Dossier
Lignin, green feedstock for chemicals and materials
Lignin is a natural adhesive that provides strength and flexibility for trees, grasses, and straw. The average tree consists of 25% lignin. The Netherlands boasts considerable volumes of biomass side streams resulting from paper and cardboard production. Currently, these are used for the low-value purpose of generating energy. This will soon change, as lignin is becoming a serious bio-feedstock for the chemical industry and is used in the production of resins, foams and coatings.
Promising purposes
Research
Bio-asphalt from lignin
Wageningen University & Research collaborates with partners in the asphalt production chain within several projects to test different compositions of asphalt in practical situations.
Projects
One of the advantages of lignin asphalt, as opposed to bitumen, is that it significantly reduces CO2 emissions, as well as capture greenhouse gases for a long time.
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TKI-project CHAPLIN (Collaboration in aspHalt APplications with LIgniN)
- Different types of lignin produced in the Netherlands will be tested as an asphalt binder. Demo lignin roads throughout the Netherlands which are built in previous years and during the project will be monitored in the use phase. Also research is being carried out into how lignin asphalt can be reused. -
100% Biobased asfalt binder
- Bitumen is the fossil binder in asphalt. For the future, bitumen shortage and quality changes are expected and it is not a sustainable product. The objective of this project is to develop a fully (100%) bio-based asphalt binder, which is more sustainable and have good performance in road pavement.
Testing strips
There are 25 testing strips located throughout the Netherlands where the asphalt is tested, and sufficient data can be collected to support large-scale market introduction.
