Biodegradable adhesives

Biodegradable adhesives are possible, but all depends on specific requirements of your project. It’s easy to declare Starch adhesives will be Biodegradable, gelating based adhesives also. But PVAC and other polymer based?

Starch adhesives

Starch adhesive, at Intercol most made of potatoes or wheat. These adhesives are quite sure biodegradable as being based on pure plant products.

Properties:

• Bond to paper and carton. Possibly other porous products.
• Easy water-soluble.
• Available in low- and high viscosities (500 – 50.000 m.pas)
• Have low solid contents (5-30%)
• DO NOT bond to plastics, metals, etc.
• ARE NOT water resistant

Starch adhesives can be used mainly for paper and easy to bond, non constructive, porous substrates. Starch is not water resistant.

Dextrin adhesives

Dextrin adhesives are based on modified starch, it’s even a food allowed raw material. The advantage of Dextrin above starch is it higher solid content. up to 80%

PVAC adhesives

There are no biodegradable certificates of Intercol’s glues jet, but the base material PVAC has been researched. It could be rated as moderate biodegradable.

source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1573437402800176

Properties:

• Can be water resistant
• Can be used for constructions (wood)
• Bond to porous substrates like wood, paper, stone
• Do not bond plastic materials or most non-porous substrates

Polyvinylalcohol

source: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/ra/c6ra05742j/unauth#!divAbstract

Is my adhesive biodegradable?

It is complicated question all PVAC and PVOH adhesives may contain additives, such as:

• Anti oxidants
• Adhesion promotors
• Wetting agents
• Defoamers
• Fillers
• Pigments
• Crosslinking agents

Or another additive to increase bond strength or efficiency in our customer’s production process.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_polymer

Biodegradable additives

At Intercol, we have over 1.000 additive available, these also include foodadditives and food safe packaging additives. Most Food additives would probably good biodegradeable.

Biobased adhesives

Biobased adhesives are not always biodegradeable. Starch, Wheat and Casein would be biodegradeable, but used additives may question this. Hot melt adhesives can be partly biobased, but are probably poor biodegradeable.

Casein adhesives

Caseine is a product form milk. When formulated, it bonds to porous and non porous substrates like glass and paper. Casein adhesives can be biodegradeable and biobased, depending on it’s formulation.

Protein adhesives

Protein adhesives are also known as animal glue, jelly glue, proteinadhesive or hide glue (hides and/or bones). It used to be the predecessor of hot melt adhesives.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_glue