There is an increasing need in society and industry to enable the use of renewable and biobased feedstock to produce consumer goods. Driven by the need to reduce the ecological footprint, and the need to use less persistent products, many manufacturers and (end) users need both bio(renewable) based products as well as biodegradable products. The BIO-PESA project focuses on development of a specific class of antiscalant and corrosion inhibiting polymers that are water soluble and are used in applications like automatic dishwashing.
Currently polymers of this class are based upon fossil resources and frequently are non-biodegradable. Aim of the project is to develop green, biobased routes to biodegradable antiscalants and corrosion inhibitors, reducing the amount of waste and salts generated during synthesis. Agricultural side streams and surpluses of carbohydrates will be used as starting materials to produce the biobased and biodegradable polymers.

The main goal of the BIO-PESA project is to create environmentally friendly and sustainable methods for synthesizing and producing biobased (carbohydrate-based), biodegradable, water-soluble "polyoxirane" polymers. The project aims to demonstrate that these polymers can be effectively used as antiscaling agents in home care applications like automatic dishwashing products.

This project contributes to the KIA Landbouwwatervoedsel (Home (kia-landbouwwatervoedsel.nl). In particular to Mission 2: Land-en tuinbouw (Agriculture and horticulture). Within mission 2 the project specifically contributes to deelprogramma 2E; “ Circulariteit, productie en gebruik van duurzame grondstoffen”. Within this deelprogramma it most of all relates to part 4; “integraal afwegingskader voor duurzame productie en gebruik van biogrondstoffen”: BIO-PESA will develop water soluble and biodegradable polymers from agricultural side streams and surpluses of carbohydrate production. In this aspect the project will contribute to enhancing the learning model of the agrifood industry by generating new additional outlets for these side streams and surpluses. Contributing to a total use concept of biomass and a completer and more diverse product portfolio for the agrifood industry.

The overall aim of Topsector Agrifood projects is to support the agrifood industry in the development of new
technologies and methodologies towards both food as well as non-food products.