SUSBIND meets Seville: Project Progress Confirmed at the Latest Partner Meeting
SUSBIND is on good track. Our partners met to check the project progress and to share experience after nine months of project work. The 2nd Consortium Meeting was hosted at the IRNAS institute in Seville, Spain from 19 to 21 February 2019.
The SUSBIND Consortium in front of the IRNAS institute, Seville © RTDS
After the project kick-off in May 2018 in Austria, the initial set up and first project research results, the partners met in sunny Seville between 19 and 21 February. Hosted by IRNAS, the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the meeting started with a project overview and review of the goals led by Sanne Nusselder, of CE Delft.
New colleagues were also officially welcomed to the Consortium: Signe Damgaard- Berggren, Sustainability lead at IKEA (SE), Catherine Thoma and Wilfried Sailer Kronlachner, PhD students from WoodKplus (AT), Jan Kiebist, researcher at JenaBios (DE) and Alexander Karich, researcher at the TU Dresden (DE).
SUSBIND project so far
Within the first nine months of the project, one milestone was met and six deliverables were submitted on time:
Work package WP1 is successfully working on finding the right feedstock that provide the raw materials for producing the thermoset resins that will form the binders. So far 3 carbohydrate feedstocks were selected based on the criteria of availability, sustainability, cost and technical applicability. Next is the selection of feedstocks from vegetable oils and pre-treatments which is as a collaborative effort between Cargill, IRNAS, CE Delft and FhG (IGB).
Thomas Luchsinger/ Cargill presenting WP1, © Ana Babić/RTDS
Within work package WP2 a literature study was conducted by WoodKplus on various approaches of carbohydrate conversion. Laboratory scale carbohydrate conversion for in-situ reaction is under way and laboratory-scale production of resin as reference resin was completed as a preparation for the production of the most promising resin in the months to come.
Work package WP3 led by Angel T. Martinez of CIB_CSIC and his team is dedicated to developing new enzymatic technology for production of oil-based precursors. Enzyme production for laboratory and pilot epoxidation reactions are well under way.
W5 led by CE Delft has successfully provided a life cycle analysis LCA of the state-of the art resins that includes environmental performance benchmarks for bio-based adhesives, first ever public information that examines carbon footprint and human toxicity potential for bio-based products.
The communication and dissemination activities are up and running: the project website www.susbind.eu keeps informing on all the project related news and developments, Twitter and LinkedIn do their part as well. Our graphic team has provided a factsheet, a presentation and a roll-up for those partners actively presenting the project at relevant events. In addition, SUSBIND was presented at a “Bio-based breakfast” at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg and at several events on the topics of bioeconomy and biochemistry, such as the Stakeholderdialog Biobased Industry in Vienna, earlier last year.
Ana Babić / RTDS presenting the Communication and Dissemination WP6 © S. Webb RTDS
A new and more useful communication strategy was presented by RTDS and discussed in an informal workshop. New ideas were collected and more engagement at events was promised by the partners. An editorial calendar of relevant topics where partners will share relevant project related activities and knowledge was also set up.
Communication session by Ana Povh / RTDS © A. Babić, RTDS
IP and Trade secret session right by Luis Rodrigues / RTDS © A. Babić, RTDS
What is next for SUSBIND
After hearing all the work package presentations and Q&A sessions, the partners felt they new more about the work of other project partners. RTDS as Coordinator could witness enthusiasm in the collaborative effort and thanked our host Dr. Ana Gutiérrez of IRNAS for making this meeting a successful milestone on the project path.
After having revised the activity plans, there will be a lot of work in the hands of our scientist in the next months, many lab experiments and certainly a lot of exchange with industry regarding the final feedstock selection for making a bio-based binder in the first place.
In 6 months-time, in October 2019, our partners will meet again in Schiphol (NL) in the premises of Cargill, our project Scientific Coordinator. As the work package WP1 led by Cargill is expected to be finalised exactly at that time, we look forward to visiting their working environment and witnessing the project progress and results on spot.
(C) RTDS
