News
05-10-2021
LIGNICOAT project: Sustainable COATings based on LIGNIn resins and bio-additives with improved fire, corrosion and biological resistance
Biorizon co-initiator VITO is partner in the LIGNICOAT project that aims to demonstrate technical and economic feasibility of the use of lignin as raw material to produce bio-resins for different applications in the field of functional coatings.
VITO’s role in the project is to:
- Apply reductive catalytic depolymerization to lignin to obtain fractions that meet the required technical specifications for resin manufacturing and application development.
- Introduce epoxy groups in lignin (oils) and optimize formulation of epoxy resins.
- Apply membrane technology to recover, fractionate and purify lignin polyacids.
About LIGNICOAT
Sustainability in coatings covers aspects related to energy and resource conservation, waste minimization or efficiency and the use of renewable and non-toxic products. The coatings industry has been driven by regulatory issues to diminish the content of volatile organic compounds to improve indoor and outdoor air quality, shifting from solvent borne systems (still the preferred choice globally) to waterborne ones.
However, even in the case of products labelled as ‘environmentally friendly’ their bio-based content is usually small (up to 30-40%). The challenge is to substitute fossil-based resins maintaining at least the same performance. New bio-based value chains are necessary.
Lignin is an underutilized product with a high potential to provide not only economic returns, but also environmental benefits if value-added applications are found. Although lignin is a topic of great interest, the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into real products is not trivial and still no commercial options are available.
LIGNICOAT aims to provide new synthetic routes to obtain bioresins ‘à la carte’ (PUD, ALKYD and EPOXY) based on lignin intermediates (Polyols, Epoxies, phosphorylated, polyacids and carbonates) for application in coatings and validated in an industrial relevant environment (TRL5). The target is not only to increase the biobased content and ensure performance, but also take advantage of lignin specific characteristics, to develop bio-additives (enzymes, chitosan, sugars, …), increasing the bio-content and providing anticorrosive, fireproof and antimicrobial/antiviral features in high-volume market case studies. Depending on the intermediates and the resins used, the estimated bio-content of the coatings will vary between 60-90%.LIGNICOAT consortium
The multidisciplinary and complementary consortium consists of 9 industrial partners:
BARPIMO, VENCOREX, AEP, HEXION, FORESA, BRS, IRIS, ECOAT and AXIA and 4 RTOs, TECNALIA, VITO, VTT, NORCE and ARDITEC.
- Duration: 2021 – 2024
- Total budget: € 5.233.801,25
Acknowledgements
The LIGNICOAT project has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No. 101023342.
More information
For more information on the LIGNICOAT project, please contact Viviana Polizzi, R&D professional bio-aromatics at VITO at Viviana.polizzi@vito.be.
See also:
Lignin Horizon
In Horizon III, Biorizon co-initiator VITO targets the development of technology for the isolation, depolymerization and fractionation of the lignin fraction of biomass into bio-aromatics. This program targets aromatics with new functionalities that lead to improved product properties. VITO is now scaling up a unique conversion technology to produce lignin-based building blocks for the fine chemical industry and innovative biorefineries.
Process
The technology used in Horizon III results in different lignins, ranging from monomeric to oligomeric mixtures. A variety of bio-aromatics can be obtained by matching the appropriate starting materials and depolymerization technology.
Current focus
VITO started the engineering and construction of a lignin depolymerization pilot plant (LignoValue), which will produce functionalized renewable bio-aromatics that can be used in different high added-value applications (polymers, adhesives, coatings, composites, etc.). This facility will deliver about 250 kg/day of functional renewable bio-aromatics and should be operational by mid-2021. These amounts of renewable bio-aromatics allow the industry to apply these samples within their pilot facility in order to conduct application testing on a large scale. There are promising applications for these novel, renewable bio-aromatics in the fine chemical and polymer industries.
More information
If you share our ambition and want to collaborate with our Shared Research Center, please join our community, visit the Biorizon headquarters at the Green Chemistry Campus in Bergen op Zoom (NL) or reach out to our business development managers.
LignoCOST: Pan-European Network on the Sustainable Valorisation of Lignin
Biorizon co-initiator VITO participates in LignoCOST. This network, that is coordinated by Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, aims for a pan-European network covering the entire lignin value chain. More than 200 participants from 38 countries are connected. The focus lies on sharing and creating knowledge that stimulates lignin valorisation towards industrial applications.
LignoValue Pilot launched: Flanders first and only pilot line of bio-aromatics from lignin/wood
Recently, Biorizon co-initiator VITO and partners have launched the EFRO LignoValue Pilot project. By Q1 2021, this € 4.3 million project must result in a functioning pilot line in Flanders for the production of bio-aromatics from lignin/wood.
Biorizon is powered by
This project is made possible by a contribution from the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the framework of OP-Zuid.
