DE-AROMATIC SOLVENTS MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Concentration and Competitive Landscape

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Growing regulations on aromatic solvents due to health and environmental concerns

Regulatory authorities across different parts of the world have been imposing stringent restrictions on the application of several aromatic solvents owing to increasing health, safety, and environmental risks associated with these chemicals. Prolonged or repeated exposure to aromatic compound vapors can cause various acute and long-term effects on human health. Short-term impacts may include headaches, dizziness, confusion, while long-term effects involve damage to liver, kidneys, and nervous system. Moreover, aromatic solvents are hazardous air pollutants and many can contaminate water sources. Their improper handling and disposal may also lead to soil contamination over time.

Due to such significant health and environmental concerns, regulatory agencies are constantly efforts to curb the use of hazardous aromatic chemicals. Notable among these are restrictions enforced by the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation and California Air Resource Board (CARB) in the U.S. Both agencies have added several aromatic solvents to their lists of chemicals that require limiting or replacing entirely. Their recent guidelines especially emphasize replacing carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic solvents. Similarly, China and other major developing economies are also tightening norms pertaining to VOC emissions from solvent-based products.

The weightage of health risks over other performance factors is necessitating companies to substitute aromatic solvents proactively before regulatory bans. Hence, strict legislation controls the choice of solvents, favoring alternatives like de-aromatic hydrocarbons. This growing regulatory pressure is a chief factor driving the demand for specialized non-aromatic solvents across major end-use sectors on a global scale.