Innovative Preservatives for Safe, Sustainable, and Effective Solutions in Industrial and Consumer Applications

Introduction

microLIFEguard will revolutionize microbiological preservation by providing greatly more sustainable and safer preservatory solutions for industrial and consumer goods.

Background

Biocides are used in myriads of products to prevent microbiological degradation. Evidence is mounting that many biocides pose serious human health and environmental risks. Industry, regulators, and NGOs agree that less hazardous alternatives are urgently needed.

Project Goals

MicroLIFEguard aims at developing up to eight new efficient and safe, economically feasible preservation solutions for:

1. Acrylic paints
2. Construction wood

These solutions will be based on substances with a low risk (under the Biocide Product Regulation, 1907/2006).

Importance of Paint Solutions

The paint solutions are crucial to support a transition from volatile organic compounds (VOC) paints that are serious health threats to safer low-VOC, water-based products.

Importance of Wood Preservatives

The wood preservatives work in support of increasing the use of climate-friendly wood in new buildings as a CO2 reduction tool.

Production and Monitoring

The new preservative solutions will be produced at demonstration scale with partners and key stakeholders in Denmark and Finland. We will monitor the impacts of the solutions for health, environment, and economy by comparing them with currently used biocides (all targeted for replacement by the EU).

Dissemination of Results

We will disseminate project results and solutions widely to stakeholders in the supply chains, representatives of target industries, biocide science forums, as well as the end users, the consumers.

Ensuring Sustainable Impact

To ensure sustainable impact, microLIFEguard will refine market feasibility studies and prepare business plans for all solutions.

Future Exploration

The project also explores future sectors such as food and personal care preservatives. Supply chains are established, from manufacturing of preservative solutions, over intermediary industrial goods, to end-user products, based on the Safe and Sustainable by Design Framework.

Regulatory Approvals and Patents

We will apply for regulatory approvals, Environmental Protection Declarations, and at least two patents.