The BONDIFI project aims to introduce plant based resin sytems and paper industry waste into large scale manufacturing of woodpanel construction products in the UK. This will displace oil based chemicals and upcycle wastes which can replace virgin wood with substantial environmental and economic benefits.The wood panel sector in the UK uses 1 million tonnes of oil-based resins (UF, MUF, PF and MDI) a year. This represents annual oil-based carbon emissions of \> 2.5MT CO2e.

BONDIFI will demonstrate a robust bi-resin manufacturing process (Cambond, Bangor Biocomposites Centre ) which can be used for both the high quality wood panel sector with Egger (Hexham) - large scale manufacture particleboard and the decorative architectural board market Foresso (Birmingham). - small/medium scale manufacture.

The second phase of the project will expand development of the bioresin systems to enhance their efficiency and utility and incorporate the use of paper and brewery wastes into the manufacturing processes of Foresso (flexible batch production) and eventually into Egger (large scale automated production).

The end aim will be to utilise low carbon resins and re-use wastes to deliver a 'best in class' method to manufacture construction products which combine circular economy and low carbon methods coupled to a 'green chemistry' technology base.

The UK market for particleboard is approximately £1Billion (3 Million m3) a year. The resin component is the single most expensive part of manufacturing due to high complexity, capital investment, energy and regulatory costs. The resin market in the UK is some £6-700M (approx. 1 million tonnes).

BONDIFY consortium members include Cambond, Palm Paper, Duynie Group, Forredsso and Egger supported by Bangor University's Biocomposites Centre, Powerminerals and Green King.

The adoption of a plant based bioresin system will have a significant impact on the sustainability and carbon footprint of the bulk chemical sector, whilst the use of waste materials from both the pulp and paper and chemical industries to achieve this will have a two fold benefit for the UK's foundation industries.