BPM - BIOCRES (BO-21.02-001-052, BO-12.05-004-052)

Project title: Bio-based composite resins (BIOCRES)

Project partners:

• Calendula Oil
• Cargill
• Cosun
• Food & Biobased Research
• NPSP Composieten
• Nuplex
• University of Groningen

Human-friendly composite resin

A bio-based composite resin, without the toxic styrene. This is the challenge for the researchers in the BIOCRES project. ‘We are looking for two things in this project’, says Rolf Blaauw. ‘A polyester resin from renewable raw materials instead of oil plus a replacement for styrene, which is also made out of oil.’ Composite resin is applied in wind turbines, cars, train noses, surf boards and canoes. Styrene is used to dissolve the resin before the production of the composite, and in addition to this, it reacts with the resin to form a hard and tough material. However, during processing, a small part of the styrene evaporates, which poses a health problem. Next to the general wish to develop renewable materials, this is another reason for developing an alternative for styrene. Blaauw foresees that the first aim, a polyester resin from biomass, will succeed. ‘The building blocks will come from sugars. We are currently still working with starch and sugars from the edible parts of plants, but in the future these can also be produced from non-edible parts, from lignocellulose.’ Finding a replacement for styrene is a greater challenge. The chemical industry has been searching for this for a long time. ‘One of the problems is that styrene is very cheap, and it is difficult to find something with the right characteristics which is just as cheap.’ They may find alternatives in vegetable oils. ‘We are testing candidate molecules on the reaction with their counterparts in the resin.’ What is special about BIOCRES according to Blaauw is that there is cooperation between companies across the whole production chain, from raw material producers to producers of the final product. ‘This is how we arrived at the candidates for the replacement of styrene.’ The participating end manufacturer also manufactures the red and white ANWB (the Dutch automobile association) signposts, largely from biobased materials. ‘It would be great if these could soon be completely manufactured from bio-based materials’, Blaauw decides.