Eco friendly COlourants for Polymer pROducts

Programme 2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B North West Europe

Date of latest update: 2025-05-12

Description

Description (EN):

This project addresses the challenge of transitioning to a place-based, resource efficient, circular economy through enabling the replacement of synthetic colourants with bio-based, degradable colourants. Current synthetic colourants in polymer/plastic products are based on fossil resources, non-biodegradable, and potentially toxic when they are released into the environment during recycling or composting processes and at present, there are no such eco-friendly colourants in plastic products throughout the NWE region. However, there is also a clear demand by industry for bio-based and biodegradable colourants. Through the development of an application-specific colour-masterbatch designed in line with industry specific formulations, full end of life and life cycle assessment (LCA), we will deliver the prototype technical development and commercial proof needed to enable EU businesses to invest in natural eco-friendly colourants. Our project partners have collaborated before in the area of bio-based colourants and represent experts in the field. Our geographic spread allows us to ensure that European best practices are employed, that the most sustainable technologies and implementation practices are widely disseminated, promotes scalability and replicability of solutions through partners TUS, DeltaQ, AVANS and WWU supports to policy alignment, and provides access to additional funding opportunities.

Actual Achievements (EN):

The ECOPRO project took significant steps towards ‘Promoting the transition to a circular and resource-efficient economy’ during the first phase of the reporting period. The project progression so far was achieved with extensive cooperation between the partners consistently throughout the project report duration. During the first stage, comprehensive communication, dissemination and engagement foundations were established. This will ensure successful project delivery, enhance industry engagement, and increase awareness of the ECOPRO initiative's capabilities as promotion among industries, the public, and the higher education and research communities. ECOPRO achieved significant milestones in communication and dissemination, led by TUS in collaboration with all project partners. Key accomplishments include: - Establishment of the ECOPRO project webpage on the Interreg website, featuring two blog posts for the general public. - Creation of two social media posts and a digital display graphic to promote the project's launch and industry involvement. - All partners attended conferences and events to promote the project's industrial relevance and potential, including Irish Polymer Conference in Ireland, Kompost Festival in Germany and Biocolour Conference in Helsinki. Networking at the events to inspire the adoption of sustainable alternatives and support the transition to low-impact colorant solutions by showcasing and emphasizing successful examples. The first phase of the project was dedicated importantly to the selection and production of the colorants and to identifying the industrial parameters for the incorporation of colorants into the polymers. For the selection of the colorants, all the project consortium partners held a meeting to go through and discuss the previous results of the colorants from the Interreg NWE project CurCol to determine the colorant suitability for thermal and UV stability. Based on the discussion between the partners, the curcumin-derived red colorant, 3-methyl salicylic acid rubrocurcumin was selected. Additionally, Avans derived two red colour variants from the curcumin, gallic acid rubrocurcumin, and methyl gallate rubrocurcumin. The selected three colorants were produced at Avans and were also distributed to the partner institutes, TUS and WWU. TUS worked closely with the industry partner, DeltaQ to identify the industrial parameters for incorporating colorants into the polymers. DeltaQ gave excellent guidance on the developed colours to make them into colour masterbatches in the polymers. Firstly, the industry-specific polymers were identified. Following this, TUS incorporated the curcumin-derived red colorant, 3-methyl salicylic acid rubrocurcumin received from the Avans into these polymers, and the processability was assessed and updated to the project partners. Following the discussion of the results, DeltaQ recommended the addition of the additives that are used in industry-standard colour master batch production and also to test the coloured polymer samples for colourfastness test to check the migration of colours in the water, oil, cheese, and any industrial chemical for testing their application as an end product. The chemical stability of the curcumin derivative of 3-methyl salicylic acid received from Avans was evaluated at WWU. The colour broke down into the recognized degradation products. Furthermore, initial compost tests with coloured polymers received from TUS were conducted to establish a potential testing protocol for the following masterbatches sent from TUS. Key achievements: - The developed colorants are synthesized from curcumin with bio-based compositions which derives the red colour. - The colorant can be incorporated into the polymers with ease by different processing technologies for different applications. - The PE-coloured masterbatches displayed good thermal stability where the colour is stable and processable in the PE at higher temperatures. - The colour does not migrate from the polymer in various conditions such as water, or oil which demonstrates its applicability as an end product with good stability. - The chemical stability tests of the colorant show that it breaks into degradation products at various temperatures, duration, and composting which could demonstrate that this experiment setup could potentially be used at the end of the product life cycle. - Given that many microbes can use vanillin as a carbon source, it is possible to view one of the breakdown product during composting, vanillin, as harmless.

Project outputs: Pilot Action(EN)
Colourants(EN)
Website: http://ecopro.nweurope.eu

Thematic information

Green technologies Governance, partnership Waste and pollution

Priority: (VI-B_NWE_3) Transition towards a place-based circular economy

Priority specific objective: RSO2.6. Promoting the transition to a circular and resource efficient economy

Priority policy objective (Interreg specific objective): PO2 A greener, low-carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy and resilient Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk prevention and management, and sustainable urban mobility

Type of intervention: 075 Support to environmentally-friendly production processes and resource efficiency in SMEs

Partners (4)

Lead Partner: Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta na Sionainne: Lár Tíre Iarthar Láir

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 889135563

Partner’s ID if not PIC: IE 3793434QH

Department: PRISM Research Institute

Address: University Road, N37HD68 Athlone, Ireland

Department address: University Road, N37HD68 Athlone, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://ait.ie

Total budget: EUR 184 150.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 110 490.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 73 660.00

Stichting Avans

Name: Stichting Avans

Department: MNEXT - Biobased Building Blocks & Products

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 953067681

Partner’s ID if not PIC: NL808852218B01

Address: Professor Cobbenhagenlaan , 5037 DA Tilburg, Netherlands

Department address: Lovensdijkstraat , 4818JH Breda, Netherlands

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://www.mnext.nl/

Total budget: EUR 163 436.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 98 061.60

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 65 374.40

Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Name: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Department: Institute of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology - Microbial Biotechnology and Ecology

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 999853691

Partner’s ID if not PIC: DE126118759

Address: Schlossplatz, 48149 Münster, Germany

Department address: Corrensstrasse, 48149 Münster, Germany

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://www.uni-muenster.de/en/

Total budget: EUR 145 878.26

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 87 526.95

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 60.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 58 351.31

Quality Additives T/A DeltaQ

Name: Quality Additives T/A DeltaQ

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 953444429

Partner’s ID if not PIC: E6423933P

Address: Moydrum Industrial Estate, N37CF82 Athlone, Ireland

Legal status: private

Organisation type: SME

Website: http://deltaq.ie

Partners map

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Eco friendly COlourants for Polymer pROducts

Project acronym: ECOPRO

Project ID: NWE0300332

Project start date: 2024-01-01

Project end date: 2025-06-30

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 493 464.26

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 296 078.55

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 60.00%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 296 078.55. Co-financing rate, 60.00%.

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

(bullets are inserted automatically and may be incorrectly placed)

Deliverables:

Communication strategy
Consortium meeting 1
Engagement strategy
Consortium meeting 2
Preparation of posters and oral presentation
Consortium meeting 3
Socio-economic analyses and communication
Test pre-selected colourants in industry specific polymers.
Produce 3 colourants and sent to partners.
Extraction of colourants from colour master batches and end products.
Identifying industrial parameters for incorporation of colourants into the polymers.
The feasibility study
Pilot production of coloured masterbatches
Evaluation of the coloured polymer product
Pilot production of bottle
Stability and diffusion of colourants
Composting of colourants with biodegradable polymers
Biodegradation of colourant-containing extracts
Socioeconomic survey
Long term action plan
Protocol for colourants from pilot scale to commercialisation
Dissemination to increase recognition

Programme Common Output Indicator:

RCO 084 - Pilot actions developed jointly and implemented in projects, Measurement unit:
RCO 116 - Jointly developed solutions, Measurement unit:

Programme Common Result Indicator:

RCR 104 - Solutions taken up or up-scaled by organisations, Measurement unit:

Programme Result Indicator:

PSR 1: Organisations with increased institutional capacity due to their participation in cooperation activities across borders, Measurement unit: Organisations

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B North West Europe

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2025-05-12

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

70 / 70 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

739 / 739 (100%)

Notes on the data

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Eco friendly COlourants for Polymer pROducts

Description

Thematic information

Partners (4)

Partners map

Summary

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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