Total Lumicene Supertough® for weight reduction in packaging
Total Lumicene® grass yarn for synthetic turf,
Excell-Cap® brand polymers for the caps and
a water-saving approach to sport field construction
closures market for weight reduction
“T
he K-Fair is an excellent opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to our customers,” declared Mr Bontemps. “While technical developments and achievements are clearly important in our business, we recognise that our customers and their success is the most critical factor to our own success. Our regional and local presence allows us to work closely with them to understand their specific needs and, in partnership with them, to build solutions over time that add value.
“Our distinct offer is that we can provide solutions which are tailor-made for each customer’s needs. Our customers and their success is a critical factor to our success.” Total’s polymers business unit employs specialist teams in three zones – America, Asia/ Middle East and Europe – to increase their proximity to key global markets and customers. Its industrial production facilities are located in China, France, Belgium, Spain, the US, South Korea and Qatar. The company has a state-of-the-art R&D centre in Feluy, Belgium and supporting facilities in Europe, the US and China, as well as 20 R&D partnerships with universities and promising young companies across the three continents. With the cumulative experience of its founding heritage companies, the current polymers business is backed by six decades of expertise in the field and is a significant entity within Total’s Refining & Chemicals branch.
Driving a sustainable polymers business forward Total’s three families of polymers – polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS) and polypropylene (PP) – cover more than 60 per cent of the world market for plastics. Its extensive portfolio serves the vast majority of world markets and applications. “Historically,” stated Xavier Bontemps, “Total has been a pioneer in the world of polymers with novel patents and developments in key areas of expertise, such as catalysis, processes and products. Today, we leverage and apply those developments through our own production and product portfolio as well as through licenses of select PE and PS technologies, including multi-stage processes and metallocene catalysts.”
Mr Bontemps explained: “Our polymers business is backed by a fully integrated industrial Group. This is a significant advantage compared to our competitors. We are the world’s fourth-ranked oil and gas company, a global leader in solar energy and oriented towards the future.”
Examples of successful innovations Total’s new generation of metallocene polyolefins is defined by its Lumicene® brand, an advanced polymer developed by the company to provide next-generation performance for both PE and PP grades in a variety of applications. Total’s Lumicene Supertough® brand of PE products have been developed to allow customers to produce films which are 25 per cent thinner and have lower energy consumption, yet are just as strong as existing thicker films. Total has also developed a number of new products for the caps and closures market; with the Excell-Cap® brand, manufacturers can produce caps that require substantially less raw material. For the insulation market, Total developed TotalExcell-R®, an enhanced grey Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) that provides exceptional thermal resistance (‘R’ values). “We are one of the few majors to continue with polystyrene (PS) developments and innovations that are applied on an industrial scale,” acknowledged Mr Bontemps. “As a result, we are able to offer new and novel ‘step-changes’ in our products that significantly enhance transparency, impact resistance, stress crack resistance and gloss. Currently, Total’s polystyrene sales represent 25 per cent of the total global market demand.”
Delivering on real solutions for a circular economy “The catalyst and polymerisation technologies developed by Total in the past years are the building blocks of our new (high-density polyethylene) Circular Compound product range,” explained Xavier Bontemps. “These compounds containing recycled material outperform virgin materials and actively contribute to the circular economy. In addition, we will soon be offering a new range of PS and PLA bio-compounds that are unique to the market. In summary, along with these developments, we are one of the few companies to offer a complete portfolio of PP, PE and PS products for the plastics markets. Our distinct offer is that we can provide solutions which are tailor-made for each customer’s needs.” Packaging Europe | 171 |