UV curable polyurethane (PU) coatings play a major role in a wide range of industries, due to their versatility, excellent performance, energy-efficient production and application, and 100% reactive components (no VOCs). However, they still largely depend on fossil-based raw materials.
Biobased coatings are a small (5% in sales and 1 % in volume in the coatings business) but emerging market, thanks to sustainable targets of companies, increasing awareness of end-users and customers, and sustainability goals from policies. There is a growing push to increase opportunities for biobased systems, in line with the EU bioeconomy strategy and the global transition to a circular economy.
Moreover, biocoatings applications are largely influenced by the technical demand of the final product. Thus, there is a need for new formulations for high-demanding sectors (industry, marine, automotive, wood…) that combine high- performance and sustainability.
BIORING develops biobased building blocks that allow the formulation of novel high-performance biocoatings with enhanced thermomechanical performance, providing a viable alternative to existing fossil-based ones. Their recycling and biodegradability are tested in view of end-of-life (EoL) real scenarios.
We provide a versatile, robust and scalable solution of biobased coatings based on biomass-derived photoreactive molecules, validated on a semi-industrial scale on rigid substances like paper and plastic.
Our solution is structured as a modular platform which will allow the integration of new and different building blocks in the future, to adapt to a variety of applications and industries.
We have 5 specific objectives:
1. Provide a platform of renewable building blocks and oligomers from biomass as suitable constituents of tailor-made high-performance biobased UV curing coatings.
2. Develop 2 novel 95% biobased formulations based on BIORING’s platform constituents for biobased coatings.
3. Provide results as a proof of improved performance, health, safety profile and end-of-life.
4. Develop a process modelling framework that aligns the decisions to be taken in the process design and predict of the coating properties based on their formulation.
5. Demonstrate the market and economic feasibility of new coatings by developing proofs of concept for two sectors (automotive and construction) and identifying broader market applications for BIORING’s platform.
