Can Whey Do it? The search for environmentally friendly wood finishes at UVM

Currently Available Wood Finishes  Paint: –Both water and oil based. –For use both indoors and outdoors. –Available in a huge variety of colors.  Stains: –Both water and oil based. –For use both indoors and outdoors. –Available in a variety of colors.

Problems with these products  Oil Based: –Consumption of fossil fuels. –Environmentally damaging. –Dangerous to transport, use and dispose.  Water Based: –Replace oils with other chemicals. –Right back where you started from.

Environmentally friendly alternatives?  Prior to oil based paints and stains people used milk based products.  These were environmentally friendly and by combing in other naturally occurring products they became extremely durable.

UVM’s Efforts  Associate Professor Mingruo Guo Dr. Mingruo Guo seen here working on a whey based wood finish.

What is it?  Milk Based Proteins: –The wood finish is based on proteins found in whey. –These proteins and the whey are the natural by product of cheese manufacturing. –The resulting wood finish is environmentally friendly with extremely low V.O.C.’s ( volatile organic compounds )

Does it work?  Current uses: –The product is currently being tested in the U.S. by the Ethan Allen furniture manufacturing company. –It is also being used by a furniture manufacturing company in China which bought the rights to the technology.

Future Applications  Wood Finish: –The current market for wood stains and polyurethanes is fairly small for use in the home. –There is a much larger market for paint. –Professor Guo is currently working on developing a paint which will be based on the milk proteins as well.

Who’s helping? Senator James Jeffords has secured $1.6 million in fiscal year 2004 for use by UVM to support six different environmental research initiatives