Dow building solutions (midland, Michigan) in Japan three extruded polystyrene foam board (XPS) factory has successful application of a new type of flame retardant polymerization technology. Dow Kakoh (Tokyo) is a joint venture company of Dow chemical and sumitomo chemical, at present the company has started to production to join the new aggregation type flame retardant Poly real FR XPS.

"We have for this new product on a large scale test, confirmed that the flame retardant performance is more outstanding," Dow Kakoh President Takahiro Sugiyama said, "since May 2014, the Japanese will disable hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) flame retardants, we develop the new products to meet the future requirements of the construction industry."

Bromine flame retardants can very effectively prevent plastics and textiles is on fire, but they are also able to exist in environment for a long time, and accumulation in the biological tissue. Considering the possible influence to human body health, "the Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants (pops) in 2009 banned four bromine biphenyl ether and the use of five bromine biphenyl ether. In May 2013, the United Nations voted unanimously passed another ban: banned worldwide hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD).

In September 2013, the United States environmental protection agency (EPA) released the draft report of HBCD flame retardants alternative. The EPA lists the results of the survey, to help manufacturers to identify substitute products is higher than HBCD safety performance. In the report, the EPA said styrene-butadiene copolymer bromide PolyFR more security than HBCD.

Dow is located in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan all XPS foamed plastics factory will use the new PolyFR technology. Because of several factories, the transformation requires a process. Factory began in 2013 in Japan, Europe and North America, followed by factory.

Dow Poly real FR, introduced in 2011 and developed a kind of stability, high molecular weight, excluding PBT (lasting, biological cumulative, toxic) of the material. The more appropriate additive can provide fire safety for XPS and EPS foam solution, make the heat preservation and heat insulation material can continue to meet increasing global energy efficiency and ecological architectural design requirements.