Abstract :
[en] A binder is a material or a substance that holds materials together, like a glue. In the building sector, binders have several applications: they can be used in producing wood panels such as MDF to paste together the wood particles and give the panels their stabil-ity. They are also used in insulation materials, such as glass wool or stone wool to bind the fibers together. Traditional binders are mostly fossil-based (phenol-formaldehyde, urea-formaldehyde, etc.), and previous Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) [1-3] show that these binders, even if they are a minor component on a mass basis, can have a major contribution to the environmental impact of the material, especially in wood panels. In addition, the use of these binders has raised some sanitary questions, especially con-cerning indoor air quality. Therefore alternative binders are being investigated, namely bio-based binders.
In this presentation, we focus on the ECOSE binder, developed by Knauf Insulation, a global building insulation manufacturer. It has the particularity of being based on plant starch and it is currently used in glass wool products, while other applications are being developed. We underline that using biomass as raw materials instead of fossil-based ma-terials could have several benefits on the environment, especially fossil resources deple-tion and CO2 emissions, but that this is not necessarily the case for all environmental as-pects, for instance land use, even if only the direct land use is included in this study.
The presentation will first underline the differences in term of environmental impact be-tween the traditional binder and ECOSE applied in glass mineral wool. Indeed, a compar-ison on a mass basis is not totally relevant: two binders can have different application conditions; therefore, we can only compare them at the application level. But the main focus of the presentation will be on the hypothesis made in the modeling of the biomass part and their influence on the results. For example, the influence of the use of bio-based raw materials instead of traditional ones will be studied, but also the influence of the dis-tance between farm and factory where the starch is produced. The use of local data will be compared with the use of databases. All these results will highlight the difficulties in studying bio-based products and to compare them with fossil-based ones. The use of LCA and a complete analysis of the results are essential to better understand the chal-lenges related to binder technology modification.
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1. Rivela, B., et al., Life cycle inventory of particleboard: A case study in the wood sector. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2006. 11(2): p. 106-113.
2. Wilson, J.B., Particleboard: A Life-Cycle Inventory of Manufacturing Panels from Resource through Product, in CORRIM: Phase II Final Report. 2008, Department of Wood Science and Engineering, Oregon State University.
3. Silva, D.A.L., et al., Environmental performance assessment of the melamine-urea-formaldehy (MUF) resin manufacture: a case study in Brazil. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2015. 96.
