“Bio-based raw materials seem to be establishing themselves more and more,” Popp, Group Leader for Adhesives Formulation, says. “However, I personally think it is too soon to talk of a real trend in favor of bio-based adhesives, one of the reasons being that the situation is still very much in flux. In some areas, e.g., polyurethanes made with bio-based polyols or, in the case of epoxies, products made with cashew shell oil, renewable raw materials have long been state of the art. In others, e.g. lignins, current research shows that there are still a number of obstacles preventing large-scale use in adhesives.”
Biobased adhesives can avoid competition with land used to grow food, Popp says. “In terms of total area of land under cultivation, renewable raw materials for polymers and especially adhesives pose no threat at all to food production.” Many biobased adhesive research efforts focus on waste products such as lignin anyway, he adds.