EU project into bio-standards gets underway

Partners in a Europe Union-funded research project aimed at conducting pre-standardisation research into bio-based products held their first meeting at the end of last month.

Led by the Netherlands Standardisation Institute, the project’s results feed into the European Standardisation Committee’s processes on the same subject.

The goal is to provide the European and global market with horizontal standards on biomass content and biodegradability that have been assessed on a first set of different products, such as solvents, plastics and lubricants.

The project, called the Knowledge Based Bio-based Products’ Pre-Standardisation (KBBPPS), “will allow the European stakeholders to progress with well-defined, globally-aligned and sound test methods, correlated to actual field behaviour and applicability in the lab”, according to the Nova Institute, the Huerth, Germany-based facility which is part of the research consortium.

Its goal, according to Nova Institute managing director Michael Carus, “is that results can be directly implemented into European standards”.

The timescale of KBBPPS is three years, although immediate results for the standardisation process are expected in the next 12 months.

Those co-operating with the project include Beta-Analytic in the UK and Michigan State University in the US.

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