Keller Kitchen introduces bio-based kitchen
Keller has launched the first bio-based kitchen on the kitchen market. What makes enduura® special is that the material used is not readily available on the market. Keller brought together complementary suppliers to develop a bio-based interior panel suitable for mass production at its own manufacturing facility in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. With the introduction of the bio-based kitchen, DKG has taken an important step towards its goal of 100% bio-based products by 2030.
The base material is MDF made from residues from the wood industry. This means that no trees are cut down for its production, avoiding extra CO2 emissions. Furthermore, traditional MDF contains binders made from fossil materials that are harmful to the environment. With enduura®, the binders for this ultra-sustainable kitchen are made from organic residues from the food industry, namely sunflower seeds and rapeseed. These resources are fully renewable and the protein concentrates obtained from these seeds have proven to be extremely good as binders for sheet materials in the interior industry.
The top layer is HPL (High Pressure Laminate) made of Kraft paper and bio-based resin instead of phenolic resin. This ensures that your kitchen is free of phenol and formaldehyde, chemicals that give off harmful unpleasant odors. Kraft paper, already widely used as a biodegradable packaging material, is made from the pulp of coniferous trees that grow much faster than deciduous trees. The organic resin used is made from bagasse fibers, the residue after all the sugar has been extracted from sugarcane. The result is a bio-based sheet material made from renewable raw materials that has a much smaller environmental impact than traditional materials. It sequester CO2 during growth and its production is often more energy efficient than traditional materials, resulting in a significantly smaller CO2 footprint, and with HPL your kitchen will last at least 25 years.
Currently, Keller in the Netherlands operates a circular process for chipboard kitchens: old kitchens are collected and transformed by a circular processor into new raw materials for their largest chipboard supplier. Keller is currently researching how to collect bio-based kitchens to create new raw materials.
For more information, visit www.kellerkitchens.com.
Architecture, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
