Bio-based hot melt adhesives

Background and Objective

Non-reactive hot melt adhesives are important industrial adhesives, in particular for the packaging, hygiene articles, wood and furniture industries. Hot melt adhesives typically consist of several basic materials. The main components are a base polymer, a tackifying resin and waxes. Various additives are used to optimize the product and processing properties. The currently used components are almost exclusively based on petrochemical raw materials. The replacement of these conventional main components with ones based on renewable raw materials could create a new generation of resource-saving hot melt adhesives.

The aim of this project is to develop novel bio-based hot melt adhesives for paper and cardboard packaging. New bio-based polyesters are developed to replace the main components of conventional adhesives. The starting materials are exclusively substances, which are already industrial accessible from renewable resources.

Approach

In the first step new bio-based polyesters are synthesized and tested for their suitability as possible basic components for hot melt adhesives. Based on these tests, hot melt adhesives with optimized characteristics for the use in paper and cardboard packaging are prepared. In the final phase of the project we test and evaluate the bio-based adhesives with respect to their compatibility with existing industrial processing techniques.

Results