Westlake Epoxy Joins Netherlands Based B4 Consortium
Over the next three years, 11 partners in West-North Brabant, Netherlands, will be working together to make green building blocks with local tree and plant residues. Westlake Epoxy reports that it will play a key role in project Consortium B4 (Better Bio-based Building Blocks), aiming to explore the replacement of fossil fuel-based feedstock with a bio-based feedstock for the production of epoxy resins. In collaboration with consortium partners, these novel bio-based feedstocks are tested and tailored to meet the specific requirements for producing epoxy resins and ensuring the epoxy product meets customer’s product properties requirements.
From grass to glue, from sugar beet pulp to paint or from wood chips to insulation foam are examples of what the B4 project envisions. These building blocks not only make products for the construction industry more sustainable, but also provide scratch resistance, flame retardancy or ultraviolet (UV) resistance. Besides these technological innovations, the partners in this B4 project also share knowledge with students, companies and governments to prepare them for and involve them in this raw materials transition. This will transform Western North Brabant, a province in the south of the Netherlands, into a hotspot for bio-based building blocks for the construction industry.
The construction sector faces a huge challenge: to cut CO2 emissions by half by 2030 and 90% by 2050. One of the fossil building blocks that are going to be replaced by a sustainable alternative are aromatics. As much as 40% of all products around us contain aromatics. Think of paint, glue, insulation materials, textiles and foams. Currently, aromatics are made from fossil raw materials, and this is not beneficial for our climate.
The B4 project combines the entrepreneurship, knowledge and expertise of small and medium-sized companies (Relement, Impershield, Baril Coatings, Bodewes and Progression-Industry) and larger companies (Westlake Epoxy and Worlée) with the technologies and knowledge of TNO, VITO and Avans University of Applied Sciences. The partners want to show that bio-based aromatics can successfully replace fossil aromatics in at least six applications for the construction industry, such as coatings, composites, acrylic and epoxy resins. And that these non-fossil alternatives are not only more sustainable, but also commercially attractive.
Source: Westlake Corporation