBAT in agricultural field soils.

Global Mulch Films Industry

Weathering the current pandemic and the looming recession, the global market for Mulch Films is projected to reach US$5. 1 billion by 2027. Intricately linked to food security, the agriculture industry is expected to buck the economic pressures posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mulches are applied to the surface of the soil, and around flower beds, trees, and paths, for preventing soil erosion from slopes, and in growing areas for vegetable and flower crops. Layers of mulch are normally applied 2 inches or more deep. Depending on their intended use, mulches are applied at several times during the year. Towards the start of the cultivation season, mulches are initially applied for warming the soil by preventing loss of heat during the night. The prevention of heat loss, while enabling early transplanting and seeding of certain crops, encourages faster growth. Plastic mulch, which is used by large-scale commercial farms, is spread across the field either in the form a standalone plastic mulch layer or with the help of a tractor. Plastic mulch generally forms a part of a high-end mechanical process, in which raised beds covered with plastic are created, and seedlings transplanted into the soil through holes in made the plastic. Since the plastic mulch is impervious to water, drip tapes are laid under the mulch for providing drip irrigation. A key trend in the market is the growing preference for biodegradable mulch film. With agriculture contributing to over 20. 4% of global man made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, pressure is mounting on the agricultural sector to minimize its role in climate change. Biodegradable mulch offers several benefits such as eco-friendliness and sustainability when compared to polyethylene (PE) mulch; least impact on soil biological and biogeochemical processes; reduced risk of microbial community changes and functioning via microclimate modification; elimination of labor costs and landfill disposal fees associated with removing and disposing PE mulch; lower environmental burden when compared to on-farm burning and stockpiling issues associated with PE mulches; cost effective, easy application, zero toxic residues in the soil and ensures agro ecosystem sustainability.

Mulch and Mulch Films
Materials Commonly Used as Mulches
Organic Mulches
Colored Mulch
Anaerobic or Sour Mulch
Groundcovers
Polyethylene and Polypropylene Mulch
Biodegradable Mulch
Rising Need to Increase Agricultural Yield Fuels Growth in the
Mulch Films Market
Black Mulch Films Continue to Dominate Mulch Films Market
LLDPE and LDPE Mulch Films Hold an Edge in the Market
Agricultural Farms Lead Applications of Mulch Films
Developing Economies Emerge as Major Regional Markets for Mulch
Films
COVID-19 Impact on Agriculture Industry
Competition
Biodegradable Mulch Film Competitor Market Share Scenario
Worldwide (in %): 2019
Recent Market Activity

MARKET ANALYSIS 

GEOGRAPHIC MARKET ANALYSIS 

UNITED STATES 
Mulch Films Market in the US: An Overview 
Market Analytics 
Table 43: United States Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Projections in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 44: Mulch Films Market in the United States by Type: 
A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 45: United States Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 46: United States Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Projections in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 47: Mulch Films Market in the United States by Element: 
A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 48: United States Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 49: United States Mulch Films Latent Demand Forecasts in 
US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 50: Mulch Films Historic Demand Patterns in the United 
States by Application in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 51: Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown in the United 
States by Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

CANADA 
Table 52: Canadian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 53: Canadian Mulch Films Historic Market Review by Type 
in US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 54: Mulch Films Market in Canada: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Type for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 55: Canadian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 56: Canadian Mulch Films Historic Market Review by 
Element in US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 57: Mulch Films Market in Canada: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Element for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 58: Canadian Mulch Films Market Quantitative Demand 
Analysis in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 59: Mulch Films Market in Canada: Summarization of 
Historic Demand Patterns in US$ Thousand by Application for 
2012-2019 

Table 60: Canadian Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

JAPAN 
Table 61: Japanese Market for Mulch Films: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Type for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 62: Mulch Films Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis 
in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 63: Japanese Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 64: Japanese Market for Mulch Films: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Element for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 65: Mulch Films Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis 
in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 66: Japanese Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 67: Japanese Demand Estimates and Forecasts for Mulch 
Films in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 68: Japanese Mulch Films Market in US$ Thousand by 
Application: 2012-2019 

Table 69: Mulch Films Market Share Shift in Japan by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

CHINA 
Rising Concerns over Plastic Contamination Presents 
Biodegradable Mulch Films as a Suitable Alternative 
Market Analytics 
Table 70: Chinese Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects in US$ 
Thousand by Type for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 71: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in China in US$ 
Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 72: Chinese Mulch Films Market by Type: Percentage 
Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 73: Chinese Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects in US$ 
Thousand by Element for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 74: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in China in US$ 
Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 75: Chinese Mulch Films Market by Element: Percentage 
Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 76: Chinese Demand for Mulch Films in US$ Thousand by 
Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 77: Mulch Films Market Review in China in US$ Thousand by 
Application: 2012-2019 

Table 78: Chinese Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

EUROPE 
Mulch Films Market in Europe: Rising Demand for Healthy Food 
Fuels Growth 
Introduction of New Standards to Assist Market Growth 
Market Analytics 
Table 79: European Mulch Films Market Demand Scenario in US$ 
Thousand by Region/Country: 2020-2027 

Table 80: Mulch Films Market in Europe: A Historic Market 
Perspective in US$ Thousand by Region/Country for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 81: European Mulch Films Market Share Shift by 
Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 82: European Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020-2027 

Table 83: Mulch Films Market in Europe in US$ Thousand by Type: 
A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 84: European Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 85: European Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020-2027 

Table 86: Mulch Films Market in Europe in US$ Thousand by 
Element: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 87: European Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 88: European Mulch Films Addressable Market Opportunity 
in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 89: Mulch Films Market in Europe: Summarization of 
Historic Demand in US$ Thousand by Application for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 90: European Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

FRANCE 
Table 91: Mulch Films Market in France by Type: Estimates and 
Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 92: French Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in US$ 
Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 93: French Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 94: Mulch Films Market in France by Element: Estimates 
and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 95: French Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in US$ 
Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 96: French Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by Element: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 97: Mulch Films Quantitative Demand Analysis in France in 
US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 98: French Mulch Films Historic Market Review in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 99: French Mulch Films Market Share Analysis: A 17-Year 
Perspective by Application for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

GERMANY 
Table 100: Mulch Films Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current 
and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 101: German Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in US$ 
Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 102: German Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 103: Mulch Films Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current 
and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 104: German Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in US$ 
Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 105: German Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 106: Mulch Films Market in Germany: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Application for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 107: German Mulch Films Market in Retrospect in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 108: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in Germany by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

ITALY 
Table 109: Italian Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects in US$ 
Thousand by Type for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 110: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$ 
Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 111: Italian Mulch Films Market by Type: Percentage 
Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 112: Italian Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects in US$ 
Thousand by Element for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 113: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$ 
Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 114: Italian Mulch Films Market by Element: Percentage 
Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 115: Italian Demand for Mulch Films in US$ Thousand by 
Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 116: Mulch Films Market Review in Italy in US$ Thousand 
by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 117: Italian Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

UNITED KINGDOM 
Table 118: United Kingdom Market for Mulch Films: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Type for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 119: Mulch Films Market in the United Kingdom: Historic 
Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 120: United Kingdom Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 121: United Kingdom Market for Mulch Films: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Element for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 122: Mulch Films Market in the United Kingdom: Historic 
Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 123: United Kingdom Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 124: United Kingdom Demand Estimates and Forecasts for 
Mulch Films in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 125: United Kingdom Mulch Films Market in US$ Thousand by 
Application: 2012-2019 

Table 126: Mulch Films Market Share Shift in the United Kingdom 
by Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

SPAIN 
Table 127: Spanish Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 128: Spanish Mulch Films Historic Market Review by Type 
in US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 129: Mulch Films Market in Spain: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Type for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 130: Spanish Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts 
in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 131: Spanish Mulch Films Historic Market Review by 
Element in US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 132: Mulch Films Market in Spain: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Element for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 133: Spanish Mulch Films Market Quantitative Demand 
Analysis in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 134: Mulch Films Market in Spain: Summarization of 
Historic Demand Patterns in US$ Thousand by Application for 
2012-2019 

Table 135: Spanish Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

RUSSIA 
Table 136: Russian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Projections 
in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 137: Mulch Films Market in Russia by Type: A Historic 
Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 138: Russian Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 139: Russian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Projections 
in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 140: Mulch Films Market in Russia by Element: A Historic 
Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 141: Russian Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 142: Russian Mulch Films Latent Demand Forecasts in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 143: Mulch Films Historic Demand Patterns in Russia by 
Application in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 144: Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown in Russia by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

REST OF EUROPE 
Table 145: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020-2027 

Table 146: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Thousand 
by Type: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 147: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 148: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020-2027 

Table 149: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Thousand 
by Element: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 150: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 151: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Addressable Market 
Opportunity in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 152: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Europe: Summarization 
of Historic Demand in US$ Thousand by Application for the 
Period 2012-2019 

Table 153: Rest of Europe Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

ASIA-PACIFIC 
Table 154: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Region/Country: 2020-2027 

Table 155: Mulch Films Market in Asia-Pacific: Historic Market 
Analysis in US$ Thousand by Region/Country for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 156: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 157: Mulch Films Market in Asia-Pacific by Type: 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 158: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in 
US$ Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 159: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 160: Mulch Films Market in Asia-Pacific by Element: 
Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 161: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in 
US$ Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 162: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 163: Mulch Films Quantitative Demand Analysis in 
Asia-Pacific in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 164: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Historic Market Review in 
US$ Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 165: Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share Analysis: 
A 17-Year Perspective by Application for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

AUSTRALIA 
Table 166: Mulch Films Market in Australia: Recent Past, 
Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 167: Australian Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in 
US$ Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 168: Australian Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 169: Mulch Films Market in Australia: Recent Past, 
Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 170: Australian Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in 
US$ Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 171: Australian Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 172: Mulch Films Market in Australia: Annual Sales 
Estimates and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Application for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 173: Australian Mulch Films Market in Retrospect in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 174: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in Australia 
by Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

INDIA 
Use of Plastic and Biodegradable Mulching in India: A Review 
Mulch Films to Contribute Significantly to Sustainable Food 
Security 
Market Analytics 
Table 175: Indian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts in 
US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 176: Indian Mulch Films Historic Market Review by Type in 
US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 177: Mulch Films Market in India: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Type for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 178: Indian Mulch Films Market Estimates and Forecasts in 
US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 179: Indian Mulch Films Historic Market Review by Element 
in US$ Thousand: 2012-2019 

Table 180: Mulch Films Market in India: Percentage Share 
Breakdown of Sales by Element for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 181: Indian Mulch Films Market Quantitative Demand 
Analysis in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 182: Mulch Films Market in India: Summarization of 
Historic Demand Patterns in US$ Thousand by Application for 
2012-2019 

Table 183: Indian Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

SOUTH KOREA 
Table 184: Mulch Films Market in South Korea: Recent Past, 
Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 185: South Korean Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in 
US$ Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 186: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in South Korea 
by Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 187: Mulch Films Market in South Korea: Recent Past, 
Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 188: South Korean Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in 
US$ Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 189: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in South Korea 
by Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 190: Mulch Films Market in South Korea: Recent Past, 
Current and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Application for 
the Period 2020-2027 

Table 191: South Korean Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in 
US$ Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 192: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in South Korea 
by Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

REST OF ASIA-PACIFIC 
Table 193: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for Mulch Films: Annual 
Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Type for the 
Period 2020-2027 

Table 194: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic 
Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 195: Rest of Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share 
Analysis by Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 196: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for Mulch Films: Annual 
Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Thousand by Element for 
the Period 2020-2027 

Table 197: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic 
Sales Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 198: Rest of Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market Share 
Analysis by Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 199: Rest of Asia-Pacific Demand Estimates and Forecasts 
for Mulch Films in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 200: Rest of Asia-Pacific Mulch Films Market in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 201: Mulch Films Market Share Shift in Rest of 
Asia-Pacific by Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

LATIN AMERICA 
Table 202: Latin American Mulch Films Market Trends by 
Region/Country in US$ Thousand: 2020-2027 

Table 203: Mulch Films Market in Latin America in US$ Thousand 
by Region/Country: A Historic Perspective for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 204: Latin American Mulch Films Market Percentage 
Breakdown of Sales by Region/Country: 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 205: Latin American Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects 
in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 206: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in Latin 
America in US$ Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 207: Latin American Mulch Films Market by Type: 
Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 208: Latin American Mulch Films Market Growth Prospects 
in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 209: Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in Latin 
America in US$ Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 210: Latin American Mulch Films Market by Element: 
Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

Table 211: Latin American Demand for Mulch Films in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2020 to 2027 

Table 212: Mulch Films Market Review in Latin America in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 213: Latin American Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

ARGENTINA 
Table 214: Argentinean Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020-2027 

Table 215: Mulch Films Market in Argentina in US$ Thousand by 
Type: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 216: Argentinean Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 217: Argentinean Mulch Films Market Estimates and 
Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020-2027 

Table 218: Mulch Films Market in Argentina in US$ Thousand by 
Element: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019 

Table 219: Argentinean Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 220: Argentinean Mulch Films Addressable Market 
Opportunity in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 221: Mulch Films Market in Argentina: Summarization of 
Historic Demand in US$ Thousand by Application for the Period 
2012-2019 

Table 222: Argentinean Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

BRAZIL 
Table 223: Mulch Films Market in Brazil by Type: Estimates and 
Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 224: Brazilian Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in 
US$ Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 225: Brazilian Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 226: Mulch Films Market in Brazil by Element: Estimates 
and Projections in US$ Thousand for the Period 2020-2027 

Table 227: Brazilian Mulch Films Historic Market Scenario in 
US$ Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 228: Brazilian Mulch Films Market Share Analysis by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 229: Mulch Films Quantitative Demand Analysis in Brazil 
in US$ Thousand by Application: 2020-2027 

Table 230: Brazilian Mulch Films Historic Market Review in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 231: Brazilian Mulch Films Market Share Analysis: 
A 17-Year Perspective by Application for 2012, 2020, and 2027 

MEXICO 
Table 232: Mulch Films Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current 
and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Type for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 233: Mexican Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in US$ 
Thousand by Type: 2012-2019 

Table 234: Mexican Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by Type: 
2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 235: Mulch Films Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current 
and Future Analysis in US$ Thousand by Element for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 236: Mexican Mulch Films Historic Market Analysis in US$ 
Thousand by Element: 2012-2019 

Table 237: Mexican Mulch Films Market Share Breakdown by 
Element: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 238: Mulch Films Market in Mexico: Annual Sales Estimates 
and Forecasts in US$ Thousand by Application for the Period 
2020-2027 

Table 239: Mexican Mulch Films Market in Retrospect in US$ 
Thousand by Application: 2012-2019 

Table 240: Mulch Films Market Share Distribution in Mexico by 
Application: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

REST OF LATIN AMERICA 
Table 241: Rest of Latin America Mulch Films Market Estimates 
and Projections in US$ Thousand by Type: 2020 to 2027 

Table 242: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Latin America by Type: 
A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

Table 243: Rest of Latin America Mulch Films Market Share 
Breakdown by Type: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027 

Table 244: Rest of Latin America Mulch Films Market Estimates 
and Projections in US$ Thousand by Element: 2020 to 2027 

Table 245: Mulch Films Market in Rest of Latin America by 
Element: A Historic Review in US$ Thousand for 2012-2019 

June 1, 2018 is the tenth year for China to implement the plastic restriction order. Can you tell me which countries in the world have implemented the plastic restriction order?
At present, more than 40 countries and regions have made regulations on the use of plastic bags, including three kinds of policies: prohibition, partial prohibition and restricted use.
Plastic reduction policies in Europe and the United States continue to strengthen. The European Union recently announced that it will recycle or reuse plastic packaging by 2030, but most European countries are only at the level of consumers’ voluntary reduction. France’s plastic restriction order was upgraded at the beginning of this year, and all cosmetics containing plastic particles will be taken off the shelves. From 2020, household plastic cotton swabs and disposable plastic tableware will also be banned. At the beginning of this year, the UK proposed to ban plastic bags, bottles, plastic straws and other products within 25 years. In the United States, only California has banned plastic bags, while other cities need to pay for paper or plastic bags.
At present, more than 12 of the 54 countries in Africa have introduced plastic limit policies. Eritrean government banned plastic bags as early as 2005. Other countries include Tanzania (2006), Uganda (2007), Rwanda (2008), Mauritania (2013), Morocco (2016), Senegal (2016), Somaliland (2017), Tanzania (2017) and Kenya (2017). If these countries want to completely ban plastic bags, or ban the manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags, the punishment will be stronger 。
The Asian plastic restriction order is quite effective. In 2002, Bangladesh became the first country in the world to ban plastic bags. Mumbai, India, banned the use of plastic bags less than 0.05mm in thickness in 2016, and Sri Lanka also banned plastic bags, plastic plates and plastic cups. The plastic restriction policies of Southeast Asian countries are different. The government of Rangoon, the capital of Myanmar, banned the manufacture, sale and storage of plastic bags; Malaysia announced in 2017 that the federal region banned the use of general plastic bags. Other regions, such as Japan, have announced that all retail stores will ban the provision of free plastic bags from 2020. In 2008, China banned the provision of free plastic bags, the manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags less than 0.025mm in thickness. The South Korean government decided in 2018 that large supermarkets would ban disposable plastic bags.

A significantly growing interest is to design new biodegradable polymers in order to solve fossil resources and environmental pollution problems associated with conventional plastics. A kind of new biodegradable polymers, aliphatic–aromatic co-polyesters have been researched widely and developed rapidly in recent years, since that can combine excellent biodegradability provided from aliphatic polyesters and good properties from aromatic polyesters. Out of which, poly (butylene-adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) shows the most importance. PBAT has been commercialized by polycondensation reaction of butanediol (BDO), adipic acid (AA) and terephthalic acid (PTA) using general polyester manufacturing technology. And it has been considered to have desirable properties and competitive costs to be applied in many fields. Therefore, this review aims to present an overview on the synthesis, properties and applications of PBAT.

Is PBAT toxic? While PBAT is incredibly biodegradable and will decompose in home compost leaving no toxic residues, it is currently partly derived from petrochemicals, yip, oil. … Interestingly, it is PBAT that is added to make the product degrade quickly enough to meet the home compostability criteria.

What is PBAT and PLA? Biodegradable polymers as poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) are thermoplastics which can be processed using the most conventional polymer processing methods. PLA is high in strength and modulus but brittle, while PBAT is flexible and tough.

Is PBAT biodegradable? Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is a well-known biodegradable plastic. It is a flexible material, and has a high elongation at break, as well as good hydrophilic and processing properties.

What is PBAT material? PBAT (polybutyrate adipate terephthalate) is a biodegradable random copolymer. The co-polyester of adipic acid, 1,4-butanediol and dimethyl terephthalate is available commercially as resin and as compound with PLA or starch. As a “drop-in” polymer, PBAT resembles LDPE in its properties.

In the 21st century, as one of most important materials, conventional plastics have been developed rapidly and utilized widely in varieties of fields because of their excellent comprehensive properties and low costs. Unfortunately, most of these conventional plastics, such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) etc., come from petroleum origin and their wastes cannot be degraded. So the increase in the production and consumption of conventional plastics, as a consequence, results in the increase of oil consumption and serious environmental pollution. Fossil resources and environmental pollution, as the major problems caused by conventional plastics, should be solved for sustainable development in future.

The overall strategy to solve these difficult problems on fossil resources and environmental pollution should be through recycling wasted conventional plastics and using biodegradable plastics together. The serious problems could not be solved by means of conventional plastic recycling alone, because it is not always possible to recover all the used plastics. A considerable amount of wasted plastics are eventually destined to be burnt or buried in land during recycling processes of wasted plastics, whether physical or chemical recycling. In such situation, it is one effective way and beneficial supplement for solving these plastic problems to use biodegradable plastics, compared to plastic recycling. A biodegradable plastic is one that undergoes decomposition due to the action of naturally occurring microorganisms such as fungi, algae and bacteria. Take these into consideration, the necessity of biodegradable plastics can be easily understood that their wastes can be recovered by microorganisms under natural environment. In fact, biodegradable plastics have become increasingly popular all over the world, because biodegradable plastics have been put into effect in solving these plastic problems with their rapid developments and wide applications in recent years.

The market for biodegradable plastics has also shown strong growth during the last two decades. In 2005 the global biodegradable plastics market tonnage was estimated at 94,800 tones and in 2010 the market reached the 214,400 tones, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 17.7% during the period 2005–2010. Packaging (including rigid and flexible packaging, paper coating, and foodservice) consumes about the 39% of the total biodegradable polymer market volumes, followed by loose-fill packaging (about 24%), bags and sacks (21%), fibers (9%), and others (7%). Consequently, there is a strong demand to design and improve biodegradable plastics that are not only biodegradable but also meet the requirements of expected material properties.

To solve the environmental problems and meet the market demand, there is a growing interest in designing new biodegradable polymers which are the foundation of biodegradable plastics. During developing biodegradable polymers, polyesters are a particularly interesting group of polymers.On one hand, aliphatic polyesters have been shown to be easily biodegradable because of their ester bonds in the soft chain, which are sensitive to hydrolysis. Unfortunately, aliphatic polyesters like poly-caprolactone (PCL) and poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), show poor mechanical and thermal properties. On the other hand, aromatic polyesters like Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), exhibit very good physical properties but strong resistance to attack by microorganisms. Therefore, in order to design new polyesters having both satisfactory mechanical properties and desirable biodegradability, some aliphatic-aromatic co-polyesters consisting of aliphatic and aromatic units have been synthesized and researched.

Among numerous aliphatic-aromatic co-polyesters, the most promising and popular one with potential development prospects in a wide range of applications is poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), obtained by poly-condensation between butanediol (BDO), adipic acid (AA) and terephthalic acid (PTA). It has been turn out to be the most appropriate combination, regarding excellent properties and good biodegradability. The commercially available aliphatic-aromatic co-polyester PBAT is list in Table 1. Therefore, the scope of this review is a comprehensive summary of currently available results about the synthesis, properties and applications of PBAT.

Major commercially available Co-polyester PBAT.

Mechanical properties

PBAT shows not only good biodegradability due to the aliphatic unit in the molecule chain, but also excellent mechanical property thanks to the aromatic unit in the molecule chain. Compared to most biodegradable polyesters such as poly (lactic Acid) (PLA) and poly (butylene-co-succinate) (PBS), the mechanical properties of PBAT show more flexible, and are similar to those of low-density PE (LDPE). These mechanical properties make PBAT a very promising biodegradable material for a wide range of potential applications.

The mechanical properties of PBAT.

Application of PBAT

For about past two decades, vast amount of research is being carried in the field of PBAT, which illustrates its significance. However, research and development is just part of a product life cycle. The real product starts when the sciences being applied to a specific application. Thus, the product process introduces a new material into the market. Now the development state of PBAT is under more and more applications into the market. Many products based on PBAT have been applied into many fields such as shopping bags, garbage bags, cutlery and mulch film etc. And out of which, two applications is select to be introduce in the details in this text, one is packaging aimed to the recent market, and the other is mulch film aimed to the future market.

Packaging

Conventional plastic packaging is widely used in a number of consumer goods and garbage collection applications due to its good properties and low cost compared to other packaging materials. In past ten year, around 14 million tons of conventional plastic packaging waste was generated each year, out of which only 1.6 million tons was recovered through recycling and the rest of which ended up in landfills. In efforts to reduce conventional plastic packaging, one of the recovery techniques is composting using the biodegradation process. As a result, a number of biodegradable PBAT-based materials are being commercialized that are compostable. Packaging based on these materials has currently gained great attention in many disciplines because of unique properties when compared to conventional plastic materials. There are a number of commercially available compostable PBAT-based materials that could be further processed to make a package for desired applications. Some of the notable companies that have been developing PBAT-based materials are BASF, Novamont, Junyuan, BIOTECH and KINGFA etc. As one of the world leaders in biodegradable plastics, KINGFA has developed several compostable materials based on PBAT, starch and PLA etc. These materials have found several applications in packaging especially in shopping bags, compost bags etc., as exhibit in. The shopping bags supervised by KINGFA based on Starch-PBAT blends have been widely used in high-level supermarkets in China, which has become a model for the application of biodegradable plastics in China.

Some applications of PBAT based products

Mulch film

Modern agriculture heavily relies on the use of conventional plastic mulch films, because these films can raise crop yields through elevating soil temperatures, conserving soil moisture, controlling weed growth and providing protection against severe weather and pests. The global agricultural film market is predicted to reach an annual volume of 7.5 million tons by 2021, and China uses the most PE mulch film with 1.5 million tons annually. After these PE mulch films have been used up, it is hard to recovery them from agricultural fields completely, due to PE film embrittlement and fragmentation caused by weathering, particularly when thin films are used. Residual PE films enter and subsequently accumulate in agricultural soils, as results, which decrease soil productivity by blocking water infiltration, impeding soil gas exchange, constraining root growth, and altering soil microbial community structures. A promising approach to overcome the accumulation of residual PE mulch films in soils is to replace the conventional with biodegradable mulch films composed of polymers designed to be degradable by soil microorganisms. Biodegradable mulch films placed in the soil are susceptible to ageing and degradation during their useful lifetime, so they need to have some specific properties. PBAT based mulch films have been developed by KINGFA to meet agricultural requirements, as exhibit in. When applied in soil, PBAT based mulch films can be little affect by water, high temperatures and UV radiation during their useful lifetime and can be biodegradable completely after their useful lifetime. The agricultural films manufactured by KINGFA and Junyuan based on PBAT/PLA/Nano-particles composites have been applied and achieved positive results in many regions and crops in China, which build a good foundation for the further developments in China.

Conclusions

The indiscriminate use of conventional plastics has brought about significant environmental problems, which has led to increased interest in biodegradable plastics, especially PBAT based biodegradable plastics that can offer a number of benefits in environmental conservation due to their biodegradability. So the important issues about PBAT such as synthesis, properties, composites and applications are discussed in this review. PBAT can be easily synthesized using conventional polyester manufacturing technology, which make it can be possible to obtain sufficient capacity for PBAT in a short term. Since PBAT shows not only good biodegradability but also excellent properties, PBAT can be applied in many fields, especially in package and mulch film application. So PBAT is considered to be one of the most promising biodegradable polyesters.

In the future, conversion of biomass components into PBAT is one of the promising and economical techniques to overcome fossil fuel crisis. Firstly, bio-based BDO has been obtained through industrial biological fermentation to replace of petrochemical BDO in PBAT directly. Secondly, sebacic acid, as a substitute of AA, coming from castor oil has been used as monomer to prepare poly (butylene sebacinate-co-butyleneterephthalate) (PBSeT) co-polyesters. Finally, 2, 5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) has been regarded as one of the most high-potential bio-based aromatic monomers. It is a perfect bio-based alternative to the petroleum-based PTA. Hence, it is foreseeable that whole bio-based aliphatic-aromatic co-polyesters will be formed in a few years.

PBAT has excellent mechanical performance, almost same as PP and ABS, good heat resistance and outstanding process ability allows it to be variously processed on conventional blown film plants.
Our PBAT is completely degradable according to various international standards and regulations like European standard EN 13432 and American Standard ASTM 6400, which will be eventually biodegraded to carbon dioxide, water and biomass when metabolized in the soil or degradable under standard conditions. Our resins are also certified by Ok Compost, BPI, ABAM, JBPA, FDA, EU Food Contact regulations, etc.
TECHICAL PROPERTIES
Chemical Name:Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)
Molecular formula:H-(O-(CH2)4-O-CO-(CH2)4-CO-)n-(O-(CH2)4-O-CO-C6H4- CO-)m-H
INTRODUCTION
CAS NO: Color:
Raw material: Application:
55231-08-8
Natural white
BDO (1,4-butanediol), PTA (terephthalic acid) Adipic Acid
shopping bags mulching films, paper coating,labels,other packaging materials

MAX THICKNESS OF FILM:
61μm
PACKAGE:
25kg aluminum bag, each 20’ container can load 17mt 800kg aluminum big bag, each 20’ container can load 16mt

STORAGE:
ISO 1183 1.21
ISO 1133 ISO 11357
2.5~4.5 116~122
ISO 306 ≥80 ISO 527 ≥25 ISO 527 ≥400
≤0.06
Temperatures during transportation and storage should not exceed 70 oC. Keep resin in dry and ventilated warehouse to prevent moisture. Avoid contacting with soil, water and sludge, and no exposure to direct sunlight and extreme temperature. The maximum shelf life is 2 years in ambient temperature of 23oC if the package has been tightly sealed.
DRYING:
It is recommended to pre-dry the material prior to getting the best processing performance. If the moisture of the resin isless than 0.05% pre-drying may not be needed.
Typical drying conditions:2 hours at 80oC (175oF).
PROCESSING GUIDE:
TH801T is not suitable for direct film blowing, it is suggested to add slip additive like SiO2 or CaCO3, it can also be blended with starch, PLA, PHA, cellulous etc. Normally the extrusion temperature is 140oC -170oC which depends on formula and processing machine, it is important to make sure the blowing machine starts from the lowest temperature. If the blowing performance is not optimized it is recommended to increase the temperature by 5o C.

PBAT, PBAT #Compounds, PBAT #Resin Composition, Polylactic Acid (#PLA), #PBS,

Biopolymers #Compostable Pakaging #Bioplastics

At present, domestic pentane production technology mainly comes from Tianjin University and Beijing Research Institute of chemical industry. The main raw materials are light hydrocarbon in oil field, topping oil in crude oil pretreatment unit, light naphtha in hydrogenation unit, mixed hydrocarbon after reforming and hydrogenation, C5 in refinery gas separation unit and C5 fraction from cracking by-product of ethylene unit. It can also be obtained by separation and refining of mixed C5 after C5 etherification, or by hydrogenation of cyclopentadiene.
The C5 fraction obtained from straight run gasoline, natural gas condensate, hydrocracking tail oil and reforming gasoline is mainly obtained from pentane separation column and isopentane column by high-efficiency distillation. The main process flow is as follows (taking natural gas condensate as an example): it is heated to 55 ℃ in the preheater before entering the debutanizer. The operating pressure of the debutanizer is 0.34 MPa. Propane and butane fraction are taken out from the top of the tower (the top temperature is 48 ℃), part of the top condensate is used as reflux liquid, and the excess condensate is heated to 76 ℃ through the heat exchanger before entering the depropanizer. The operating pressure of depropanizer is 2 MPa. Propane is removed from the top of depropanizer (the top temperature is 50 ℃) and butane is removed from the bottom of depropanizer. The gasoline from the debutanizer kettle enters the depentanizer. The number of depentanizer plates is 30, the operating pressure is 2.2 MPa, the reflux ratio is 1.5, and the overhead fraction is condensed and then enters the isopentane separator. The number of plates of isopentane separator is 60-80, the top temperature is 58 ℃, the reflux ratio is 10.0, and the operating pressure is 0.2 MPa. The purity of the distillate from the top of the tower is 95% isopentane, and the distillate from the bottom of the tower is 90% n-pentane.

Pentane and other products can be separated from mixed C5 separated from FCC LPG and ethylene units. The main process is hydrogenation under the condition of new Ziegler type catalyst. The reaction temperature is 60-80 ℃, and the pressure is 0.8-1.0 MPa. After hydrogenation, C5 can be separated into isopentane, n-pentane and cyclopentane by distillation

Solvent carrier for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)

N-pentane is mainly used as carrier solvent for LLDPE. China’s LLDPE production began in the 1960s. By the end of 2000, with the rapid development of China’s light industry and plastic industry, the consumption of LLDPE has increased rapidly. Many enterprises have built more than 10 sets of large-scale and technologically advanced production units by introducing foreign technology and equipment, and the production capacity has reached 1.05 MT / A. According to the process requirements of products, the proportion of n-pentane per ton of LLDPE is generally 0.3%. Therefore, the annual consumption of n-pentane in LLDPE field is about 3 KT.

Puffing agent for cut tobacco

Isopentane was used as solvent for tobacco expansion. The main function of tobacco puffing is to reduce the consumption of tobacco leaves, reduce the tar and nicotine content of cigarettes, and improve the quality of tobacco leaves. The puffing technology can save 2.5-3.0 kg of cut tobacco per box of cigarettes (about 50 kg cut tobacco), and effectively improve the quality of cut tobacco. Imperial Tobacco has developed IMPEX tobacco expansion technology and equipment with isopentane as solvent to replace CFC (Freon) tobacco expansion system. Since 1995, IMPEX system has been used to expand cut tobacco for cigar. Compared with CO2 expansion system, this system has higher expansion rate and higher filling capacity of tobacco.
Among 179 cigarette factories in China, 57 use CFC-11 expansion process, and the consumption of CFC-11 in 1998 was 1 003 t. At present, some large-scale tobacco enterprises in China use liquid CO2 to expand instead of CFC-11. According to the substitution situation of foreign tobacco industry, isopentane as expansion agent has a certain market prospect in tobacco expansion technology.

Petroleum is actually a natural substance formed when large quantities of dead organisms, mostly zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both intense heat and pressure. Petroleum is separated using a technique called fractional distillation, i.e. separation of a liquid mixture into fractions differing in boiling point by means of distillation. Some fractions are taken off and formed into plastics, tyres etc. and others are used to make PBAT. Here’s the crucial bit – it is what is done to them at this point that determines how they then behave ie. whether or not they will break down quickly or take an age – like plastic. Traditional plastic is engineered to last as long as possible, but PBAT is engineered to be fully biodegradable when composted. This is due to the presence of butylene adipate groups.

In short, just because PBAT is derived from petroleum, doesn’t mean it biodegrades the same way as traditional plastics and synthetics, in fact quite the opposite! It actually biodegrades quicker and better than a corn cob or avocado skin!