1. AEP POLYMERS A testimonial from the SuperBIO project
Presentation by Patrick Giles
Executive Chairman of AEP
SMEs RISE THROUGH EU-WIDE COOPERATION
BUILDING CROSS-BORDER VALUE CHAINS FOR THE BIOECONOMY
Brussels, Belgium
19 November 2018
This is the indication given by the organizers:
The testimonials should include the following elements:
A short explanation on what your innovation is
How the innovation coupon helped the company to get its innovation/product (closer) to the market
What the advantages were of the ‘low threshold’ innovation coupon scheme (for an SME)
Slide 2 contains a brief company/Activities description, from slide 3 onwards I will add what required by the organizers.
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2. All rights reserved – © AEP Polymers 2018
ABOUT US
AEP Polymers is an Italian independent SME focused on industrial R&D activities in the field of biobased polymers and formulations from biobased building blocks.
EXPERTISE
Design, synthesis, fuctionalization and characterization of biobased building blocks and polymers;
Design and testing of biobased formulations: epoxy, phenolics, polyurethanes
Product development, validation, benchmarking, customer tech support
OUR ROLE
Consultants for Contracted Research
Industrial Cooperation Agreements
Cardolite Corporation
Partner in Funded R&D Projects
SmartLi
Viprìscar
Reinvent
Plastico
1- I added «Italian» in the description because SuperBIO was aimed at creating Transnational Value Chains, therefore the nationality of the company is important.
2- The audience will not be very interested in our expertise (it is a policy/political meeting) but possibly more in how we cooperate with our partners (ICA and funded projects). I have listed the COLLABORATIVE projects that we are or have been a part of.
3- In this sliìde I would mention that we already have an ICA with Cardolite, which was at the base of creating the value chain for SuperBIO, adding other stakeholders.
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3. NEW RENEWABLE CHEMICALS FROM CASHEW NUTSHELL LIQUID (CNSL)
food market
bio-fuel
Here you have a schematic view of the 3 products that we obtain from the cashew cultivation: cashews, cashew dry shells and cardanol (I did not add other byproducts such as the distillation bottoms, to make the picture easier to read).
Current applications of CNSL-derivatives are listed and the highlighted box includes the areas where AEP made innovations.
It will be worth mentioning to the audience that this innovations are currently commercial materials
EXTRACTION/DISTILLATION
INDUSTRIAL USES:
Friction particles
Friction resins
Marine coatings (epoxy)
Flooring (epoxy)
Polyurethanes (foams, adhesives, coatings)
Composites
SYNTHESIS
cardanol
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4. SMART TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE CONVERSION OF INDUSTRIAL LIGNINS
SmartLi was a three-year program which aimed to develop valorisation routes for lignin aiming at materials that have potential to replace oil-based products in applications such as:
Epoxy Resins  Fiber reinforced composites
Polyurethane Resins  Rigid and flexible foams
Phenol-Formaldehyde resins  Plywood
Functional additives (plasticizer, flame-retardant)  Thermoplastic compounding
KRAFT LIGNIN & LIGNOSULPHONATE
PRETREATMENTS
DEGRADATION & FRACTIONATION
CONVERSION TO BIOMATERIALS
Following the same approach as slide 3 I have added a brief description of SmartLi, highlighting the areas where we worked (Epoxy and PU resin).
This slide aims at making the audience understand why we selected also the Tehcnology Landsgace analysis on lignocellulosic biomass as service from the SuperBIO providers
Basically slide 3 and 4 explain our 2 main areas of interest/innovation.
SmartLi Fact Sheet:
This project has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No
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VALUE CHAIN (5 companies , 3 countries)
Borregaard
(NO)
Cardolite
(BE)
Biomass treatment/ Raw material provider
AEP Polymers
(IT)
Development of
Renewable chemicals
To participate in the SuperBIO project is is required that the new value chain created is transnational. Theoretically the SuperBIO contact point will help the SME to put together the value chain but in our case we knew already all the companies involved.
Our value chain goes from the raw material producer to the end-user and we already have a contractual relationship with Cardolite.
VossChemie is a Cardolite distributor.
Orineo is a potential customer for Cardolite and also a direct contact for AEP (there was some funded project proposal in the past that was not approved).
Borregaard is a potential supplier of lignin (lignosulphonate or desuphonated lignosulphonate) and has expressed a mild interest in collaboration but it looks like they do not want to externalize activities such as consultancy. We keep in touch from time to time.
Cardolite
(BE)
Industrial production
Voss-Chemie
(BE)
Orineo
(BE)
Distributor/End User
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6. All rights reserved – © AEP Polymers 2018
Services provided to aep:
FOR COMMERCIAL CNSL-BASED MATERIALS  Aim: Improve market penetration
LCA analysis on existing materials that are currently on the market, to be used both as sales tool and to identify hotspots and improve production processes;
Market analysis to understand the potential for bio-based materials, in particular in the bio-based epoxy resin market.
FOR NEW PRODUCTS  Aim: help to drive innovation and raw materials/technology selection
Technology landscape analysis of lignocellulosic biomass technologies and products.
The organizers ask to comment on how the services provided by the SuperBIO consultants helped bring our products closer to the market.
I have differentiated the services that we requested in two types:
Aimed at current commercial materials that Cardolite is producing/selling: we requested the LCA to be used mainly as sales tool but it can be used also to identify which steps of production are more environmentally challenging and might be optimized in the future. We also requested a market analysis dedicated to the biobased epoxy market, this is aimed at directly increase sales by giving Jarno more info on the market.
Aimed at future developments: we have been involved with lignin for a while, therefore we requested the SuperBIO providers to perform a Technology Landscape Assessment in order to understand who is doing what and at which TRL in the lignocellulosic sector, in order to have a clearer picture of a very complex sector.
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RESULTS:
LCA
Provided by the nova Institute and performed on 5 CNSL-derivatives.
Includes hotspot and sensitivity analysis and shows improved environmental impacts of
CNSL-derivatives compared to non-biobased alternatives.
MARKET ANALYSIS
Provided by NNFCC, 82 European companies were analyzed.
Focused on bio-based epoxy market and its drivers/opportunities.
Total consultancy cost vs what we paid (75% was paid in the form of voucher from SuperBIO to the consultants):
LCA: 39, euro – we paid 9,975.00
MARKET ANALYSIS: 10, euro – we paid 2,628.00
TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE: 9, euro – we paid 2,386.00
TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE
Provided by NNFCC, on the topic of biomass pretreatment and fractionation techniques.
Focused on lignocellulosic derivatives, their applications and the TRL of each technology.
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