Safe, sustainable and high performance adhesives and coatings from industrial softwood bark

Adhesives and coatings are an integral part of consumer products used in our daily lives. Today, the vast majority of adhesives and coatings on the market are formulated using fossil-based and harmful chemicals, which conflicts with the EU-level goal of reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources and protecting the health and well-being of citizens and the environment. The SuperBark project will exploit natural components in softwood bark, a major industrial side stream of forest industry, to develop 95% bio-based adhesives and coatings for wood panels and packaging paper with the functional, safety, and sustainability standards required by the industry and consumers. The project partners will deliver this through 1) extraction of polyphenols from bark using a novel alkaline fractionation technology and conversion of cellulose-rich bark residues into cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) 2) development of adhesive and coating formulations using bark polyphenols and CNF that meet technical requirements and build on Safe and Sustainable by Design principles set out by the JRC and 3) combination of digital technologies in process design, system dynamics modelling, and data analysis to accelerate the adhesive and coating developments and evaluate technical, socio-economic and market opportunities. The project findings will be disseminated to scientists, policy makers, society, and industrial actors in relevant sectors, including furniture, construction, transportation and packaging, to raise awareness on the benefits of the adhesives and coatings developed from bark components. The exploitation of results from SuperBark will have a measurable economic impact on the consortium companies and will also translate into clear environmental and health impacts to the society, in alignment to the objectives set in the CBE JU annual work program.