Microbially Recovered Lignin for Foams (MireLifo)

MireLifo涉及两个多学科研究活动，由两个独立的研究中心开发：南威尔士大学厌氧消化中心和班戈尔大学生物复合材料中心。该伙伴关系建议使用低价值资源（动物浆消化物）作为生产高品质隔热泡沫的原材料（不含氟化阻燃剂的高阻燃性，低烟雾产生，该项目将与塔塔钢铁公司合作交付，这将有助于开发和测试可持续的木质素-酚基泡沫以及Bryn Power，它们是一种新型厌氧消化装置的运营商，该装置的重要原料成分是来自其1500个牧场的动物泥浆。厌氧消化中心将专注于使用厌氧消化-作为生物加工的第一步，以获得富含木质素的木质素，可以通过微生物生物加工成酚类化合物，并结合绿色分离技术，以获得明确的低聚木质素树脂。生物复合材料中心将专注于生产新型木质素基聚合物结构，具有合适的流变学和机械/热性能，可用于绝缘泡沫。MireLifo旨在从对环境产生重大影响的低价值动物泥浆中提供高价值的木质素-酚产品，并将这种回收与生物能源生产和NPK回收相结合。MireLifo泡沫产品样品旨在通过生物衍生、嵌入碳含量较低、不含氟化阻燃剂及其相关的重大环境和健康影响，在质量和可持续性方面超过目前塔塔钢铁建筑行业的产品范围，最大限度地减少火灾或报废焚烧过程中的有毒烟雾，并有可能实现更可持续和循环的回收，最终使用泡沫产品。这些优点仍将与关键性能标准相关，包括高热性能、防潮性、高防火性能和结构强度。

MireLifo involves two multidisciplinary research activities, to be developed by two separate research centres: Centre for Anaerobic Digestion, University of South Wales and The BioComposites Centre at Bangor University. The partnership proposes using a low value resource (digestate from animal slurries) as the raw material to produce high quality insulation foams (with high fire resistance without fluorinated fire retardants, low smoke production, low thermal energy transmission - reduced foam thickness).The project will be delivered in collaboration with Tata Steel that will be contributing to the development and testing of the sustainable lignin-phenolic based foams as well as Bryn Power that are operators of a novel anaerobic digestion plant with a significant feedstock component of animal slurries from their 1500 herd farm. The Centre for Anaerobic Digestion will focus on using Anaerobic Digestion-as a first step in bioprocessing to obtain a lignin-rich digestate, that can be microbially bioprocessed into phenolic compounds integrated with the aid of green separation techniques, to obtain well defined oligo-lignin resins. The BioComposites Centre will focus on producing novel lignin based polymeric architectures, with suitable rheology and mechanical/thermal properties to be used in insulation foams.MireLifo aims to deliver high value lignin-phenolic products from low value animal slurries which are creating significant environmental impact and associate this recovery with production of bio-energy and recovery of NPK as well. MireLifo foam product samples aim to exceed current's Tata Steel product range for the construction sector in terms of quality and sustainability by being bioderived, with a lower embedded carbon, with no fluorinated fire retardants and their related significant environmental and health impacts, minimise significantly toxic fumes in case of fire or during end of life incineration and that could potentially enable a more sustainable and circular recovery for end use foam products. These advantages will still be associated with key performance criteria that includes high thermal performance, moisture resistance, high fire performance and structural strength.