PITTSBURGH — The PPG Industries Inc. product team responsible for the development of the company’s Enviro-Prime 2000 lead-free anticorrosion electrodeposition coatings for automotive application has received a Three Rivers Environmental Award sponsored by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and the Pittsburgh-based utility DQE Inc.

The Enviro-Prime 2000 coating last year received an R&D 100 Award for significant technology breakthroughs, and was a finalist earlier this year in the PACE Award program recognizing automotive-supplier innovation.

PPG says Enviro-Prime 2000 contains reduced levels of chromium and nickel and generates lower VOC emissions during application than conventional electrocoat products. The company says automakers’ use of the product has eliminated about 1 million pounds of lead from primer coatings on an annual basis, and that by the end of this year 11 North American assembly plants with total production capacity of 1.2 million vehicles will be using the Enviro-Prime product.