Terry Knowles, European Editor02.21.24
A government-funded program in the Netherlands is bringing more than 80 different stakeholders together in a project focused on developing new technologies that will help solve some of today’s societal challenges.
Called Perspectief, the research project takes the form of seven broad consortia focused on furthering topics in the realms of greenness, spanning a diverse range of topics from coatings and inks to plant-based foods. The project is financed with a total of €35 million and will run for the next five years. It is backed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
In the broadest context, such developments play straight into the much broader European Commission objectives of making Europe the greenest and cleanest continent as part of the Green Deal and its 2050 targets.
The SusInkCoat partners will co-operate with academic researchers at several Dutch universities in an effort to identify promising developments that can be commercialised, used for education purposes or for outreach to the public.
The collaboration will target the development of new materials, processes and applications that will lead to a green revolution in the durability, functionality and recyclability of coatings, thin films and inks.
“We want to make the recyclability of materials – such as furniture, building materials and steel constructions – easier by introducing functionalities like self-healing, higher durability and triggered release,” André van Linden, AkzoNobel’s R&D director of scientific academic programs, said. “The more you can leave the materials in their original state, the more sustainably you can operate.”
van Linden is the co-lead of the SusInkCoat project, which benefits from €6 million in funding.
These will enable lithography machines (for chip production) to use fewer parts, more energy-efficient lamps and produce more light, and inkjet printers to print more predictable, glossy, full-color images.
The researchers will harness two of the latest technologies for manipulating light to replace today’s large and curved optical components with flat alternatives with flat fronts and backs that generate less light distortion. The new components should be easier to recycle and draw on fewer harmful substances, while also emitting more light colours at the same time.
This should pave the way for much sharper images and a set of newer applications. Three major Dutch universities are in this project consortium: Delft University of Technology, University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology and they are joined by a variety of other companies, including Canon and AAC Hyperion.
This technical breakthrough answers the problem of printed electronics on packaging which without greener solutions would otherwise make the recycling of packaging much more challenging, if not impossible.
The new, low temperature curing ink was developed for screen printing conductive tracks, to provide a route to scale up the technology using commercially available processes. At the heart of the breakthrough is the development of conductive silver particles that allow the formulation to be adjusted for a variety of needs, while retaining their recyclability.
The newer silver ink can generate conductivities with 75% of those normal silver flake inks and orders of magnitude higher than carbon-based inks often used for their sustainability. The ink has been formulated so that it is recoverable from a variety of different substrates including paper or plastic, and from product, packaging, and manufacturing waste. A simple and environmentally friendly silver recycling process allows all parts of the packaging to be recycled in a cost-effective way.
Initial tests demonstrated 95% silver recovery from uncoated paper and that it was unchanged by either the printing or recovery process. This paves the way for the recovered silver to be re-manufactured into new inks without the need for further processing, reducing material costs, securing supply and effectively creating a closed-loop system for printed electronics.
In addition, the electronics could be extracted from the waste stream in a multi-step process by means of a release layer, allowing the electronics to be separated from the bulk of the packaging prior to the recovery of the conductive silver.
A recent market study from Future Market Insights provides a global overview and furnishes some interesting insights at the national level. The financial shape of the global eco-friendly inks sector amounted to some US$ 4.3 billion in 2022, and this will rise to US$ 7.5 billion by 2032, achieving it via a CAGR of 5.8%. VOC reduction has been the major driver in recent decades but modern trends are seen encompassing the following:
• Growing environmental concerns and legislative restrictions on the usage of eco-friendly inks in the printing sector are primarily responsible for market expansion. This leads to high demand for environmentally friendly printing technologies, including digital printing, 3D printing, and UV printing.
• The packaging sector is responsible for constant innovation in the eco-friendly inks sector. Packaging materials are printed using eco-friendly inks to lessen their impact on the environment and lengthen their shelf lives. Additionally, the market is anticipated to develop as eco-friendly inks are being used in advertising and promotional materials printed by the printing sector.
• The industry should expand due to the increasing use of water-based inks. Water-based inks are utilized in a variety of applications, such as periodicals, labels, and packaging, and they are free of harmful chemicals.
• It is anticipated that rising demand for organic inks is an emerging trend. Inks composed of organic materials, such as soybeans, are utilized in a variety of applications, including consumer products.
From the European angle, Germany is seen leading the way with 15% of the market for eco-friendly inks. The German market alone will be worth nearly US$ 180 million by 2032. German growth has been spurred on the greater awareness of the need to reduce the use of traditional printing inks and their negative impacts on the environment and manufacturers there are emphasising the creation of eco-friendly inks that lessen the impact of printing on the environment, such as water-based and vegetable-based inks. The German government has also incentivized the development of eco-friendly inks.
Finally, the UK is also seeing rising consumer awareness with regard to inks. Digital printing and the reduction of plastic use in the consumer sector are driving the consumption of more eco-friendly inks. Tax exemptions on the use of eco-friendly inks are also a driving force here.
Called Perspectief, the research project takes the form of seven broad consortia focused on furthering topics in the realms of greenness, spanning a diverse range of topics from coatings and inks to plant-based foods. The project is financed with a total of €35 million and will run for the next five years. It is backed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
In the broadest context, such developments play straight into the much broader European Commission objectives of making Europe the greenest and cleanest continent as part of the Green Deal and its 2050 targets.
The SusInkCoat Project
Announcing its involvement in the project, the Dutch and European paint and coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel stated that it was part of the SusInkCoat project, which aims to make inks and coatings more sustainable. This consortium-based collaboration is with Canon, Evonik, GFB, PTG and RUG Ventures, which between them have extensive knowledge of market demands, supply chains and production processes.The SusInkCoat partners will co-operate with academic researchers at several Dutch universities in an effort to identify promising developments that can be commercialised, used for education purposes or for outreach to the public.
The collaboration will target the development of new materials, processes and applications that will lead to a green revolution in the durability, functionality and recyclability of coatings, thin films and inks.
“We want to make the recyclability of materials – such as furniture, building materials and steel constructions – easier by introducing functionalities like self-healing, higher durability and triggered release,” André van Linden, AkzoNobel’s R&D director of scientific academic programs, said. “The more you can leave the materials in their original state, the more sustainably you can operate.”
van Linden is the co-lead of the SusInkCoat project, which benefits from €6 million in funding.
The AWAVE Project
A second project under the Perspectief umbrella where inks lie in the research crosshairs is the AWAVE Project. The AWAVE project (Advanced Wave Engineering for Sustainable Optical Applications) has been set up for developing flat optical components.These will enable lithography machines (for chip production) to use fewer parts, more energy-efficient lamps and produce more light, and inkjet printers to print more predictable, glossy, full-color images.
The researchers will harness two of the latest technologies for manipulating light to replace today’s large and curved optical components with flat alternatives with flat fronts and backs that generate less light distortion. The new components should be easier to recycle and draw on fewer harmful substances, while also emitting more light colours at the same time.
This should pave the way for much sharper images and a set of newer applications. Three major Dutch universities are in this project consortium: Delft University of Technology, University of Twente and Eindhoven University of Technology and they are joined by a variety of other companies, including Canon and AAC Hyperion.
Achieving Circularity in Silver Inks
In a different development that is not in the Perspectief project, R&D work undertaken at Swansea University in Wales has created a breakthrough recyclable silver conductive ink that will go some way to increasing the circularity of electronics without incurring any performance loss.This technical breakthrough answers the problem of printed electronics on packaging which without greener solutions would otherwise make the recycling of packaging much more challenging, if not impossible.
The new, low temperature curing ink was developed for screen printing conductive tracks, to provide a route to scale up the technology using commercially available processes. At the heart of the breakthrough is the development of conductive silver particles that allow the formulation to be adjusted for a variety of needs, while retaining their recyclability.
The newer silver ink can generate conductivities with 75% of those normal silver flake inks and orders of magnitude higher than carbon-based inks often used for their sustainability. The ink has been formulated so that it is recoverable from a variety of different substrates including paper or plastic, and from product, packaging, and manufacturing waste. A simple and environmentally friendly silver recycling process allows all parts of the packaging to be recycled in a cost-effective way.
Initial tests demonstrated 95% silver recovery from uncoated paper and that it was unchanged by either the printing or recovery process. This paves the way for the recovered silver to be re-manufactured into new inks without the need for further processing, reducing material costs, securing supply and effectively creating a closed-loop system for printed electronics.
In addition, the electronics could be extracted from the waste stream in a multi-step process by means of a release layer, allowing the electronics to be separated from the bulk of the packaging prior to the recovery of the conductive silver.
Eco-friendly Inks: A Big Market in Europe
Although the demanding natures of sustainability and circularity require massive and intensive industry co-operations in order to create the eco-technologies of the future, the demand for eco-friendly inks in Europe is already big business.A recent market study from Future Market Insights provides a global overview and furnishes some interesting insights at the national level. The financial shape of the global eco-friendly inks sector amounted to some US$ 4.3 billion in 2022, and this will rise to US$ 7.5 billion by 2032, achieving it via a CAGR of 5.8%. VOC reduction has been the major driver in recent decades but modern trends are seen encompassing the following:
• Growing environmental concerns and legislative restrictions on the usage of eco-friendly inks in the printing sector are primarily responsible for market expansion. This leads to high demand for environmentally friendly printing technologies, including digital printing, 3D printing, and UV printing.
• The packaging sector is responsible for constant innovation in the eco-friendly inks sector. Packaging materials are printed using eco-friendly inks to lessen their impact on the environment and lengthen their shelf lives. Additionally, the market is anticipated to develop as eco-friendly inks are being used in advertising and promotional materials printed by the printing sector.
• The industry should expand due to the increasing use of water-based inks. Water-based inks are utilized in a variety of applications, such as periodicals, labels, and packaging, and they are free of harmful chemicals.
• It is anticipated that rising demand for organic inks is an emerging trend. Inks composed of organic materials, such as soybeans, are utilized in a variety of applications, including consumer products.
From the European angle, Germany is seen leading the way with 15% of the market for eco-friendly inks. The German market alone will be worth nearly US$ 180 million by 2032. German growth has been spurred on the greater awareness of the need to reduce the use of traditional printing inks and their negative impacts on the environment and manufacturers there are emphasising the creation of eco-friendly inks that lessen the impact of printing on the environment, such as water-based and vegetable-based inks. The German government has also incentivized the development of eco-friendly inks.
Finally, the UK is also seeing rising consumer awareness with regard to inks. Digital printing and the reduction of plastic use in the consumer sector are driving the consumption of more eco-friendly inks. Tax exemptions on the use of eco-friendly inks are also a driving force here.