Innovation and research provides the foundation for growth across our Fuel Specialties, Performance Chemicals and Oilfield Service businesses. It is one of our Responsible Business Strategy’s Focus Areas and helps us to develop cleaner, safer and more efficient products that are fit for society’s future needs.
In 2017, we have brought a range of new products to market. Below are a few examples from across our business areas:
Performance Chemicals:
Our Pureact range of mild surfactants includes nearly 20 different options to meet varying requirements. In 2017, we added two new products to the range:
• Pureact BB – a concentrated surfactant blend developed for economical sulfate-free personal care products. It is a high foaming, optimized blend producing crystal clear finished formulations. This concentrate only requires the addition of water for dilution and sodium chloride for viscosity adjustment. In addition, fragrance can be blended directly into a formulation.
• Pureact SNDT-65 – Unlike aftermarket preparations of Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate and Stearic Acid blends, which tend to produce granular or “gritty” finished products, the liquid blending of molten Stearic Acid and molten Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate results in a smooth, grit-free flake which retains this characteristic throughout subsequent processing.
Fuel Specialties
In November 2017, we launched a set of Powerguard™ Multifunctional diesel detergent packages that contain our latest generation of diesel detergent technology. The performance targets of this particular application were set at a top-tier performance level to ensure the end customer had the best performing fuel in the target market. This was to enable the customer to remain market leader and demonstrate superior performance of Modern direct injection diesel engines in terms of engine cleanliness, durability, driveability and efficiency.
“In Fuel Specialties we have a range of new products coming through that have been driven by our understanding of the market and the needs of our customers. We don’t do ‘blue sky’ research, we are very focused on solving our customers’ issues through innovation and new product development. Our sales process ensures that we understand our customers’ requirements and ensure they get the products and technical support that they need.” Phil Boon, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Oilfield Services
In the US, companies using a slickwater fluid system for hydraulic fracturing needed higher viscosity, non-guar-based fluids to carry the desired sand concentration downhole and into the fracture network. The traditional emulsion-based friction reducers (FRs) were not providing cost-effective performance. Innospec was challenged to develop a suite of high efficiency FRs and in response developed our HighRate™ range, which are proven to perform better than the traditional FRs at a lower cost. HiRate Plus™ has placed Innospec at the forefront of current friction reducer innovation. The key concepts involved in the manufacture HiRate Plus™ are patent pending and have led to a whole new generation of products, the first being HiRate Maxx™.
