Insights from David Dominguez, Briolf: The future of water-based coatings
David Dominguez, Strategic Planning Director at Briolf, spoke with our European Coatings editor, Bettina Hoffmann, about the future developments and regulatory challenges in water-based coatings until 2030.
What significant developments do you expect in water-based coatings until 2030?
Dominguez: The whole industry is now driven by two main issues that are two sides of the same coin. Regulatory and legal requirements on the one hand, and the growing trend of customers, users and society as a whole are demanding more sustainable products on the other. In this sense, there are sectors or industries where the use of water-borne products has a stronger position than others. For example, automotive refinish coatings and the 2007 VOC emissions regulation forced the entire European market to switch to water-borne paints a few years ago. Decorative paints are also predominantly water-borne. But there are still many industrial applications where solvent-based coatings dominate. The coatings industry, including paint manufacturers of course, but also raw material suppliers, needs to invest in developing better water-borne solutions where the market still feels that solventborne is clearly superior.
One such opportunity is the use of clearcoats in markets such as automotive refinish. In terms of volume, clearcoats are the most widely used product in bodyshops. Therefore, the development of reliable technologies for water-borne clearcoats that could be equivalent in terms of overall performance (gloss, durability, etc.) would go a long way to reducing VOC emissions in this particular market. We are sure that this will be a key area for improvement in the coming years. On the other hand, we see an increasing number of industrial customers who do not allow solvent-based coatings in their internal processes. I also think that water-borne coatings will become more popular in industrial applications, especially those related to the public sector, as they need sustainable suppliers and solutions for their own operations, such as maintenance and public transport.
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What regulatory obstacles and external factors might accelerate the advancement of water-based systems?
Dominguez: I believe we will see regulations that could be more restrictive in terms of VOC emissions for all those companies that have any coating processes on their own premises (industry, body shops). These regulations could accelerate the introduction of water-borne systems. I could also see customers demanding the use of water-borne products as a requirement to become their official supplier in certain situations. Probably large companies and the public sector are the main players here that can force their suppliers to use certain technologies, as they have such a strong role that allows them to set industry standards. Government funding could also play a role. An increase in public grants could help companies adopt more sustainable technologies, such as water-based paints, in their own industrial processes. Finally, it would be possible to encourage innovation in water-borne coatings by creating specific programmes to link companies with research centres and public universities.
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