SNF
TypePrivate
Founded1978 (1978)
HeadquartersAndrézieux, France
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Pascal Remy (Chairman & CEO)
Websitesnf.com
SNF Factory, Andrézieux, France

SNF is one of the largest manufacturers of polyacrylamides. These water-soluble polymers are used as flocculants and coagulants in solid/water separation to recycle water, rheology modifiers and friction reducers. These functionalities have many uses where water is used, in drinking water production, wastewater treatment, mining, paper, enhanced oil recovery, hydraulic fracturing, agriculture, textile and cosmetics.

The SNF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in over 70 countries and operates 21 production sites in Europe, Americas, Asia and Australia. Its headquarters is located in Andrézieux, France. SNF has customers in over 130 countries and supplies products to a wide variety of industries. SNF is one of the major chemical companies in France.[1]

Business Segments

SNF’s products operate in a variety of markets. The driving factors of SNF’s growth are the scarcity of natural resources: water, oil and minerals.

Drinking water production

SNF manufactures and supplies organic coagulants such as PolyDADMAC and Polyamines as well as polyacrylamide flocculants and provides the polymer equipment and service required by the drinking water production plant.

Wastewater treatment

Wastewater treatment is SNF’s historical business. Polyacrylamide flocculants are used in the primary settlers as well as in the sludge dewatering stage. For industrial water treatment, SNF provides heavy metal chelatants, dispersants and scale inhibitors.

Oil

Polyacrylamides are used in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) to improve the speed and amount of oil extracted from the reservoir. The techniques used to improve oil recovery can be straightforward polymer flooding (PF), surfactant polymer flooding (SP) or alkaline surfactant polymer flooding (ASP). The latter technique, when applicable, has been known to sweep the reservoir of 90% of the oil in place.[2]

Gas (Tight Gas, Shale Gas, Coalbed Methane)

With the success of hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as slickwater fracturing, as a means of economically recovering unconventional gas reserves, use of polymeric friction reducers has become widespread. Polyacrylamides are used for their drag reducing properties on water to decrease frictional pressure losses, thereby maximizing bottom hole injection pressures allowing for a higher pressure from the same number of pump trucks.

Mining

In addition to coagulants, flocculants and dispersants, SNF produces also a range of mining reagents based on xanthate chemistry. The following as some of the markets served by SNF in mining and metallurgical applications: slurry solid/liquid separation, pelletization and briquetting, flotation of sulphides ores, reduction of scale deposits, viscosity modifiers for hydraulic transport, mining backfill and grinding, Dust control, environmental remediation and dredging.

Paper

Widely used by the paper Industry, polyacrylamides sold by SNF under the trademark FLORET are used as processing aids and applied on the wet end of a paper machine either alone or as a part of a multi-component system. They enhance productivity, retention and drainage. Coagulants act as fixative for various chemicals such as dyes and sizing agents, charge neutralization for pitch and cationic demand control. SNF also manufactures synthetic dry strength resins which are acrylamide based, glyoxalated (FLOSTRENGTH) or issued from Hofmann rearrangement. These resins, applied in the thick stock, imparts higher strength properties to paper & board, allows fiber substitution by lower quality grades or by fillers (PCC, GCC) . Productivity increases have been reported.

Agriculture

Polyacrylamide superabsorbents can absorb up to 400 times their weight in water, they are used for many applications such as reforestation, horticulture, landscaping and ornamentals. These products sold under the AQUASORB tradename, increase the water holding capacity of soils for several years, reduce irrigation time and water usage, and decrease water and nutrients losses linked to leaching. Soluble polyacrylamide polymers are used to flocculate the irrigated soil thus improving water penetration and soil aeration while diminishing soil erosion.

Textile

FLOPRINT textile thickeners are used in pigment, reactive and dispersed printing. They are available as standard inverse emulsions, dewatered inverse emulsions and powders. SNF also manufactures textile auxiliaries used as antimigrants, dispersants, sizing and fixing agents.

Cosmetics

SNF manufactures three types of cosmetic ingredients, conditioning agents, rheology modifiers and carbomers under the trademarks FLOCARE and FLOGEL. The first, known as Polyquaternium[3][4] 6, 7, 11 and 22. is used for hair conditioning[5] and body shampoos. They have an affinity for keratin thus protect, enhance and repair the hair fiber. Rheology modifiers are based on inverse emulsion thickening agents[6][7] for skin care formulations and hair combing creams. Carbomers, based on precipitation technology, are the most widely used thickening agents in the cosmetic industry.

Functional Solutions

SNF also manufactures specialty polymers such as FLOSET for the construction industry, FLOSPERSE as dispersants, FLOSOFT and FLOGEL in home care applications, METALSORB as heavy metal chelating agents and ODORFLO as odour control agents.

Production

SNF has a total of 21 production sites globally, with major plants in Asia, Europe, and North America. As of 2023 SNF's worldwide polymer production capacity was 1.425 million tonnes per year (active equivalent).

References

  1. ↑ "VERIF - Classement des plus grosses entreprises du secteur Industrie chimique".
  2. ↑ http://www.spe.org (Society of Petroleum Engineer Article on Alcaline Surfactant Polymer performance)
  3. ↑ "Ingredient Profile: Polyquaternium-6 | CosmeticsAndToiletries.com". Archived from the original on 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2012-08-02. (Ingredient Profile: Polyquaternium-6)
  4. ↑ "Ingredient Profile—Polyquaternium-7 | CosmeticsAndToiletries.com". Archived from the original on 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2012-08-02. (Ingredient Profile—Polyquaternium-7)
  5. ↑ http://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries.com/testing/sensory/126533328.html (Evaluating Hair Conditioning with Instrumental Combing)
  6. ↑ http://www.happi.com/articles/2010/11/recent-patent-applications-for-hair-care-polymers (Recent Patent Applications For Hair Care Polymers)
  7. ↑ http://www.happi.com/articles/2009/04/trends-in-polymers-for-skin-care (Trends in Polymers for Skin Care, Part I)
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