Sustainability in coatings covers aspects related to energy and resource conservation, waste minimization or efficiency and the use of renewable and non-toxic products. The coatings industry has been driven by regulatory issues to diminish the content of volatile organic compounds to improve indoor and outdoor air quality, shifting from solvent borne systems (still the preferred choice globally) to waterborne ones. However, even in the case of products labelled as “environmentally friendly” their bio-based content is usually small (up to 30-40%). The challenge is to substitute fossil-based resins maintaining at least the same performance. New bio-based value chains are necessary. Lignin is an underutilized product with a high potential to provide not only economic returns, but also environmental benefits if value-added applications are found. Although lignin is a topic of great interest, the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into real products is not trivial and still no commercial options are available. LIGNICOAT proposal provides new synthetic routes to obtain bioresins “à la carte” (PUD, ALKYD and EPOXY) based on lignin intermediates (Polyols, Epoxies, phosphorylated, polyacids and carbonates) for application in coatings and validated in an industrial relevant environment (TRL5). The target is not only to increase the biobased content and ensure performance, but also take advantage of lignin specific characteristics, to develop bioadditives (enzymes, chitosan, sugars, …), increasing the biocontent and providing anticorrosive, fireproof and antimicrobial/antiviral features in high-volume market case studies. Depending on the intermediates and the resins used, the estimated biocontent of the coatings will vary between 60-90%. A multidisciplinary and complementary consortium consists in 9 industrial partners BARPIMO, VENCOREX, AEP, WESTLAKE, FORESA, BRS, IRIS, ECOAT and AXIA and 4 RTOs, TECNALIA, VITO, VTT, NORCE and ARDITEC.

This project aims to provide for real-world implementations of Water Framework Directive (and other water related legislation), as well as the Circular Economy and EU Green Deal packages by showcasing and validating innovative next generation water resource solutions at pre-commercial demonstration scale. These solutions combine WATER management services with the recovery of value added renewable resources extracted/MINED from alternative water resources ("WATER-MINING"). The project will integrate selected innovative technologies that have reached proof of concept levels under previous EU projects. The value-added end-products (water, platform chemicals, energy, nutrients, minerals) are expected to provide regional resource supplies to fuel economic developments within a growing demand for resource security. Different layouts for urban wastewater treatment and seawater desalination are proposed, to demonstrate the wider practical potential to replicate the philosophy of approach in widening circles of water and resource management schemes. Innovative service-based business models (such as chemical leasing) will be introduced to stimulate progressive forms of collaboration between public and private actors and access to private investments, as well as policy measures to make the proposed water solutions relevant and accessible for rolling out commercial projects in the future. The goal is to enable costs for the recovery of the resources to become distributed across the whole value chain in a fair way, promoting business incentives for investments from both suppliers and end-users along the value chain. The demonstration case studies are to be first implemented in five EU countries (NL, ES, CY, PT, IT) where prior successful technical and social steps have already been accomplished. The broader project consortium representation will be an enabler to transferring trans-disciplinary project know-how to the partner countries while motivating and inspiring relevant innovations throughout Europe.