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SUSBIND is proud to announce its upcoming Industry Online seminar: “From science to production – achievements so far” that will take place on May 18, 2022 from 10:10 to 11:50 CEST. The seminar will showcase the best of project results and findings from our five European industry partners that develop and test bio-based furniture binders for furniture.

You can download the presentations here!

As the climate changes, the furniture of the future will have to be sustainable, multi-functional and efficient and today’s manufacturers are already starting to explore these areas, paving the way for future developments. The wood board industry already having the circular economy in mind currently relies on the use of mainly fossil-based binders, largely formaldehyde-based binders. A number of initiatives are underway to produce alternative binders from renewable resources, but a bio-based binder at industrial scale does not yet exist.

SUSBIND’s collaborative partnership of six research and five industry partners has made substantial progress in developing highly sustainable bio-based binders that will in future replace conventional fossil-based ones currently used for wood-based panel boards in furniture mass products.

The SUSBIND consortium is looking at meeting the future needs and constraints of the furniture industry, consumers and regulatory bodies to reduce formaldehyde emissions across the furniture value chain, as well contributing to decarbonisation of the industry.

The aim of this online seminar is to share experience and present the best of SUSBIND industry project results, to open debates for future trends as well as to attract attention of relevant stakeholders.

SUSBIND is proud to announce its upcoming Research Online seminar on “New technologies from the lab for innovative bio-based binders” that will take place on April 6, 2022. The seminar will showcase the best of project results and findings from the SUSBIND research project, from our six European scientific partners that develop bio-based furniture binders for furniture.

Download SUSBIND Research Seminar presentations here!

SUSBIND’s collaborative partnership of six research and five industrial partners is making substantial progress in developing highly sustainable bio-based binders. It is envisaged that these binders will in future replace the conventional fossil-based ones currently used for wood-based panel boards in furniture mass products.

The SUSBIND binder aims to achieve a significantly lower carbon footprint and reduce formaldehyde emissions, thus making a meaningful contribution in improving the public health and helping mitigate climate change. Hand in hand with the EU’ Green Deal targets, SUSBIND also provides cutting-edge clean technological innovation by converting carbohydrates and vegetable oils to binder precursors by “mild” technologies.

The European carbohydrate market shows the potential to play an important role as a significant source of alternative binders for the wood board industry. The vegetable oil production in Europe is in its place offering the opportunity for a partial replacement of the actual binder system since sustainability elements indicate a better role as specialty ingredients rather than as commodity chemicals.

This online seminar will showcase the innovative solutions the project delivers in terms of novel technologies, both for enzymatic conversion of lipids and thermo-chemical conversion of carbohydrates which are scalable and applicable in numerous industrial relevant environments.

Here you will discover more on the research innovations established from the lab including fungi as innovative biocatalysts, tailoring UPOs for fatty-acid epoxidation, scaling-up lipid epoxidation with lipases, and new methods and technologies for production of carbohydrate-based binders and lab-scale resin developments.

The aim of this online seminar is to share experience and present the best of SUSBIND research project results, open debates for future trends as well as to attract attention of relevant stakeholders.

AGENDA

Presentations by: Cargill, CIB CSIC, IRNAS, JenaBios, Fraunhofer, TU Dresden, and Wood K plus

Moderation by: Massimo Bregola, Global Technology Lead Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants & Elastomers – Cargill & SUSBIND Scientific Coordinator

10:10-10:20 – Ambition and results of SUSBIND:

Massimo Bregola, Cargill & SUSBIND Scientific Coordinator

10:20-10:35 – Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs): From fungi to innovative Biocatalysts

Daniel Zänder, CEO JenaBios; Alexander Karich, Scientist at TU Dresden

10:35-10:50 – Tailoring UPOs for fatty-acid epoxidation

Lola Linde, Senior Researcher and Juan Carro, Senior Researcher at CIB CSIC;

Alejandro González-Benjumea, Scientist IRNAS

10:50-11:05 – Scale-up lipid epoxidation with lipases

Susanne Zibek, Head of the Bioprocess Development group at Fraunhofer IGB and

Alexander Beck, Scientist at Fraunhofer IGB

11:05-11:15 – A new technology for production of carbohydrate-based binders

Erik Van Herwijnen, Deputy Area Manager at Wood K plus

11:15-11:25 – Lab-scale resin development

Wilfried Sailer-Kronlacher, Research Assistant at Wood K plus

11:25-11:45 – Expert panel discussion, followed by Q&A

Research and development in industrial biotechnology contributes to the growing European bioeconomy which according to the European Commission is worth around 614 billion euros and provides approximately 17.5 million jobs.

The leading industrial biotech event that represents this sector is the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy (EFIB) which opens in Vienna next week on Wednesday, 6 October until Thursday, 7 October.

The EFIB Forum will be held face-to-face which comes as a relief to many deprived of networking opportunities since the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic in January 2020. Research , industry and SME from the Horizon 2020/BBI JU projects  SUSBIND and SUSFERT will be present at the event.

Both projects are hosted at the stand by communications partner RTDS. BBI JU Executive Director, Philippe Mengal, plans to visit the RTDS stand on Wednesday, where he will meet RTDS CEO, Stephen Webb, and project partners  project to discuss progress made, and challenges ahead in achieving a circular bioeconomy in Europe.

SUSBIND is a collaborative European research project in the field of bioeconomy that aims to replace conventional fossil-fuel binders currently used for wood-based panel boards in furniture with highly sustainable bio-based binders. By substituting fossil-based chemicals with those from renewable resources, carbon footprint of mass-produced furniture products will be reduced. A sustainable and economically viable binder will increase the marketability of bio-based furniture products.

Project partner Wood K plus, a leading research institute in the area wood and wood-related renewable resources developing the alternative bio-based adhesives based on carbohydrates together with EGGER have recently completed the pilot scale evaluation of a new bio-based binder system. “This is one of the most important project milestones, opening the way for increased production capacities” say Erik van Herwijnen, Team Leader “Advanced Bonding” at Wood K plus.

Scientific Coordinator, Massimo Bregola of Cargill is encouraged that this will lead to major breakthroughs. “The expertise brought together under the SUSBIND project will finally see development of a bio-based binder able to compete on an industrial scale. As we become increasingly demanding of green production methods in all areas, SUSBIND will provide Europe with a competitive advantage” he says.

Massimo Bregola- Global Technology Lead Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants & Elastomers – Cargill

Additionally, the SUSBIND partners will join BBI JU Executive Director, Philippe Mengal, and Sustainability and External Affairs Lead, Cargill Bioindustrial, Marty Muenzmaier, on the podium for EFIB’s final session OUTLOOK: The pathway to the future for industrial biotechnology. Both SUSBIND and SUSFERT are funded by the Biobased Industry Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

SUSFERT is developing new biobased fertilisers to reduce dependency on unsustainable phosphorus imports into the EU. These fertilisers include novel controlled-release coatings from lignin as well as lignosulfonate-based soil improvers originating from wood pulp.  Waste sidestreams such as struvite is utilised to substitute imported phosphorus. The loss of nutrients from fertilisers in agriculture are being addressed by using probiotics to increase nutrient availability as the demand for food and feed rises.

Meet the SUSBIND and SUSFERT experts and discover the advances for the bioeconomy at Stand 5 during EFIB.

View the best moments from EFIB 2021 here.

The SUSBIND project aims to develop a new bio-based adhesive system for particleboard and medium density fibreboard (MDF) that achieves two main environmental goals:

• a 5% lower carbon footprint;
• lower human health impacts compared to the benchmark.

In a previous blog, CE Delft explained how progress towards these environmental goals is monitored and how life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to determine the carbon footprint of the new adhesive system. In this article, we would like to highlight why LCA is used at a very early stage of product development, and how this links to uncertainties and collaboration within the SUSBIND consortium.

Why apply life cycle assessment (LCA) early on in the development process?

By conducting an LCA early in a technological development process, environmental results can be used to make more informed, and ultimately better, decisions.

We know that a lot of choices need to be made when developing a completely new product. For example, for bio-based chemicals it may be possible to use different agricultural crops, there might be different chemical conversion processes to convert feedstocks into desired products, and different amounts of energy and auxiliary materials may be required. These choices all affect the final carbon footprint of the product as determined in an LCA (as well as other environmental performance indicators).

However, as development progresses from an initial idea towards lab-scale testing and pilot trials, it becomes increasingly difficult to switch to a different production route (or bio-based feedstock, or conversion process, or…). The choice to focus on one option therefore ‘closes the door’ on others. Applying LCA ensures that we understand the environmental consequences of these decisions, enabling the partners to stay as close to SUSBIND’s environmental goals as technically feasible.

By using LCA early on, we can show the environmental implications of different options so that they can explicitly be considered in the decision-making process. Environmental impacts can then be taken into account alongside other criteria, such as technical performance, feedstock availability, or costs.

Illustration of a technological development process. Over time, process data becomes increasingly certain as the process is developed and optimised. However, the room to make changes to the process decreases.

How are uncertainties in the analyses dealt with?

While we know that all carbon footprint studies typically have some degree of uncertainty, these uncertainties larger when conducting LCA early in a technological development process. For example, the chemical conversion route can still be changed, the types and amounts of reactants required still need to be fine-tuned, the energy balance is not yet optimised when working in a laboratory, etc.

In the environmental analyses for SUSBIND, CE Delft works with the best-available data at that time. If there are uncertainties or if assumptions need to be made, we clearly note these in the reports. In addition, the most important uncertainties/assumptions are studied in sensitivity analyses. For example, if we do not know how much energy a process requires, we can make an educated assumption. Subsequently, we can use sensitivity analyses to evaluate whether this uncertainty strongly affects a study’s conclusions. This approach can provide further guidance to the industrial partners by showing them which process parameters are critical and where it may be beneficial to gather improved data.

In our view, it is essential that we cooperate closely with the industrial partners in SUSBIND, since this ensures that we have a good understanding of the process, the data and their uncertainties.

What does the collaboration with the industrial partners in SUSBIND look like?

The industrial consortium partners work on various aspects of the technological development of new bio-based resins. Within CE Delft, we depend on their expertise and knowledge when conducting the carbon footprint analyses.

To start a new LCA, we typically prepare a detailed data questionnaire which is shared with one or several industrial partners (see the example below). This provides a good starting point for modelling the process and analysing its environmental impacts.

When we generate the first results of a new analysis, we often see that new questions arise. In addition, we may identify key parameters that drive the environmental performance of a studied product. Therefore, the results are extensively discussed among project partners to see whether the input data and modelling are correct and identify remaining issues (if any).

In the course of the overall SUSBIND process, we are continually refining our data sheets and values together with the industrial partners as the chemical production routes are optimised further and become more certain. This enables all of us to stay as close to SUSBIND’s environmental goals as technically feasible.

Author:

Martijn Broeren, senior consultant/researcher CE Delft

broeren@ce.nl

https://www.cedelft.eu/

SUSBIND develops the chemical syntheses for producing the carbohydrate-based amino-plastic, and other wood resin systems. This will polymerise urea and other monomers using intermediates derived from high-purified carbohydrates during WP1. This allows investigation of the reactions of the carbohydrates during resin synthesis and to test other modification reactions. This should deliver precursors suitable for using as bio-based binders for wood board production. Resins can be produced on laboratory scale to investigate properties and the most promising candidates are upscaled to pilot level to allow them to be validated as binders. Our Austrian partner WoodKPlus presents how this is done in its most recent publication. We share an extract below.

Switching to renewables

Today’s chemical industry still strongly relies on oil and other fossil resources as the main source of bulk chemicals and energy. Rising demands and diminishing fossil resources along with rising awareness of environmental problems drive the search for more sustainable alternatives. The interest in fuels and chemicals derived from renewables is therefore growing fast and a lot of R&D is done to convert biomass into valuable products. Biomass is the only widely available carbon source besides oil, gas and coal, and 75% of the available biomass are carbohydrates, such as starch, cellulose, or hemicelluloses.[1]

5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) and its great industrial potential

The conversion of these carbohydrates into valuable chemicals, e.g., furanic compounds such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), has therefore huge industrial potential. 5-HMF is considered a key platform chemical since it can be converted into a variety of other valuable compounds. It has been called a “sleeping giant” along with furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), a compound that can be derived directly from 5-HMF and may be a renewable alternative for terephthalic acid in polyester or polyamide production.[2]

Extensive literature on the production of 5-HMF is available, including good overviews of synthesis procedures, solvent systems, and proposed reaction mechanisms (Van Putten et al.[3]). Recently, we have added an outline of the challenging development of industrial 5-HMF production processes.[4]One of the main challenges in 5-HMF production is the formation of side products. In general, hexoses are dehydrated by acid catalysis to form 5-HMF. 5-HMF is easily rehydrated to levulinic and formic acid, on the one hand, and also polymerizes, on the other hand, thereby forming complex, black-colored residues called humins.

Figure 1. Conversion of fructose to 5-HMF and rehydration to the byproducts levulinic acid and formic acid via side reaction.

Abstract

Carbohydrates and hexose-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) are platform chemicals for the synthesis of sustainable binders. New, greener approaches aim at the development of production systems, which minimize process steps and avoid organic solvents or other auxiliaries that could interfere with subsequent resin synthesis. In our work, carbohydrate solutions rich in 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) were produced using a continuous-flow microreactor and diluted H2SO4 as the catalyst. After optimization of the process conditions (temperature, reaction time, catalyst content), a 5-HMF yield of 49% was obtained at a low reaction time of 0.6 min and a catalyst concentration of 1% at 175 °C and 17 bar pressure. Extensive rehydration of the product was avoided by efficient immediate cooling of the reaction solution. The stability of the reaction system was improved by increasing the inner diameter of the capillary in the flow reactor to 2 mm. Advantageously, the obtained reaction mixtures are used directly as precursors in the development of sustainable binder systems, without the need of additional purification, filtration, or extraction steps. Read the full article here.

(c) Woodkplus

Authors of the publication:

Wilfried Sailer-Kronlachner, *Email: w.sailer-kronlachner@wood-kplus.at, w.sailer@boku.ac.at

Catherine Thoma, Stefan Böhmdorfer, Markus Bacher, Johannes Konnerth, Thomas Rosenau, Antje Potthast, Pia Solt, and Hendrikus W. G. van Herwijnen

Wood K plus—Competence Center of Wood Composites and Wood Chemistry, Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH, Altenberger Str. 69, A-4040 Linz, Austria

Institute of Wood Technology and Renewable Materials, Department of Material Science and Process Engineering University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Konrad-Lorenz Str. 24, A-3430 Tulln, Austria

[1] Röper, H. Renewable Raw Materials in Europe–Industrial Utilisation of Starch and Sugar. Starch/Staerke 2002, 54, 89– 99,  DOI: 10.1002/1521-379x(200204)54:3/43.0.co;2-i [Crossref], [CAS], Google Scholar

[2] Sousa, A. F.; Vilela, C.; Fonseca, A. C.; Matos, M.; Freire, C. S. R.; Gruter, G.-J. M.; Coelho, J. F. J.; Silvestre, A. J. D. Biobased polyesters and other polymers from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid: a tribute to furan excellency. Polym. Chem. 2015, 6, 5961– 5983,  DOI: 10.1039/C5PY00686D [Crossref], [CAS], Google Scholar

[3] van Putten, R.-J.; van der Waal, J. C.; de Jong, E.; Rasrendra, C. B.; Heeres, H. J.; de Vries, J. G. Hydroxymethylfurfural, Versatile Platform Chemical Made from Renewable Resources. Chem. Rev. 2013, 113, 1499– 1597,  DOI: 10.1021/cr300182k [ACS Full Text ACS Full Text], [CAS], Google Scholar

[4] Thoma, C.; Konnerth, J.; Sailer-Kronlachner, W.; Solt, P.; Rosenau, T.; van Herwijnen, H. W. G. Current Situation of the Challenging Scale-Up Development of Hydroxymethylfurfural Production. ChemSusChem 2020, 13, 3544– 3564,  DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202000581 [Crossref], [PubMed], [CAS], Google Scholar