BIO-CAPPP

The use of these bio-aromatics not only makes the products more sustainable, but also provides premium properties. In this way, BIO-CAPPP contributes to the transition to a circular economy. The project has a total budget of €4.3 million and is co-financed by Interreg Flanders-Netherlands, VLAIO, the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders and North Brabant and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.

Forty per cent of all chemicals are aromatic

Manufacturers of products such as plastics, paints, adhesives, insulation foam and textiles use aromatics to impart their products with high-quality properties, such as scratch resistance, UV resistance, adhesive strength or gloss. As much as 40% of all chemicals are aromatic in nature; this amounts to 122 million tonnes annually, worth €120 billion with an annual growth rate of 5%. These aromatics are so far made from fossil raw materials and this has a negative impact on our living environment.

Renewable aromatics

It is also possible to make aromatics from renewable sources: from lignin, the substance that gives strength to trees and is released as a by-product from the paper industry; or from non-edible residual sugars from the agricultural sector. But also by recovering aromatics from plastics. Over the past 10 years, VITO and TNO, as initiators of Shared Research Centre Biorizon, have successfully scaled up the technological development of bio-aromatics in cooperation with European industry.

BIO-CAPPP: Biorizon Center for Applications & Products with Premium Properties

The BIO-CAPPP project will develop renewable aromatics and apply them in concrete products, together with companies, experts and students. Together, the project partners will enable commercial production of bio-aromatics and stimulate the market for sustainable products with premium properties.

In the Biorizon Application Centre, companies can collaborate with knowledge workers and students to apply bio-aromatics in products for the construction and textile sectors, among others, in a low-threshold way and at favourable conditions (innovation vouchers specifically for SMEs in Flanders / SMEs in the Netherlands). The bio-aromatics not only make these products more sustainable, but also more functional with premium properties.

In addition, the partners anchor the developed knowledge and skills in educational programmes so that the workers of the future can put the sustainable innovations into practice at companies.

Project partners

In the BIO-CAPPP project, partners from Flanders and the Netherlands cooperate intensively.

Project leader VITO from Flanders and TNO from the Netherlands have been collaborating since 2013 on the technological development of bio-aromatics from sugars, lignin and unrefined waste streams under the banner of Shared Research Centre Biorizon. Flanders' CENTEXBEL and Avans University of Applied Sciences / MNEXT from the Netherlands will work with VITO to develop innovative applications based on the lignin- and sugar-based building blocks, with a specific focus on the construction and textile sectors. Kamp C from Flanders will inform, inspire and support end users, the construction sector and local authorities in the use of the sustainable innovations. The Green Chemistry Campus, which is also home to Biorizon, will be the meeting place where entrepreneurs, governments and knowledge institutions work together to scale up bio-based and circular innovations.

Contact

For more information about the BIO-CAPPP project and the possibilities of the Biorizon Application Centre to test bio-aromatics in concrete products, contact BIO-CAPPP project leader Kelly Servaes of VITO via email hidden; JavaScript is required or +32 (0)4 93 31 87 46.

Interreg Flanders-Netherlands

The BIO-CAPPP project has a total budget of €4.3 million and is co-funded by Interreg Flanders-Netherlands, the cross-border cooperation programme with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund, VLAIO, the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders and North Brabant and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.