Waterborne coatings case study with Maxemul surfactants

Many shipping containers and container ships are coated using solvent borne epoxy coatings as they can have faster drying times and be less affected by environmental conditions, such as a temperature and humidity, whilst curing. However, they also contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are toxic to both the environment and the people applying the paint.

Maxemul is a polymeric surfactant used as an emulsifier to produce water borne coatings with the same coating resin. By converting to a water borne paint using as little as wt 5% of Maxemul in the resin emulsion reduces VOC emission levels in the paint formulation by 48%, whilst maintaining the high performance of the coating. Painting a whole cargo container ship using this paint saves the equivalent amount of CO2 as planting 130 trees. This brings an additional environmental benefit and supports epoxy coating manufacturers to innovate under increasingly stringent VOC regulations.