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CASE
STUDY

Bio-‐Sustainability
of
Sugar
Based
Resin

This
document
does
not
explicit
or
disclose
confidential
information.

gureser@gmail.com
+90
531
490
5127

Production
flexibility
is
enhanced
for
bio-existence
in
sugar-based
resin
prevention
using
DOE.

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The situation
For years, in glass wool factories
phenol formaldehyde resin is used as
aqueous binder solution to bond fibers
together, due to their excellent
performance/cost ratio especially
extending with Urea. In this project, it
has been investigating alternative
binder system, which does not contain
nor emit formaldehyde. An intrinsic
advantage of phenol-formaldehyde
resin is that act as a biocide naturally.
The consequence of removing this
effect from the process may lead to
create appropriate conditions for
microorganism growing in the process
water. As a result in PW, personnel
may be exposed to a health risk. In
addition to this; some microorganisms
may cause corrosion of process
equipments or block process piping.
Furthermore, natural sugar based
resins are alternative resins to
substitute formaldehyde resin. These
sugar-based resins started to be an
additional risk with its organic content.
In the factory, already one raw resin
storage tank was removed because of
flies’ existence. Since the natural
based chemistry has been developing
in recent years, these studies are
invaluable for company know-how
especially in resin decision process.
Essentially, after production trials
using sugar based resin, there were
critical appearance of bacteria that
threaten production operations.
Therefore, the project was absolutely
one of the vital items on the agenda of
the production managers. The bacteria
and fungi existence was an enigma
that factors are unknown.
Objective
Taking into account these possibilities,
the objective of the study is to assess
microorganism growth in process
water of different resin and prevent it in
current phenol resin as well and to
propose solutions to avoid health,
corrosion and blockage risk.
The Project Work
The bacteria growth is influenced by
temperature, pH, composition, osmotic
pressure, oxygen pressure and
stability of water. The process is
examined according to these globally
true rules. Then using colony count
method ISO 6222, the design of
experiment is prepared. The risk for
different mixtures was determined in a
conceptual way that covers all possible
portions.
The design of experiments (DOE) was
made using mixture design with 3
mixtures. In the ternary plot the blue
colored area is free from bacteria and
safe to operate for production
processes.
Conclusion
The knowledge of bacteria growth is
created in the organization and it is
proved that the mixtures of one type of
resin are risky for bacteria and fungi
existence. This risk might be in a
broad range of collecting flies in raw
material storage tanks to blockages
and health risk for associates and
environment. This risk depends on
plenty of factors such as mixture
portions, concentration etc. This risk is
identified and clarified in this project.
The appropriate biocide was
determined for each solution and
process taking into account the
process fitting design materials and
chemical characteristics of resins.
The processes and factories that
operate in risky area were noticed and
corrected using appropriate biocides.
The knowledge is distributed,
communicated and associates were
trained to operate in safe bio-existence
zone.
Contamination in all plants was made
using bacteria existence protocol that
is created in the project.
A periodical process assessment tool
was created to sustain the technical
solution and prevention in long term. In
assessment plan the sampling plan,
sampling locations and pre-determined
trusted laboratories were cited.
Results
The essential result of this project was
to enlighten a dark side for the
organization. The bacteria growth was
mysterious for the process owners as
their expertise area was totally
different. The unknown is always
scary. This time it is enlightened using
DOE and supporting it with theoretical
knowledge. The risk of a delay in
manufacturing operations due to bio-
existence was driven away.
The knowledge of that encourages the
process owners to work in a safe
place, knowing the risk and how to
prevent it.

1

Gokhan Gureser
is quality professional, chemical engineer
experienced as lean six sigma black belt
in process excellence and development,
pharmaceutical operations, chemicals
characterization, 5S, DOE, Kaizen,
Statistical Process Control, Balanced
score card, FMEA, Cause and Effect,
Hypothesis testing and QFD with
experience of leading cross-departmental
international projects across Europe.

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