As part of the “Green Deal”, the amount of plastic waste entering the environment is to be significantly reduced. One solution is the bioeconomy, which describes the gradual replacement of fossil resources with renewable raw materials.

The transition from an industry based on fossil raw materials to the sustainable use of renewable raw materials in industry represents an important restructuring for people and the environment.

For the printing industry, which consists mainly of small and medium-sized companies (approx. 6,500 printing companies and approx. 230 predominantly medium-sized coating and printing ink manufacturers), this primarily has an impact on printing inks.

Traditional printing inks are based on binders made from mineral oil. In recent years, printing inks have been developed for various offset printing techniques that are based entirely or largely on renewable binder raw materials.

This is not yet the case for UV offset printing. The aim of the research project is therefore to develop bio-based, biodegradable and deinkable UV-curing offset printing inks that are comparable to established printing ink systems in terms of their technical printing properties and have no negative impact on polymer materials in the printing press (roller material, seals, lines, etc.).

Special groups in the binder, which increase the hydrolysis sensitivity of the ester bonds under alkaline conditions, ensure good separability of the bio-based offset printing inks in the deinking process, i.e. such inks can be easily integrated into established recycling processes.

Good biodegradability of the novel UV-curing offset printing inks is also achieved by introducing labile units (e.g. imines), which are subject to rapid hydrolysis under physiological conditions, into the main polymer chain.