Substitution of PFOS for use in nondecorative hard chrome plating

2 Survey of the global use of PFOS
in the chrome-plating industry
Previously, PFOS was used for both decorative chrome plating and hard
chrome plating processes but new technology applying chromium-(III)
instead of chromium-(VI) has made PFOS use in decorative chrome plating
outdated – even though it may still be used somewhere around the world. As
of June 2008, the use of PFOS as mist suppressant in decorative chrome
plating became illegal in the EU (Directive 2006/122/EC).
For hard chrome plating, the process with chromium-(III) does not function.
Therefore, the use of PFOS as mist suppressing, wetting agent for hard
chrome plating has been considered essential, and is still permitted in the EU
today and is an accepted use in the Stockholm Convention.
This chapter describes the use of PFOS in the chrome plating industry. The
information gathered usually covers total chrome plating including decorative
plating, but it is essential to realise that non-decorative hard chrome plating is
carried out under much more aggressive conditions, for which reason PFOS is
still used extensively for this purpose.
The survey was carried out in the period October 2009 to summer 2010.
2.1 Use of PFOS in Denmark
The companies in Denmark carrying out non-decorative hard chrome plating
were contacted in order to learn about the yearly consumption of PFOS as
mist suppressant. Only four companies in Denmark are carrying out such
work. These four companies are:
“a.h. nichro Haardchrom A/S” situated in Hvidovre
“Chembo A/S” situated in Kvistgård
“Galvano APS” situated in Svendborg
“NOF Nordic Overfladebehandling” situated in Gelsted.
Two of these companies are using PFOS based mist suppressants and two are
not. The non-PFOS based alternative used by the two companies is, however,
a fluorinated alternative. Precisely, which fluorinated substance that is used is
confidential but it is probably the fluorotelomer derivative 1H,1H,2H,2Hperfluorooctane
sulfonic acid (CAS no. 27619-97-2)(see Table 3-1) that has
been identified as an alternative in other mist suppressant chemicals.
Furthermore, different suppliers of PFOS for the chrome plating industry
were contacted as well as the Danish chrome plating industry in order to learn
about the annually consumption of PFOS for non-decorative hard chrome
plating. The suppliers were asked about what they had sold to Danish
companies, and the Danish chrome plating industry was asked to estimate
their annual consumption of PFOS. Information from these suppliers showed
that the total annual purchase of (pure) PFOS in the chrome plating industry
in Denmark in 2008 and/or 2009 was about 28 kg. The chrome plating
23