Descripción del proyecto
Cambio hacia agentes tensoactivos sostenibles
El mundo necesita tecnologías más limpias, ecológicas y sostenibles en las empresas y la producción. Estas tecnologías «adaptadas al futuro» también deben ser competitivas. Los agentes tensoactivos, el componente principal de los detergentes, son muy comunes en muchos sectores industriales. Desde los productos de limpieza y cuidado personal hasta los productos agroquímicos y farmacéuticos, se comercializan unos diecisiete millones de toneladas cada año. Se necesita una alternativa, y para ello se deben desarrollar nuevas tecnologías. En el marco del proyecto anterior PoC PURE, se obtuvieron nuevos agentes tensoactivos ecológicos mediante vías sintéticas escalables y verdes, lo cual dio lugar a dos solicitudes de patente. Basándose en este logro, el equipo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PureSurf presentará conceptos pioneros de fabricación para producir bioagentes tensoactivos de alto rendimiento a partir de flujos de residuos renovables infrautilizados.
Objetivo
With climate and environmental concerns topping the global agenda, industries across all sectors are under tremendous pressure to rapidly change their existing fossil-based practices by shifting toward cleaner, greener, more sustainable (in one word: future fit) solutions in business and production, while maintaining economic competitiveness internationally.
Surfactants (17 million t/year market globally) are omnipresent in key industrial segments (detergents, personal care, coatings, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals) and companies are actively looking to shift toward bio-based alternatives while maintaining product performance. Surprisingly, the valorization of renewable waste streams occurring in large quantities for making novel surfactants has not been adequately exploited so far. The reason for this is the lack of fundamentally new technologies in this area.
With the credo: Superior performance and clean conscience, PureSurf introduces ground-breaking manufacturing concepts to produce novel high-performance bio-based surfactants from currently underutilized renewable waste streams. In ERC PoC PURE project, novel green surfactants were obtained by green and scalable synthetic pathways, resulting in 2 patent applications. Building on this, the PureSurf validation activities will include:
- Upscale at least one gemini anionic and one zwitterionic surfactant structures to 1 kg to validate their properties, using clean starting materials
- Upscale (to 5 kg, TRL5-6) at least one selected example using industrial waste streams
- Determine properties, ecotoxicity, biodegradability (also anaerobic) as well as performance in industrial applications
- Critically compare to existing surfactants, establish a business case and prepare an investor ready technology.
The PureSurf team, consisting of leading experts in green chemistry, engineering and business with strong industrial network, aims to establish a spin-off company and become frontrunner in bio-based surfactants.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Convocatoria de propuestas
HORIZON-EIC-2021-TRANSITIONOPEN-01
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaRégimen de financiación
EIC - EICCoordinador
8010 Graz
Austria