Lignol Energy Corporation, a leading technology company in the cellulosic ethanol and biorefining sector, and PPG have formed a joint development agreement for the development of commercial applications incorporating Lignol’s class of High-Purity Lignin and lignin derivatives in various industrial coatings. The agreement establishes a program to incorporate Lignol’s renewable and sustainable HP-L lignin into PPG’s existing and potentially new coatings applications. The agreement includes a detailed and stage-gated work program that the parties will work on exclusively utilizing Lignol’s HP-L lignin as a replacement for chemicals derived from petroleum-based products.

“There is a significant market trend toward products containing renewable and sustainable materials that have environmental and functional benefits,” said Chuck Kahle, chief technology officer, PPG. “We are interested in exploring potential applications for Lignol’s HP-L lignin within our coatings businesses for several reasons including: the potential to displace petroleum-based feedstocks with a biobased sustainable raw material; and to introduce chemical functionality, rarely found elsewhere in nature, which will benefit end use properties.”

In converting non-food cellulosic biomass feedstocks, such as agricultural residues and forestry waste, into ethanol, the Lignol biorefining process fractionates the biomass, and extracts lignin, which naturally occurs in all cellulosic biomass, to produce a range ofHP-L lignin materials. These compounds have been shown to have application in a wide range of industrial products replacing materials typically derived from petrochemicals, with a consequent reduction of greenhouse gas formation.