06.06.23
Beckers adapted the use of UV/EB curing technology for the coil coating industry and has been developing and testing suitable paint formulations since 2005 as the application technology itself has developed.
Beckers’ first coil coating radiation curing system has been launched earlier in 2023 and its LCA study highlighted significant sustainability benefits for UV/EB coil coating compared with conventional techniques.
The LCAs excluded steel manufacturing, the end use of the coil coated product and its end of life as these life cycle phases are outside of Beckers’ sphere of influence. However, minimizing the impact of coil coating formulations and their application is becoming increasingly important for our customers as they work to significantly decarbonize primary steel and aluminum production and respond to the challenges and requirements placed on them by legislation such as the EU Green Deal.
The LCAs were made as comparable as possible by simulating the same coating system, thickness and coil coating line speed, all from cradle to coil coating customer’s gate.
“The LCAs highlighted that UV/EB coil coating significantly reduces CO2e emissions and enhances resource efficiency compared with conventional coil coating techniques,” said James Maxted, global product sustainability director. “Sustainability-related savings are primarily realised from the cold-cure UV/EB process that does not require natural gas and can instead use electricity from renewable sources. UV/EB curing also requires much less paint per square metre than standard solvent-based formulations which carry significant quantities of solvents that are necessary to facilitate application, but which are removed in the ovens and combusted via Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers (RTO).”
Real-world industrial coil coating line data from ECCA and some Coil Coaters was used for standard coating technologies, and UV/EB data was sourced from our own development work and from a specialized UV/EB equipment manufacturer. All the data and the LCAs were scrutinised by independent third- party LCA experts.
“As LCAs are only as good as the data you put in it, we worked to obtain the most accurate and reliable primary data sources we could for the analyses,” said Maxted. “Our LCAs were also conducted according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, which stipulate that studies are critically reviewed by third parties. We contracted three external LCA experts to verify our assessments to ensure they were able to provide the best possible comparison of the different coil coating technologies.”
The LCAs show that UV/EB curing has the potential to revolutionize the coil coating industry by significantly reducing the environmental impact of the coating process.
“All customers are working to decarbonize their value chain and our LCAs highlight that UV/EB could be an important step on their journey towards decarbonization,” said Maxted. “UV/EB curing has other additional benefits, such as enabling customers to more than halve the length of their coil coating lines while reducing coating line complexity.”
Beckers’ first coil coating radiation curing system has been launched earlier in 2023 and its LCA study highlighted significant sustainability benefits for UV/EB coil coating compared with conventional techniques.
Significant LCA CO2e Savings
Beckers conducted LCAs for conventional solvent-borne and water-based coil coating techniques, as well as the new UV/EB technology. The assessments covered a cradle to customer gate perspective – including the manufacture of the coating, its component raw materials and the customer’s coil coating process for each coating technique.The LCAs excluded steel manufacturing, the end use of the coil coated product and its end of life as these life cycle phases are outside of Beckers’ sphere of influence. However, minimizing the impact of coil coating formulations and their application is becoming increasingly important for our customers as they work to significantly decarbonize primary steel and aluminum production and respond to the challenges and requirements placed on them by legislation such as the EU Green Deal.
The LCAs were made as comparable as possible by simulating the same coating system, thickness and coil coating line speed, all from cradle to coil coating customer’s gate.
“The LCAs highlighted that UV/EB coil coating significantly reduces CO2e emissions and enhances resource efficiency compared with conventional coil coating techniques,” said James Maxted, global product sustainability director. “Sustainability-related savings are primarily realised from the cold-cure UV/EB process that does not require natural gas and can instead use electricity from renewable sources. UV/EB curing also requires much less paint per square metre than standard solvent-based formulations which carry significant quantities of solvents that are necessary to facilitate application, but which are removed in the ovens and combusted via Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers (RTO).”
Accurate and Credible LCAs
As this is the first time a comparable LCA study of three different coil coating application processes has been conducted, the quality of the data and credibility of the analyses were essential.Real-world industrial coil coating line data from ECCA and some Coil Coaters was used for standard coating technologies, and UV/EB data was sourced from our own development work and from a specialized UV/EB equipment manufacturer. All the data and the LCAs were scrutinised by independent third- party LCA experts.
“As LCAs are only as good as the data you put in it, we worked to obtain the most accurate and reliable primary data sources we could for the analyses,” said Maxted. “Our LCAs were also conducted according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, which stipulate that studies are critically reviewed by third parties. We contracted three external LCA experts to verify our assessments to ensure they were able to provide the best possible comparison of the different coil coating technologies.”
The LCAs show that UV/EB curing has the potential to revolutionize the coil coating industry by significantly reducing the environmental impact of the coating process.
“All customers are working to decarbonize their value chain and our LCAs highlight that UV/EB could be an important step on their journey towards decarbonization,” said Maxted. “UV/EB curing has other additional benefits, such as enabling customers to more than halve the length of their coil coating lines while reducing coating line complexity.”
