Kuraray’s EVAL used for soil-fumigant dispersion prevention

New market under cultivation for Kuraray Co.’s EVAL ethulene-vinyl alcohol copolymer resins with high barrier properties include soil-fumigant dispersion preventions, refrigerator insulation and blood transfusion bags, adding to their core application of food-packaging materials.

The company said that full-scale marketing is in progress for a multilayer film made of EVAL and polyethylene that greatly suppresses fumigant dispersion and heightens soil-disinfection efficacy. The quantity of fumigant used can be more than halved by replacing previously used films with the new film, it said. Some users have already adopted the film, and it is now targeting further market penetration.

Soil fumigants like chloropicrin, 1,3-dichloropropene and methyl isothiocyanate are used in crop production to avoid replant failure arising from conditions such as damping off, fusarium wilt, and clubroot. With an expansion in suburban agriculture, their excessive release into the atmosphere is feared, prompting the use of polyethylene film to limit their dispersion. Chloropicrin, in particular, which is widely used in the cultivation of sweet potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes, has a pungent odor and causes tearing and eye pain. Kuraray reported increasing calls for materials with better barrier properties.

EVAL offers extremely low permeability to gases and is primarily used as a food-packaging material to prevent the degradation of food freshness and taste by shutting out oxygen. It also is used to make plastic gasoline tanks, where it curbs the leakage of volatile gasoline while contributing to vehicle weight reduction.

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