Microbially Recovered Lignin for Foams (MireLifo)

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.