Adler receives H. F. Mark Sustainability Award for paint recycling research project

With the H. F. Mark Medals and the H. F. Mark Sustainability Award - named after the Austrian pioneer of polymer research Hermann F. Mark - the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology (OFI) honors outstanding achievements in the field of chemical research and industry. Günther Berghofer, long-standing Managing Director of Adler and pioneer in the field of low-emission water-based coatings, was already honored with the H. F. Mark Medal in 2020. Together with the University of Innsbruck, Adler has now received the Sustainability Award for the research project "Targeted component separation of coated wood substrates - debonding on demand".

Recycling of lacquers

Painted parts are composite materials. Painted wood, metal or plastics can be recycled as a whole, but it is hardly possible or only possible with great effort to separate the paint film from the substrate. This is precisely where the award-winning research project comes in: Using the debonding on demand method, the paint film is to be removed from a wooden window or a piece of furniture, for example, in a targeted manner. This means that both the carrier material and the hardened paint film can be separated and recycled without any loss of material and without the need for time-consuming treatment such as stripping or sanding. Dr. Albert Rössler (Head of Research & Development at Adler) explains: "Adler consistently follows the principles of the circular economy. The key building blocks for this are the use of bio-based and renewable raw materials in our C2C range on the one hand, and the complete recycling of painted consumer goods on the other. This is the only way to create closed raw material cycles based on nature's example."

Recyclable coating

Dr. Albert Rössler, Prof. Dr. Oliver Strube (holder of the Adler Endowed Professorship for Chemical Engineering & Materials Process Technology at the University of Innsbruck) and Thomas Höfer (research associate in the research team and also a member of Adler's R&D department) accepted the award at a gala ceremony hosted by the OFI at the Haus der Ingenieure in Vienna. Adler CTO Dr. Rössler also saw the award as confirmation of the successful cooperation between science and industry: "Thanks to the excellent collaboration with Prof. Dr. Strube and his team, especially our employee Thomas Höfer, we have come a decisive step closer to the goal of fully recyclable coatings. We are particularly pleased that the external research space at the University of Innsbruck, which we started five years ago, is coming to life and the first fruits can be harvested."