We are excited to announce that a new H2020 project, under the topic HORIZON-CL4-2021-RESILIENCE-01-11: Safe- and sustainable-by-design polymeric materials (RIA) is starting tomorrow and will run for the next 4 years! Professor Bikiaris is the project coordinator, and Dr Alexandra Zamboulis the project manager.
REVERSIBLY DESIGNED CROSS LINKED POLYMERS
(REDONDO)
REDONDO will develop reversibly cross-linked polyethylene (rPEX), rendering the up-to-date non-recyclable PEX a recyclable-bydesign innovative polymer. Achievement of reversibility will be conducted via two different thermally reversible reactions for PE crosslinking: one based on C-S-S bonds and one exploiting the Diels Alder reaction. The produced rPEX will be characterized and its reversibility assessed. Key to this project is the adoption of the Safety-by-Design and Sustainability-by-Design frameworks, incorporating the outcomes of safety- and sustainability-related assessments already from the design stage in the polymer formulation process. Use of innovative green and bio-based additives (LPNs and MFC) will enable for further improvement of desired properties (thermal stability, mechanical properties and flammability) without introducing health risks or jeopardizing the environmental sustainability of the materials and processes. Nanolignin (LNPs) and nanocellulose (MFC) are being produced and studied as rPEX additives for the first time. An inventory of additives tool will enable further adoption of this approach. Two high potential impact end-use applications have been placed under focus: pipes and photovoltaic cables. The efficiency of the adopted approach and technologies will be demonstrated and validated according to the specification and requirements of end-users. Moreover, a number of analyses will be performed to evaluate the safety and sustainability of rPEX but also to establish the safety and sustainability-by-design criteria and the recyclability requirements. This will facilitate the extension of this concept to other end-use applications of rPEX or to the design and development of other cross-linked -not currently recyclable- polymers as reversible ones.
The REDONDO consortium
The partners are distributed across 6 European Countries that are well positioned across the end-use markets. Located in Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, and Portugal.
​To start with, AUTH and CNRS (group of prof. Sylvain Caillol) are worldwide known polymer science research groups focusing specifically on the methodologies that will be used in REDONDO (cross-linking via C-S bonds and DA-rDA reactions).
ITENE, CNANO and AUTH have worked extensively with polymer additives and in particular with bio-based and green nanoparticles, with ITENE being highly proficient in the use of nanocellulose and CNANO being pioneers in the production of nanolignin, having a long-lasting collaboration with AUTH that has been focusing a lot on the functionalization of additives and the nucleating agents to be used in PEX.
SILON is a large European market and innovation leading enterprise, specialized in the production of PEX, with global clientele, high research intensiveness, and distinctive research orientation towards sustainable, safe, and recyclable plastics. INTERPLAST and KBE are well-established companies with international clientele for a variety of PEX products, highly invested in the excellence and world-class quality of the products they offer. Both these companies are indeed clients of SILON, collaborating closely with them on the development of new products and joining forces for the successful commercialization of REDONDO’s results. Regarding SbD and SusbD aspects, ITENE is vastly experienced in matters associated with health risk assessment, inferring the SbD and SusbD criteria and making the connections with the development processes, while AIMEN has comprehensive experience of processability analysis and process design, recyclability, and sustainability aspects, making the by-design connections between materials, chemicals and processes; both companies with a proven track record of relevant EU-funded projects. Additionally, AXIA has a long record of successful provision of business planning, exploitation, and marketing services, specialized in EU-funded R&I projects, while they also been invested in the development of computational decision support tools incorporating various sustainability aspects with mathematical modeling. Last but not least, RDC is specialized in providing dissemination and communication services, utilizing modern tools and strategies, and being based on their developer expertise, focusing on all web-, campaign-, and web-interface-development.
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101058449.