European Union Projects

We continue our journey towards sustainability in 2023 with our new project funded by the 1509 International Industrial R&D Projects Funding Program. Our WOODLi project on “Developing Lignin-Based Bio-Adhesives for Wood-Based Composite Panels” was approved for support by the EUREKA Network mechanism of the European Union's EUREKA program. We will be continuing to work with our partners in Spain on extracting for use as raw material the Lignin molecule, one of the highest value-added by-products of wood product waste.

Operated by four partners in three countries, Turkey, South Africa, and Portugal, the MoreWood project was approved for support by the Eurogia 2030 category of the European Union's EUREKA program. The MoreWood project will involve working on recycling industrial and non-industrial waste within the scope of the “Developing Sustainably Sourced and Recyclable Wood-Based Panels towards the Energy Efficiency and Zero-Emission Goal.” We will try to reduce emission levels by recycling agricultural, forest, and plastic waste and increasing the amount of carbon sink products in buildings.

Coordinated by Bürotime, the BioAcouis project focuses on “Biobased Solutions for Acoustic Applications” with eight partners in response to the 2021 Exchange Program call made under the EU Horizon Europe's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). The project aims to provide sustainable solutions to noise pollution in workplaces and living spaces. Our projects comply with the “zero emission” goal of the European Union’s Green Deal strategy and the “Near Zero-Energy Building Technologies” of TÜBİTAK’s Priority Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Topics.

As part of our new project SNUG funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe, we will produce insulation panels using completely bio-based resources instead of fossil-based ones. With this project to launch in November 2023, we will focus on energy efficiency in buildings with partners, such as AIDIMME institute (Spain) and CHIMAR (Greece). The SNUG project, involving 17 partners from 11 countries, aims to develop a methodology to help them choose the optimal materials and thermal insulation strategies for new construction or renovation works.
 

Having joined the Ecobulk project, we are now a member of an international consortium advocating for the current linear value chain in the furniture industry to transition to the circular model. 

Under the EU-backed project, we participated in the reinterpretation of existing furniture components according to the circular economy principles and developed special particleboard technologies. 

We worked with partners such as Akzonobel and Cranfield University and the innovative adhesives we subsequently developed proved that waste particleboard use in manufacturing can be increased up to 50 percent using bio-based adhesives. 

Other project partners developed new products for other furniture components such as joints and upholstery. We eventually extended product life and showed that circular business models are feasible in the furniture industry with designs that use entirely reusable or recyclable components. The product demonstrations produced as part of the project are currently exhibited in five different locations in the United Kingdom (2), Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Figure 1. Attempt at Producing Panels Using Waste and Biobased Adhesives (Adana Production Facility)

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We are a partner to the E2COMATION project that focuses on energy consumption and environmental impacts of manufacturing processes. This project has recently merited funding from the European Commission. 

As part of the project, launched in 2021, we will create digital twins of our processes, carry out data analytics and LCA modeling to further explore our manufacturing processes and develop optimization tools to reduce our environmental and energy impacts. Accordingly, we are cooperating with industry experts including the Italian research institute CNR STIIMA, KU Leuven University, and Software AG to drive innovative technologies.

Figure 2. E2COMATION Project Team’s Visit to Gebze Production Plant

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Under the EUREKA-approved and the TUBITAK-backed WOODPRINT project, we categorized our work under the TEYDEB 1509 project titled “Improving Value-Added Wood-Based Panels Using Digital Print and Functional Coating.”

One part of the project was dedicated to the production of wood-based panels, used in furniture and laminate flooring manufacturing, by utilizing digital print technology. In the other part, we worked on the development and application of various functional coating formulations for value-added wood-based panels. We cooperated with Torrecid (Spain) and Kupsa Coatings (Spain), both highly experienced in their respective fields.

Figure 3. WOODPRINT Project Team’s Visit to Gebze Production Plant