Life Alfio
For sustainable future
Alina Life Formulations in Open-Source Platform
Implementation time: 01/07/2018 – 31/10/2024 (extended) LIFE17 ENV/LV/000318
LIFE ALFIO: the overall objective of this project is to reduce the impact of toxic chemicals on the environment and human health by reducing toxic biocides and VOCs in paint and coating formulations with a safe, sustainable and novel organoclay-based material.
About project
The project team will provide a set of tools for the paint and coating industry to substitute toxic chemicals with safer and greener material. The novel approach of public online platform, where paint formulations are published, providing the ability for the industry and the stakeholders to trace components, will increase knowledge and facilitate transparency in product value chains.
Project partners
Project funders
Target No. 1
Paint formulations
To pilot the use of organoclay component in 16 eco-friendly, reduced VOC and biocide free paint and coating formulations as a transferable solution for paint and coating industry. Respecting the EU targets for reduction of VOCs, all formulations will be Ecolabel compliant, reducing the use of VOCs from 50 to 10 g/L.
Target No. 2
Organoclay production
To pilot the organoclay production technology by creating a prototype for manufacturing the product with the industrial capacity. The aim is being able to produce sufficient organoclay - at least 120 t/year - for the industrial production of paints and coatings as soon as companies start using new formulations.
Target No. 3
Public access platform www.paintsforlife.eu
To promote and to make easily transferable options for diminishing VOCs and biocides by developing an online platform for: 1) paint formulation publishing; 2) transparency and traceability of paint and coating components; 3) industry communication.
Online platform with 16 Ecolabel compliant paint and coating formulations with reduced or no biocides and VOCs less than 10g/L.
16 000 L pilot batch of paints and coatings with new formulations produced during the project.
25 letters of acknowledgments for co-creation projects from paint and coating producers.
During the project, audience of 500 companies and 130 000 people reached.
400 000 L of new paints and coatings produced by industry using the new formulations.
3.46 t of biocides substituted and VOCs reduced by 16 640 kg during the project.
Activities
A. Preparatory actions.
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A1 Potential costumers' and stakeholder in-depth qualitative survey.
Action is completed. The main goal of this action was to perform In-depth qualitative interviews with at least 15 international paint and coating industry key players, targeting management level in order to shape the process of sustainable formulation development in accordance to the industry needs and to improve replication and transferability, business planning and communication activities, therefore saving costs and adjusting strategies. The result of this action is “Conclusion report”.
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A2 Technical specification and validation guidelines.
Action is completed. The project team has completed development of validation guidelines. The document is available here. All formulations developed in the project are subject to these guidelines and are validated accordingly. The project team has completed development of technical specifications of 16 new paint formulations in accordance to Ecolabel requirements (regulation 2014/312/ES), industry needs and future regulatory tendencies to achieve the project objective. The document is available here.
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A3 Environment permissions.
Action is completed. The company where the project rents premises for the needs of the project prototype has received a renewed permit for category B polluting activities and LIFE-ALFIO will start organic production.
B. Implementation actions.
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B1 Development of 16 new paint formulations.
The activity is in the final stage - the EU Ecolabel certification is being carried out. So far, more than 20 color recipes have been developed and submitted for validation by January 2021. 21 recipes have been prepared for EU Ecolabel certification.
B1.1. Paint formulation development.
B1.2. Paint formulation validation.
B1.3. Formulation tests for certification.
B1.4. Patent establishment. -
B2 Paint and coating exhibit batch production.
The activity has been implemented. Industrial scale for 16 recipes of 1000 l pilot batches was produced.
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B3 Organoclay production technology prototype.
The activity is completed. The technological prototype with an organoclay production capacity of 60 t/year was delivered in December 2020. The activity of the production of organoclay material has been completed, a total of 10.4 tons of organoclay have been produced.
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B4 Business plan.
The activity is complete. The final version of the business plan can be found here.
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B5 Replicability and transferability (R&T) activities.
B5.1 Replicability and transferability (R&T) plan development.
Action is completed. Includes online platform, paint formulation and organoclay technology activities onwards transferability and replicability in paint and coating industries. The result of this action is “R&T plan”.
B5.2 Paint formulation online-platform development.
The activity has been implemented and the platform www.paintsforlife.eu has been launched. The platform contains educational information for both:
- end users on how to choose environmentally friendly coating products and
- for professionals on how to produce environmentally friendly products, as well as
- a freely available database of paint recipes, including recipe raw materials, production guidelines and all necessary technical documentation.
An online-platform administration manual was developed as a deliverable.B5.3 Promotional content development, distribution and continuous update.
The activity has been implemented. The online platform has published recipes and all relevant information, the platform has introduced a blog section with additional information for platform recognition. Regular meetings have been held with the paint industry on the transfer of platform and recipe knowledge, transfer of organoclay production technology to paint and other industries. 461 professionals have registered on the platform, gaining access to paint formulation information. At the end of the project, the platform has 28 thousand users (user counts: 28,000; session counts: 38,000; event engagement: 220,000. Work on the development and distribution of advertising content continues and will continue even after the project.
B5.4 Initiative (suggestion) document to policy makers.
The activity has been implemented. The project Steering Committee decided and the guidelines were developed during the project to update and promote the introduction and use of paint products that are healthier for the environment and people in Latvia: Recommendations on Green Public Procurement (GPP) Criteria for Paints and Varnishes. The recommendations were presented and distributed to the parties involved and the final recipient was the The Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development.
C. Monitoring of the impact of the project actions.
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C1 Assessment of socio-economic impact.
The activity is being implemented. An assessment of the social and economic impact of project activities on the local economy and population is being carried out.
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C2 Project performance monitoring.
The action is in progress. The project manager has developed a methodology for monitoring project results. This monitoring helps determine whether and to what extent project objectives and GDR indicators have been achieved. The document is available here.
In order to ensure the achievement of project indicators, continuous monitoring of project execution is carried out (including media monitoring). Information on progress on performance indicators is presented together with project reports.
An analysis of the life cycle of paint recipes is being carried out, which will be published as additional material on the platform.
D. Public awareness and dissemination of results.
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D1 Information and awareness raising activities for general public.
Action is in progress. We started the action with development of project web page www.lifealfio.com. It was launched in June 2020. Now it is awailable in both Eglish and Latvian languages. We have also developed notice boards and set them in all project implementation locations. During the 2020 we elaborated the Communication Plan. It outlines the project communication goals, describes the main target audiences, provides the communication strategy framework, analyses communication risks and provides the timeline. The project staff member participated in LIFE Platform meeting on chemicals and Indicator workshop in Vilnius, November 27th – 29th, 2019. Mrs. Solvita Kostjukova gave a presentation on Reduction of biocides from paints.
D1.1. General dissemination activities.
D1.2. Participation in LIFE networking events.
D1.3 Videos (Videos about the project). First introduction video about the project was shown in public television and published in social platforms, available here.
D1.4 Communication strategy development, what is available in Communication Plan. -
D2 Technical dissemination activities for paint and coating industry professionals.
Action is in progress. During the 2020 project’s team started the work on development of information materials, till end of August 2020 we produced three product pages (F50W; T65W; T80O) and two presentations about the project for specific target audiences. As work continued on paint formulations, the we created an incompatibility one-pager for industry.
D2.1. Info materials for networking and conferences and meetings.
D2.2. Publications in industry magazines.
D2.3 Internet marketing campaign.
D2.4. Participation in 3 industry conferences and shows.
D2.5. Conference/panel discussion about biocide and VOC free challenges and solutions.
D2.6 VIsiting and networking in industry conferences and shows.
E. Project management.
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E1 Overall project management.
Action is in progress. The project is implemented by three partners – Ltd. ALINA (Coordinating beneficiary), University of Latvia (Associated beneficiary) and Riga Technical University (Associated beneficiary). All partners have signed the partnership agreements in 2020 and established highly competent project teams. There have been 2 monitor visits so far – one in June of 2019 and the second one in 2020.
E1.1 Project Management by ALINA.
E1.2 Project Management by Riga Technical University.
E1.3 Project Management by University of Latvia.
E1.4 Steering Committee. First and second Steering Committee meeting was held as well as workshop with invited industry experts for development of recommendations for more sustainable Green Public Procurement (GPP) in Latvia in the nearest future.
E1.5 Formulation development supervision Expert Team creation.
E1.6 Project procurements.
E1.7 Project external audit. -
E2 After-LIFE plan.
Action is not due to be started yet. After LIFE plan will include a comprehensive exploitation plan, strategy for maintaining project results through commercialisation and industrialization of the proposed solutions after the end of project.