Renewable and safe Aromatic compounDs As Replacements for substances of concern

ongoing

Fossil-based aromatic chemicals like phenol, bisphenol A (BPA), BPA derivatives and alkylphenols are produced on a million ton scale and are commonly used in surfactants, flame retardants and plastics. However, they also raise serious environmental and health concerns especially in applications that result in potential exposure to the body such as detergents, furniture, textile or food packaging. Therefore, this multidisciplinary EU project aims at developing renewable compounds as benign alternatives for current aromatic chemicals following the Safe and Sustainable-By-Design (SSbD) framework. The project will focus on the molecular design of novel biobased compounds as alternatives for substances of very high concern (SVHC) via an inventive catalytic biorefinery of biomass sides streams. New approach methodologies (NAMs) will be used for hazard assessment of the new chemicals in terms of human health and environmental toxicity. Machine learning models will be developed for the design phase and for the in-silico impact assessment of the novel chemicals. Successful products will be safe, follow the principles of green chemistry, demonstrate a lower carbon footprint than their petrochemical counterparts and will have a calculated life cycle and socio-economic impact. Formal SSbD reporting in RADAR will demonstrate the applicability of the framework and support EU policy. The selected RADAR chemicals will be upscaled to multi kg scale and investigated in industrial applications while they will be benchmarked against functional properties of standard flame retardant, surfactant or can coating materials. RADAR data will allow mapping of the substitution barriers in terms of supply, production cost and performance. To reach its goals, the RADAR consortium involves all relevant industrial actors along the value chain ranging from biomass refinery to chemicals production and brand owners in end markets supported by excellent knowledge institutions.