New Glue Option for Engineered Timber
An innovative new adhesive, derived from purified and refined industrial bio-waste, should enable 90% of engineered wood products, including furniture and construction boards, to become fully recyclable and helping to develop a sustainable circular economy in this sector. The new adhesive, derived from extracted and purified waste is sustainable, non-toxic and possesses a step-change improvement in recyclability and circularity.
BindEthics, the sustainable glue company behind this innovation was founded by Maria Garcia, a chemist with an MSc in molecular design from the University of Amsterdam and Callum Smith a 21-year old materials engineer from Esher who is completing an integrated Masters (MEng Material Science and Engineering) at the University of Birmingham.
BindEthics has won the Armourers & Brasiers Venture Prize seed funding award. "Our glue is ethically sourced, has end-of-life biodegradability and has properties suited to replacing traditional formaldehyde adhesives," says Callum Smith. "As well as being fully recyclable the glue can be produced with almost no additional cost to the manufacturer and has a carbon footprint that is 86 percent lower than traditional adhesives."
In 2022 preliminary trials conducted at the Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) in York were backed up by analytical experimental studies enabling the development of the first minimum viable product.
BindEthics is currently working with one of the three largest engineered wood companies in the UK and one of the UK's largest packaging companies for technical insight. BindEthics has received commercial, scale-up and lab-based support from the Biorenewables Development Centre in York under their European Regional Development Programme business assist scheme and Innovate UK. Additionally, it is receiving network access, business space and financial aid from the University of Birmingham and Innovate UK which help accelerate the innovation.
"BindEthics is showing how research and innovation has the potential to improve the recyclability of modern furniture and construction panels," said Julian Beare, Chairman of the Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize judging panel. "Our prize looks to encourage scientific entrepreneurship in the UK and provide funding to help innovative developments like this realise their potential."
"Our vision is that our new bio-adhesive derived from food waste will replace a range of adhesives used across industry," said Callum Smith. "The initial focus is on replacing the formaldehyde-based glues used in the manufacture of engineered wood products, but we also envisage applications for our sustainable adhesive within the shoe and automotive industries."
www.armourershall.co.uk/venture-prize/ www.biorenewables.org/
