Recipient Organization
PPG COATINGS & RESINS R&D
4325 ROSANNA DRIVE
ALLISON PARK,PA 15101
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
According to a 2009 Chemical Economics Handbook report entitled Paint and Coatings Industry Overview, "Natural resins amount to about 0.2% of all [coating] film formers, compared with approximately 50% prior to World War II." This shows how completely petroleum-based coatings have replaced bio-based coatings. Until bio-based materials are designed to excel in high performance products, they will continue to be viewed as inferior to petroleum-based coatings. PPG, in collaboration with Northeastern University, proposes to leverage prior work in developing bio-based UV-cure coatings to demonstrate and validate a new UV-curable coating formulation for the wood flooring market having at least 30% bio-based content and 0-to-low volatile organic content (VOC). The project team will custom-formulate a novel, bio-based building block for use in wood flooring coatings and validate formulas in the lab against an industry-accepted battery of tests. A prototype will then be optimized for ease of application and produced at a scale sufficient for trial on a wood flooring manufacture's coating line. The prototype bio-based coating will be trialed and once again validated for application and cure performance. While coating validation is occurring, the coating will be independently assessed by Northeastern University for environmental impact by LCA. The coating's bio-content will also be validated by ASTM D6866. At the successful completion of the program, the new bio-based, UV-curable coating will have been made to scale, applied on a commercial coating line, and validated against requirements accepted by the wood flooring industry. Once commercialized beyond the scope of this proposed program, the public will have access to an environmentally-beneficial prefinished hardwood flooring product.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this program is to validate a new UV-cure coating formulation for the wood flooring market having at least 30% bio-based content and 0-to-low volatile organic content (VOC). There are four primary objectives of this work that will enable us to reach the primary goal. First, PPG's bio-based oligomers will be validated in the lab against industry-accepted wood flooring tests at levels of 30% or more bio-content. Second the team will identify which coating layer(s) of the hardwood flooring finish is/are the best fit for the new bio-based oligomers, focusing on sealers and topcoats. Once a prototype wood flooring coating has been identified, the team will ensure that the new coating is environmentally beneficial as determined by life cycle analysis (LCA). Finally, the project will validate commercial suitability (ease of application, cure performance, cost considerations) of the new bio-based coating on a customer line and tested against requirements accepted by the wood flooring industry. The final output of this program is a full report which captures the data and analysis developed under the program.
Project Methods
The project has been organized to establish a UV-cure coatings formulation with significant renewable content that meets the requirements of the wood flooring market. It is proposed as a single phase program lasting 18 months. The project begins with the team formulating the new coating and screening performance against wood flooring litmus tests in the lab such as cross hatch adhesion and Taber abrasion resistance. Reiterations will be made until at least one candidate with 30% bio-content meeting the litmus tests is identified. Identified coatings will then be subjected to a full battery of industry-accepted tests and application characteristics will be optimized. The LCA will be developed while the application optimization is occurring. Once the formula is determined, the coating will be scaled to trial size (5-20 gallons) and trialed on a wood flooring manufacturing line. The trial will enable the team to validate the new coating for performance against industry tests indicated above. In addition, the wood flooring manufacturer and PPG field service personnel will provide an assessment of coating application performance. The ultimate commercial sales of quality products based on this project will illustrate the viability of bio-based UV-cure coatings to end users. The successful commercialization of the envisioned products will demonstrate that bio-based products can successfully help companies meet not only environmental goals, but also performance and economic goals. After the successful completion of this program, PPG will be able to take the next steps necessary to advance the new coating to commercialization for the wood flooring industry. After meeting success in the flooring market, it would be possible to address other wood markets in the US and abroad. We estimate that establishing a bio-based UV-cure coating for the global wood flooring market could potentially provide a high value-added outlet for 1 - 5 million bushels of corn per year.