Adhesion Matters - Debonding on Demand (Rescoll)

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

France-based Rescoll manufactures the INDAR primer, a revolutionary product designed to address the challenges of recycling and repairing products that rely on strong adhesives. While modern adhesives are crucial for product performance, they often hinder the end-of-life processes, leading to waste. INDAR primer functions like any other primer, compatible with various adhesives, and crucially, does not compromise the product's original strength. Its unique feature is the ability to thermally activate on demand, allowing for easy and clean debonding at specific temperatures, thereby enabling simple recycling, repair, or reuse of the components. This patented product from Rescoll facilitates the creation of a new generation of more sustainable products.  Allowing for the easy and clean separation of bonded materials, the INDAR primer plays a huge role in advancing the circular economy by reducing waste and enhancing product lifecycle management.

Think for a moment, just how many things in your daily life are held together with adhesives. I mean, your phone, maybe the one you're holding right now, your car, parts of buildings, even huge things like wind turbines. Gloos, bonds, they're everywhere. They made products lighter, often cheaper to make, and yeah, incredibly strong. But here's a twist. What happens when that super strong bond, you know, the one designed for durability, becomes the main problem at the end of a product's life? Imagine like a state-of-the-art EV battery.

It works fine, mostly, but one tiny bonded part fails. Because that bond is permanent, the whole battery pack expense full of valuable resources might just get scrapped. Not recycled. It's a real paradox. Okay, so let's unpack this. Today we're doing a deep dive into something really fascinating, debonding on demand, and chemical recycling.

These aren't just small tweaks. They sound like game changers, promising to, well, revolutionize how we design things, how we repair them, and how we reuse them. We'll explore some really innovative solutions from companies like App Plus, Plus Resckel, Bodo Miller, Kemi, and Plastogaze. They're tackling this challenge head on, trying to make products truly circular. We'll look at how, maybe, a tiny primer layer or a controlled chemical reaction can unlock huge potential for sustainability and seriously cut down on waste. So let's start with that paradox we mentioned. Adhesives are amazing, right? Used

everywhere, automotive aerospace electronics, fashion even. Easy processing, lighter weight saves money. You're suggesting that very strength, ironically, becomes this massive hurdle later on. How exactly does that play out when we try to recycle things? Well, it's fascinating because that exact same strength, the thing that makes the product reliable during its life, becomes a huge barrier when you want to disassemble it. The issue is the lack of reversibility in, let's say, traditional bonding. It means a tiny amount of material, the adhesive itself, can basically hold hostage the vast majority of the products value the main parts, the substrate. And this forces us into methods that are often, you know, time-consuming, pretty

invasive, sometimes damaging, like using intense heat or cutting things apart or using harsh solvents. And these often come with their own health and safety worries. That's a really powerful image, a tiny bit of glue holding the whole thing hostage. So for you listening, what does this actually mean for your everyday stuff, your phone, maybe a car part after a bump? It means that broken phone, or yeah, that damaged car part might be completely unrecyclable, because the plastic or metal itself isn't recyclable. Just because they're stuck. Exactly.

Permanently stuck. So it really brings up a critical question. How do we get the durability we need from bonds, but also meet this growing demand for things to be repairable and recyclable? And this whole challenge, it's definitely accelerated because of regulatory pressure. Think about European directives for end-of-life vehicles or electronics. Re-EE regulations and things like that. Precisely.

They're pushing for much higher rates of reuse and recycling. France, for example, they've even. and brought in a repairability index. Oh, yeah, I've heard about that for washing machines and phones. Exactly. Washing machines, electronic devices, even electric lawnmowers. Products get a score, 1 to 10, based on things like how easy they are to take a part, if spare parts are available, access to repair info.

It's really shifting the focus. That's interesting how rules like that French index are really forcing engineers to think differently. For years, it was all about build it strong, build it to last. Now it feels like the message is build it to last. and build it to come apart easily when needed. So, okay, if permanent bonds are the core problem, how do you make them? Well, unpermanent when you want them to be, without losing that strength during use. This sounds like where that concept debonding on demand comes in.

It almost sounds like a contradiction in terms. It does a bit, doesn't it? But it's a real solution. And we're seeing actual products now, like this OndiR primer from Apples Plus Rescol. That's right. Debonding on demand, fundamentally, is about making materials easy. to separate and reuse. It directly supports, you know, circular economy goals, cutting waste, making product life cycle management much better. There's a clear need

for techniques that are easy, quick, reliable, based on what we might call switchable adhesives. The I&R primer from Aplice Plus Rescol is a great example. It's basically applied as a thin layer sandwiched between the substrate, the main material, and the adhesive itself. And it's designed to be triggered by heat, but only when you want it to be on demand. Okay, so how does that work? Heat makes it unsticky. Pretty much.

When you expose it to a specific temperature and they have options like 120 degrees C, 150 degrees, or 180 degree C, depending on what the product needs, a sublimation reaction happens in the primer. This reaction releases a lot of gas, right at the bond line. Ah, so the gas pushes it apart. Exactly. It creates localized stress, and this drastically drops the adhesive strengths down to something really low, less than 1 megapascal. To give you an idea, that's taking a strong structural bond. and making it almost as easy to peel off as, say, a post-it note. So disassembly becomes clean and straightforward.

Wow. That does sound almost too good to be true. A bond that holds strong for maybe years, but then just let's go when you tell it to. Does this mean we can finally design products for deconstruction right from the beginning without compromising how well they perform or how long they last? That's absolutely the goal. And the beauty of this entire primer approach is its compatibility. It works with most adhesives, whether they're heavy-duty structural ones or not, and, crucially, it doesn't mess with the mechanical properties or the durability of the bond

during the product's normal service life. That's key. Right. It has to work reliably first. Absolutely. And afterwards, any little bits of primer residue left behind, they're apparently very easy to clean off with simple alcohol. So the substrate, the main part, is preserved in great condition, ready for reuse, or for high-quality recycling. And this isn't just a lab concept. You're saying it's actually being used. Where might we see this technology showing up?

You mentioned automotive. Yes, automotive is a big one. Think about efficiently dismantling vehicle components, makes repairs easier, makes recycling much more effective. Actually, Aplas Plus Restcold partnered with Mercedes-Benz trucks on a project called DeCote. It's part of the EU's Horizon 2020 program, really focused on industrial debonding for succularity. Their specific goal was to debond bus cockpit parts.

The aim is to significantly improve the recyclability of the roughly 25,000 buses they produce each year. 25,000 buses. That's a lot of material. It really is. And beyond automotive, think renewable energy. Reversible bonding for those huge wind turbine blades. Ah, that makes sense. They're massive composites. Exactly.

Or aerospace simplifying how you take apart aircraft seats or cabin interiors. It can even help with selectively stripping off layers of coatings. And other areas, too, electronics, shoes. Yes. Electronics, shoes, even fashion and sports equipment are seeing successful proofs of concept. The potential is really broad. And Amplus Plus Resckel isn't keeping this to themselves. No, they've decided to license the technology to three major global adhesive manufacturers. The goal is to scale it up, get it commercialized worldwide. That really highlights how much potential they see for industry-wide impact. Okay. So debonding on demand helps us take things.

part cleanly. But what happens when the parts can't be directly reused? Maybe they're too worn out or the material itself is a complex mixture. That's where the other piece comes in, right? Chemical recycling. That's right. There's still a significant gap in the value chain today, especially for plastics that can't be handled well by traditional mechanical recycling. How big a gap are we talking? Well, estimates suggest this gap could be worth something like 30 billion by 2030. It's a massive amount of waste, particularly mixed or contaminated plastics, that currently doesn't have a great recycling pathway. So the question is, how do we deal with it? 30 billion euros. It's huge. And this is where companies like plastic gas come into the picture.

You mentioned they're an EPFL spinoff. Yes, Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Luzon. They spun out in 2020. They're focused specifically on developing catalytic technologies. The idea is to take waste plastic materials and chemically transform them back into valuable raw materials, basically closing the loop. And their specific approach is hydrocracking. What does that involve? Right. They see hydrocracking as a particularly promising route. It's different from something like pyrolysis. Hydrocracking uses a catalyst and hydrogen, usually at temperatures around 350 degrees Celsius, to essentially cut the long plastic polymer chains into much shorter hydrocarbons. These shorter hydrocarbons are basically the precursors, the building blocks for making new plastics again like polyolephins, which are things like

polyethylene and polypropylene. The common plastics we see everywhere. Exactly. Milk jugs, containers, car bumpers, films. And the really interesting part, they say, is the control you have. By fine-tuning the conditions, the temperature, the pressure, the specific catalyst, they can control the selectivity of the process. They can decide exactly how short to cut those chains. So what's the end product? You mentioned it's better than just getting fuel oil. Yes, that's a key point. They can take complex waste streams, things like mixed plastic films or tapes, which are notoriously hard to recycle mechanically, and transform them into a high-quality clear liquid called naphtha. And that naphtha can then go right back into the existing chemical infrastructure to synthesize new virgin-quality polylophins.

It's a much higher value outcome than just producing a dark, heavy oil that's really only suitable for burning as fuel. That sounds incredibly useful. turning complex waste into basically new plastic feedstock. But, you know, chemical recycling in general has faced them skepticism, questions about energy use, efficiency, actual scalability. What makes hydrocracking or Plastikas' approach potentially more viable or maybe less controversial than some other chemical recycling methods people have discussed? That's a very fair question. One challenge for chemical recycling generally is dealing with impurities or components that aren't the target plastic. Adhesives can be one of those challenges.

In hydrocracking, while the plastics are processed around 350 degrees C, some types of adhesives might start to decompose at that temperature. And that could cause problems. It could potentially deactivate the catalyst, which is obviously crucial for the process efficiency. However, this is an active area of research. They're investigating exactly how deactivation happens to figure out ways to improve the process robustness.

The ultimate ambition is for hydrocracking to be able to handle all sorts of plastic waste streams, including those containing various types. containing various types of adhesives, making it a truly versatile solution. Okay, so we've got deep bonding on demand for clean separation and chemical recycling like hydrocracking for breaking down the tricky stuff. Is the real breakthrough here how these two technologies can work together? Does combining them unlock more than just using them separately? Absolutely. Thinking about the bigger picture, these two approaches are highly complementary,

not competing. This came up in an Afro webinar that's the European adhesive tape association featuring Maxime Olive from Rescol and Felix Bobbing from Plastogas. Right. They discussed how debonding technologies like the I&R primer can actually prepare the waste. They provide much cleaner, better controlled feedstock for chemical recycling processes like hydrocracking. Ah, I see. So if you can easily debond an assembly first, say separate a plastic part from a metal frame. Exactly. You remove impurities. You separate different types of materials before they go into the chemical reactor. This makes the subsequent chemical recycling of the plastic component much more efficient

and effective. Makes sense. Cleaner inputs lead to better output. Precisely. And for those non-porous substrates, things like glass, composites, metals, the INDR primer allows for such a clean separation that the parts often look almost new. They can potentially be reused directly that often makes a really strong business case just for the debonding and reuse aspect alone. Right. Reuse first, if possible. always the preference in a circular economy. Then, chemical recycling, which is inherently a more destructive method, comes into play when the substrate quality is too compromised, or maybe the material itself isn't suitable for direct reuse after separation.

And this combined approach does it help with other environmental concerns, like microplastics? That's another important benefit. By ensuring materials can be properly disassembled and directed to the correct recycling stream, whether it's reuse, mechanical recycling, or chemical recycling, prevent them from ending up fragmented or lost in the environment where they could generate microplastics. It's about managing the end-of-life pathway properly. These innovations sound vital, truly. But technology alone isn't enough. It needs to get out there, be adopted by industry globally. How is that happening? How are these solutions being promoted? Yeah, that's

crucial. Companies like Bodomel or Acme are playing a key role here. They're a major distributor, specializing in adhesives and related chemicals, representing Ruskell, along with about 200 other manufacturers. They're using their global network to really push these solutions. For instance, they just opened a new office in Tokyo in 2024. Japan, interesting. Is there a specific reason for focusing there? Well, they specifically mention recognizing a huge need and interest for debonding on-demand technologies in Japan, likely tied to Japan's strong focus on manufacturing quality, electronics, automotives, and circular economy initiatives.

So Bodo Miller Kimi isn't just selling the product. They're actively creating the market and educating potential users. That's a big part of it. They're very active at major industry events. For example, presenting at the Innovative Services Conference, the Battery Show Europe in Stuttgart, which is obviously huge for electric mobility.

In Adhesives Symposium in Munich. In fact, their key account manager and the managing director for their Thailand operation, Bernhard Raiden, is presenting them. They're also engaging with organizations like the Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management in Nagoya and running their own focus seminars like their tech dialogue events in Heidelberg. So they're really targeting the key sectors, automotive, batteries, surfaces, waste management, where this technology can make the biggest difference. Exactly. It's about showcasing the benefits directly to the industries that need it most, particularly linking debonding on demand to electric mobility and the broader circular economy push. And beyond the efforts of individual companies like reskull or distributors like Bodomiller-Chemey, there's wider collaboration happening too.

Organizations like Afraa, the adhesive tape association we mentioned, help facilitate discussions and standards. And large European research projects like recreate and decode funded under the Horizon Europe program are essential. Right, those big EU projects often bring together industry and academia. Precisely. Recreate, for example, specifically includes work on the INDR technology for automotive, renewable, energy and aerospace applications. These collaborative efforts are vital for transforming European industries towards the EU's big goals, achieving circularity and climate neutrality by 2050.

So there you have it. It's kind of mind-bending, really. The future of so many products, from our cars to wind turbines, might actually depend on our ability to, well, unstick them effectively. De-bonding on demand and advanced chemical recycling, they're not just clever technical fixes. They feel like fundamental shifts in how we think about

sustainability and managing our resources. I agree. It really is about changing the mindset. Transforming things we used to consider waste into valuable resources again. It's about extending product lifespans through easier repair and then creating pathways for true high-value recycling at the very end. It means we can finally design products to be durable and high-performing while they're being used, but also design them for effortless repair and ultimately comprehensive recycling when that time comes.

So maybe the next time you pick up something, anything. that's held together with an adhesive, just pause for a second. Consider this. What if every single bond in that object was designed not just for strength, but also for release? What new possibilities would that unlock for everything we make, everything we use, and how we might ultimately rethink the entire life cycle?