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Its AggiePol bio-plastic is derived from sustainable, natural feedstocks such as starches and agricultural waste

A company has developed fully biodegradable substitutes for existing oil-based plastics.

Teysha Technologies says its new polymer technology could significantly reduce plastic pollutionand replace many traditional products used in the automotive and medical industries.

Its bio-plastic, called AggiePol, is derived from sustainable, natural feedstocks such as starches and agricultural waste.

The firm says it can be physically, mechanically and chemically tweaked for different applications – not only that, its degradation rate can also be tuned to minimise the environmental impact of plastic products after the end of their useful lifetime.

Head of Research at Teysha Technologies, Dr Ashlee Jahnke, said: “At Teysha, we have developed a system where the main mechanism of polymer degradation is water-driven.

“This allows for breakdown in any environment containing sufficient moisture and not necessarily requiring microbial activity or industrial composting conditions.”

Sources: https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/01/20/teysha-technologies-develops-biodegradable-plastic-alternatives/

 

Teysha Technologies has developed a natural polycarbonate platform that can create fully biodegradable substitutes for existing petroleum-based plastics.

AggiePol, the bioplastic, is derived from sustainable feedstocks and can be physically, mechanically and chemically tuned to suit the needs of its intended application.

The versatile material could replace the traditional plastic used in the automotive industry and medical equipment.

Teysha’s technology uses a plug-and-play system that takes monomers and co-monomers, the natural building blocks of plastics, to create an eco-friendly alternative to traditional polymers.

Instead of using hydrocarbon-based petrochemicals, which are sourced from fossil fuels and generate various pollutants in the manufacturing of the material, Teysha’s platform uses natural products such as starches and agricultural waste products.

 

By controlling the chemistry, formulation and polymerisation conditions, the polycarbonate materials created by Teysha’s technology can be precisely tuned.

Unlike existing bioplastics such as PLA and PHA, the degradation rate of Teysha’s AggiePol can also be tuned, minimising the environmental impact of plastic products after the end of their useful lifetime.

“Until now, strategies to reduce plastic pollution have relied on changing human behaviour, such as encouraging recycling and banning certain plastic items like carrier bags,” said Dr Ashlee Jahnke, Co-inventor and Head of Research at Teysha Technologies. 

“By considering the ultimate fate of an applications material in the initial design stage, we can reduce the environmental impacts that occur from plastics.”

Sources: https://www.britishplastics.co.uk/News/teysha-technologies-develops-breakthrough-in-biodegradable-p/

Following years of research, Teysha Technologies has developed a natural polycarbonate platform that can create fully biodegradable substitutes for existing petroleum-based plastics. The bioplastic, AggiePol, is derived from sustainable feedstocks and can be physically, mechanically, and chemically tuned to suit the needs of its intended application. The versatile material could replace the traditional plastic used in the automotive industry and medical equipment.

Teysha’s technology uses a plug-and-play system that takes monomers and co-monomers, the natural building blocks of plastics, to create an eco-friendly alternative to traditional polymers. Instead of using hydrocarbon-based petrochemicals, which are sourced from fossil fuels and generate various pollutants in the manufacturing of the material, Teysha’s platform uses natural products such as starches and agricultural waste products.

By controlling the chemistry, formulation, and polymerization conditions, the polycarbonate materials created by Teysha’s technology can be precisely tuned. Unlike existing bioplastics such as PLA and PHA, the degradation rate of Teysha’s AggiePol can also be tuned, minimising the environmental impact of plastic products after the end of their useful lifetime.

“In the sea, existing plastics often break down into microplastic particles that can be consumed by marine life and ultimately work their way up the food chain and end up on our dinner plates,” explained co-inventor and head of research at Teysha Technologies, Dr Ashlee Jahnke. “The ultimate fate of plastic materials and whether they breakdown must be taken in to consideration, as many plastics can persist in the environment or landfills for thousands of years.

“At Teysha, we have developed a system where the main mechanism of polymer degradation is water-driven. This allows for breakdown in any environment containing sufficient moisture and not necessarily requiring microbial activity or industrial composting conditions. 

It’s estimated that there is currently around 80,000 tons of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone. 

“Until now, strategies to reduce plastic pollution have relied on changing human behaviour, such as encouraging recycling and banning certain plastic items like carrier bags. By considering the ultimate fate of an applications material in the initial design stage, we can reduce the environmental impacts that occur from plastics, even those made by natural products, and stop contributing to the long-term accumulation of plastics in our oceans.”

Sources: https://www.manufacturing.net/news/2019/01/new-polymer-technology-could-reduce-plastic-pollution

 

From the harrowing IPCC report on global warming to cases of whales dying after ingesting many kilograms of plastic, 2018 was rife with stories underlining the importance of clean technology. So, what will 2019 have in store for the cleantech industry? Here, Matthew Stone, CEO of cleantech investment company US Cleantech, explores three clean technologies set to change the game in 2019.01/15/19, 05:43 AM | Solar & Wind, Other Energy Topics

Cleantech is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and eagerly watched areas of industry today. Developments in this area boast everything from improved energy efficiency to a reduction in environmentally-damaging and unsustainable products and processes. Whether you’re motivated by cutting costs by improving efficiency or reducing your impact on the environment, there is little doubt that cleantech is an ideal investment for a better tomorrow. 

2018 brought with it increased scrutiny of many aspects of modern society, from single-use petroleum-based plastics to fossil fuel dependency, from across the public, political and industrial spheres. As such, it’s no surprise that cleantech is being developed to overcome these problems. In 2019, we’ll begin to see some of these technologies penetrate the market, laying the groundwork for a fundamental shift in industry. 

A biodiesel breakthrough 
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted in its 2018 report, rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy are necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This means an increased uptake of renewable energies, with biofuels offering a suitable substitute for traditional fossil fuels. 

However, many biofuels to date have required blending with fossil fuels to make them suitable for use in most engines and equipment. While this has reduced the use of fossil fuels, it’s not a carbon neutral process. Or it wasn’t, until a team of researchers at Renovare Fuels developed a self-sustaining, carbon-neutral process for creating high purity fuels from biodegradable waste, such as agricultural by-products and food waste. 

The company’s technology builds on the principles of anaerobic digestion and the fischer-tropsch (F-T) process to convert biodegradable waste into a liquid fuel. Traditionally, this has been an energy-intensive process that has yielded fuels unsuitable for use without further blending. With Renovare’s technology, the process is designed to be self-sustaining from an energy conservation perspective, with the water and gas produced during the F-T process used to power the system. 

With no external energy required and no need for blending, the process is carbon-neutral as it doesn’t result in a net gain of carbon emissions. The resultant fuel is high-grade and chemically similar to traditional fossil fuels, meaning it can be used as a drop-in replacement for diesel, petrol and jet fuels. This marks a breakthrough moment for biofuels, making them as effective as traditional fuels, cheap to produce and completely carbon-neutral. 

With wide adoption, this technology could change the way we view biofuels and significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This isn’t a far-fetched technology either; the company will showcase the process in the US in January 2019 and has previously received support from the Knowledge Transfer Network for aviation fuel testing in late 2018. With commercial negotiations already well advanced with key partners in the UK, during 2019 we could see this begin to roll out in more territories. 

Customisable sustainable plastics 
Alongside carbon emissions and global warming, plastic pollution has been one of the focal points of environmental debate in recent years. The widespread use of petroleum-based plastics, which take hundreds of years to degrade and release harmful chemicals when doing so, has led to a situation where we are on course for there to be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. 

Industry has responded by pushing for alternative materials to traditional plastics, but one of the problems with this has been that, for all its flaws, plastic is a highly versatile material. Biodegradable plastics and bioplastics, derived from natural sources, offer a promising solution but they often lack the chemical and mechanical properties to make them a perfect replacement for certain manufacturing applications. 

A team of researchers in the Wooley Laboratory at Texas A&M University spent over a decade working on a solution to this problem, which is now being commercialised by UK company Teysha Technologies, who is set for its first product launch in the UK in a leading health food supermarket chain. The solution is a natural polycarbonate platform that allows scientists to develop biopolymers with tuneable chemical and mechanical characteristics. 

Scientists use the platform to build, using natural monomers and co-monomers, a polymer that exhibits a desired set of characteristics. For example, a project might call for a biopolymer product to degrade entirely in seven months, as the end product will be a single-use plastic. The platform allows scientists to tune the polymer to degrade after this amount of time, while also exhibiting specific rigidity and tensile strength characteristics. When this bioplastic degrades, it breaks down into environmentally-friendly components that cause no damage to wildlife or habitats. 

This promises a new dimension of market viability to bioplastics, ensuring that plastics engineers and manufacturers can get exactly the properties they desire from their material, without the traditional environmental ramifications. 

New applications for solar 
These sustainable plastics tie into the final promising clean technology for 2019, which involves a development in solar cell technology. Currently, solar is one of the most popular forms of renewable energy, but it’s not without its shortcomings. Traditional panels require a lot of space to be moderately effective, and they are also incredibly brittle. 

Following years of development, we’re now on the verge of third-generation solar, which involves moving towards more sustainable, organic materials to create high efficiency, flexible solar technology. Nextgen Nano is one company developing such a technology in the form of its PolyPower offering, which combines earth-friendly biopolymers with organic polymer solar cells (PSCs) to provide a lightweight, flexible and potentially inexpensive approach to solar energy harvesting. 

Research into this technology has been spearheaded by Dr Franky So, chief technology officer of Nextgen Nano and the former head of the organic light emitting diode (OLED) research group at Motorola, where he was named a Distinguished Innovator and Master Innovator. 

The reason this technology is so notable is that it overcomes the cumbersome design limitations of traditional photovoltaic panels. PolyPower is flexible, efficient and has a thickness in nanometres, which means it could be designed into a wider range of applications. Theoretically, this means applications such as electric vehicles could include a layer of PolyPower on the exterior to power the vehicle in a subtle, effective way. This could open the doors to a multitude of commercial opportunities for solar that, until now, have not been feasible. 

While there have been many bleak forecasts for the environment in 2018, the cleantech industry is looking highly promising for the coming years. With the right investment and adoption of these technologies, we could be on the precipice of a clean technology revolution.

Sources: https://www.altenergymag.com/news/2019/01/15/cleantech-to-watch-in-2019/30125/

A bio-plastics partnership has developed the chemistry behind a plant-based fire-suppressant building material that could have helped prevent the Grenfell disaster in London in June 2017.

Grenfell Tower is a block of flats in North Kensington, London that suffered a major fire and resulted in 72 deaths. A public inquiry into the fire is still going on, but the building’s exterior cladding is thought to have contributed to the quick spread of the fire. The petrochemical foam insulation behind the cladding could also have contributed to the toxicity of the smoke.

The plant basis of Teysha Technologies’ plastics and the company’s ‘tuneable’ technology could produce a self-extinguishing foam insulation that might prevent a disaster like Grenfell happening in new buildings.

The plastics solution

Teysha also hopes to help with other aspects of the plastics problem – the widespread concern over plastic waste and microplastics in the environment and in the sea. Microplastics are the tiny particles of less than 5mm created in the breakdown of some plastics.

The technology uses natural and cost-effective sources, like agricultural waste and other biomass, to build the polymers. It also promises ‘hydrolytic’ breakdown where the materials are broken down by water to their starting molecules.

It is a whole lifecycle approach to plastic products. “We build up from these natural products and then design it so that when it breaks down it goes all the way back down to those same natural products. So as it breaks down in the environment, it’s not leaching some of this nasty stuff like the petrochemicals do and also not persisting for thousands of years,” says Dr Ashlee Jahnke, Teysha Technologies’ head of research and development.

“Ten years ago the research could have produced these types of plastics, but no one’s going to pay $100 for their water bottle to be thrown out, so the real leap is being able to apply our methodologies to low-cost agricultural waste.”

The plastics problem

Jahnke describes the problem with traditional plastic: “Most plastic is derived from petrochemicals coming from oil and for years and years, plastics engineers and chemists always designed their plastics for a specific function or purpose – that was really the focus. ‘Can we make a plastic to do this specific job’, whether it was this packaging or whatever it might be, without a lot of thought of the sourcing of the starting materials or the end of life and where these things might end up.

“That’s how we’ve created this problem, especially with single-use, and when they get into the environment they can persist for thousands of years. There’s no mechanism for those to break down and go away, and in fact what we’re seeing is that even some of those that break down are ending up as microplastics, these tiny little pieces, and these are ending up on your dinner plate, we’re finding them in our food chain now.”

The chemistry of polymers

The solution is ‘tuneable’ biopolymers or plastics that have specific properties or functionalities to do the job of the product effectively and not persist in the environment after they have been used and discarded.

Jahnke says, “So chemistry is all about installing the functionalities that you need on molecules to do the reactions later. The focus is on how you install these functionalities to biomass materials. We’re looking at ways to breakdown those materials and install the functionalities we need.”

Explaining a polymer, Jahnke says, “Most new plastic is just one polymer. So in a polymer chain, you take one little repeat unit, like one bead in a necklace, and you put a bunch together to get a long string. You take whatever your ingredients and combine them and make a big giant molecule and that’s what you call a polymer or plastic.”

3 Things That Will Change the World Today

Tuning the properties of the biopolymer

“If you want different applications you can make those chains short or long, that’ll change the properties, you can mix it with some additives, things like that, but it’s based on the properties of the specific polymer you make,” explains Jahnke.

“What’s unique is the way we can modify certain natural properties and the way we combine them so that we can ‘tune’ the properties of the end material. If you need packaging that’s very rigid to protect something, we do one formula, if you need something soft and squishy we do a different one and it’s all under the same technology platform.”

The plastic that already exists in buildings, packaging and everywhere around us remains a problem, in terms of its risks and disposal. And there are big economic questions around how we replace these, long term solutions and government policies on the use of plastics. Teysha Technologies offer a way to step out of the plastics dependency in a more renewable and environmentally friendly way.

Sources: https://www.verdict.co.uk/plastic-problem-solution/

Two biopolymer scientists talk about creating a plastic substitute

As policymakers continue to crack down on plastics, with the EU Parliament recently approving a ban on single-use plastics, businesses are increasingly under pressure to source earth-friendly bioplastics for their products.

Here, we talk to two scientists from Teysha Technologies: Professor Karen L. Wooley, the inventor and chief technology officer; and Dr Ashlee A. Jahnke, project research scientist. They talk about how the company has made a breakthrough in developing a platform to turn organic material into a viable plastic substitute.

Can you tell us about the technology that Tesha Technologies has developed and why?

Karen: Over the past couple of decades, we’ve become keenly aware of the potential negative impacts that may occur for polymer materials that persist beyond their useful lifetime. This has led us to consider the full lifecycle of plastics at the initial design stage. We build polymers from natural products so that they are capable of degradation to regenerate the natural-product building blocks.

Ashlee: The technology is truly more of a platform than a single polymer system, providing inherent versatility in the properties that can be achieved. It can be thought of as a plug-and-play system where various modified natural-product monomers and various co-monomers can be used.

In addition to co-monomers, various additives can be used to modify the properties of the final polymer produced. This versatility allows for the formation of a variety of materials that can vary greatly in their thermal and mechanical properties.

How does this technology compare to existing petroleum-based polycarbonates?

Karen: A significant advantage of our technology is the use of natural, sustainable feedstocks to generate polycarbonate materials with the ability to tune the physical, mechanical and chemical properties by controlling the chemistry, formulation and polymerization conditions.

Because the natural building blocks we use offer higher chemical diversity than typical hydrocarbon sources, we can also tune the degradation rates of our intact material systems. Most current polycarbonates are prepared from hydrocarbon-based petrochemicals and achieve varied properties through molar mass control, crystallinity control and blending with other polymers, with fewer opportunities to fine tune individual properties.

Moreover, the most common polycarbonate is poly(bisphenol A carbonate), which generates bisphenol A (BPA) upon hydrolytic breakdown — for example, under the extreme conditions in a dishwasher. Since BPA has been implicated in several diseases, avoiding its use as a building block for engineering plastics is of high importance.

How can the polymers be tuned and what does this mean for things like durability and biodegradability?

Karen: The strength, toughness, durability and longevity of our polymers are dependent on the properties of the specific monomers used in polymerization and can be tuned for various applications. Our material properties range from flexible to rigid, with degradation occurring over a period of weeks to years, depending on the polymer composition and the environmental conditions.

Ashlee: Our polymers also have varied thermal stabilities depending on the composition and have degradation temperatures that are generally similar to, but in some cases lower than, other polycarbonate and polyester materials. In terms of additives, our polymers and processing methods are compatible with various dyes, scents, oils, plasticizers and nanoparticles.

The main mechanism of polymer degradation is through hydrolytic degradation, allowing for breakdown in any environment containing moisture and does not require microbial activity, anaerobic conditions or industrial composting.

To determine the best disposal methods for complete breakdown, we’re still measuring and testing full degradation profiles in various potential disposal conditions — like in waterways, landfills and composting.

What renewable sources can be used as feedstock to make these biopolymers?

Ashlee: This technology can use of a wide variety of renewable, natural products for monomer feedstocks. Our current focus is on the use of polyhydroxyl natural products, including those derived from starches as well as agricultural waste products.

What kinds of material applications can these biopolymers be used in?

Karen: We anticipate use of our natural produce-derived polycarbonates in applications ranging from single-use packaging and cosmetic microbeads to durable goods.

One significant feature of the current system that is unique from other bioplastics, is the diversity of functional groups incorporated into the polymer. These include both carbonates and esters, which are traditionally used in degradable polymer systems, and less commonly used thioether linkages. The thiol-content in the final polymer may impart unique properties that have not yet been explored.

Further, the sugar monomers, which serve as a structural component of the polymer framework, have both alcohol and alkenyl functionalities available for modification, either pre- or post-polymerization, with various chemical groups, to impart specifically desired properties to the final polymer system.

Teysha Technologies Ltd, a London-based bioplastics startup, claims to have developed a breakthrough technology to develop organic-based plastic substitute.

In a statement to PNE, the company said its “plug-and-play” process take monomers and co-monomers from bio-based feedstock, such as starches and agricultural waste, to produce biopolymers that can be used in a large variety of applications.

Particularly, what makes the Teysha technology stand out is that it allows the company to “precisely tune the physical, mechanical and chemical properties” of its polymers.

“In doing so, we can adjust the strength, toughness, durability and longevity of our polymers to suit different applications,” according to Matthew Stone, commercialisation director of Teysha Technologies.

The “tunability” of the technology will allow for the manufacture of a wide variety of final products, from medical implants and vehicle moulding to food packaging and even cladding for building construction.

Teysha claims that its technology can produce bio-polycarbonate materials that are rigid or flexible, or that offer different thermal properties.

The process uses polyhydroxyl natural products as monomeric building blocks and carbonates as the linkages to produce the polycarbonates.

Crucially, the company asserts that it can control the biodegradation of its polymers – i.e. either within weeks or years.

Teysha maintains that its materials are fully compatible with existing production methods and that they “slots easily” into current manufacturing facilities.

Sources: PNE

In the last three years, there has been a noticeable awakening of the public consciousness concerning the damage caused by traditional plastics. Matthew Stone, commercialisation director of plastic substitute specialist Teysha Technologies, explains how the latest breakthroughs in earth-friendly plastic substitutes may offer an answer.

“While the world has had a plastic problem for decades, the tipping point for us as a business was around eight years ago. Having spent years developing cleantech products for agricultural businesses in South East Asia, we became acutely aware of the scale of the damage that plastic is doing to the environment. Previously pristine natural landscapes were simply choking because of waste plastic,” he writes.

Around the same time, in the western world, scientists realised that this was having an impact on human health, be it respiratory problems caused by burning plastic or reproductive problems associated with excessive exposure to bisphenol A (BPA).

In what appears to be a perfect storm, the scientific, political and public spheres have aligned to finally acknowledge that preventative action is required.

Stone: “As a result, we’ve seen a growing number of plastic bans around the world, from the UK and France, to Kenya and Morocco. A few of the bans have also achieved good results. Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), indicates that six billion fewer single-use plastic bags were issued by the seven main retailers in the UK following the country’s introduction of a five pence charge per bag.

However, while these bans are commendable — helping consumers make more sustainable choices — they simply don’t offer the comprehensive change the world needs. The problem lies in the cultural attachment we’ve built to plastic over decades. If plastic was invented today, it would never be sanctioned as a product intended for single or short-term use. As such, we need to consider biodegradable plastic alternatives to fill this need.”

Following years of research, Teysha Technologies has achieved a landmark breakthrough in creating a viable substitute for existing petroleum-based polycarbonates, or plastics.

Our technology uses a plug-and-play system that takes monomers and co-monomers, the natural building blocks that make up plastic, to create a polymer that works and functions in a very similar way to the plastic we’re used to. The difference is that our monomer feedstocks are derived from natural sources such as starches and agricultural waste products, rather than hydrocarbon-based petrochemicals sourced from fossil fuels. The ground-breaking technology itself is designed to act as a base platform where various modified natural product monomers and thiol co-monomers are used, rather than being a single polymer system.

“What’s more, the platform we’ve created to build these biopolymers allows us to precisely tune the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of our polymer to make it usable in a variety of materials,” notes Stone.
This “tunability” of the technology will allow for the manufacture of a wide variety of final products; from medical implants and vehicle moulding to food packaging even cladding for building construction. The final biopolymers can be engineered to be hard and resistant or soft and malleable, all of which can be directly applied to existing plant machinery with low capital cost.

“Crucially, we can also control the biodegradation of our polymers so that they breakdown in weeks or years, returning back to their basic building blocks that can be beneficial to plants,” Stone adds.

“It’s clear that while the first steps we’ve taken as a society have been positive, a more fundamental change is required to truly bring about the sustainable future we need. Rather than fearing the plastic problem, we should tackle it head on and consider the role that plastic substitutes can play in answering the problem.”

Sources: Bio Plastics Magazine

Teysha Technologies’ proprietary platform enables development of polymers that combine strength and toughness with hydrolytic breakdown to biologically beneficial byproducts at end of life. 

We recently were contacted by U.K.-based Teysha Technologies, which after more than a decade of research has achieved a landmark breakthrough in creating a viable substitute for existing petroleum-based PC resins, and potentially other plastics

Explains project research scientist Ashlee A. Jahnke, “Our technology uses a plug-and-play system that takes monomers and co-monomers—the natural building blocks that make up plastic—to create a polymer that works and functions in a very similar way to the plastic we’re used to. The difference is that our monomer feedstocks are derived from natural sources such as starches and agricultural waste products, rather than hydrocarbon-based petrochemicals sourced from fossil fuels.”

Moreover, the platform the researchers have created to build these biopolymers reportedly allows them to precisely tune the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the resulting polymer to make it usable in a variety of materials. As such, they are able to adjust the strength, toughness, durability and longevity of the polymers to suit different applications. Says Jahnke, “We can create rigid or flexible materials, or ones that offer different thermal properties. Crucially, we can also control the biodegradation of our polymers so that they breakdown in weeks or years, returning back to their basic building blocks that can be beneficial to plants.”

Here are Jahnke’s responses on some key questions we posed regarding the status of the technology:

Does your technology result in a PC type polymer only at this juncture? When you say it can produce a wide range of plastics, does it mean different grades of PC and/or PC blends… or other thermoplastics?

“Currently, all the plastics we produce are polycarbonates, but many also contain ester bonds. We can also produce simple polyesters using our technology platform. We can produce a wide range of plastics because our plug-and-play platform allows us to use various natural product monomers as polymer building blocks, and our current focus is on various grades of polycarbonate.”

Are you licensing the technology? Globally?

“We are not licensing at the moment, but we will be exploring several commercial arrangements, both upstream and downstream, and global licensing will most definitely form part of our strategy. Our chairman, Dr. Clive Rankin, has particular experience in this field as ex-vice president of Degussa Fine Chemicals.”

Is there any performance data you can share comparing the material to virgin PC and/or other bio-based plastics like PLA?

“We don’t have much of this type of direct comparison data at this point, but this is something that we are working on. We do know that our degradation temperatures are comparable to other bioplastics, and a bit lower than typical PC on the market. Other performance characterization work is ongoing.”

 Is anyone using the technology toward a commercial end? Are these polymers for injection molding? Extrusion? Blow molding? Is it for rigid products or flexible products as well? Can you list potential applications?

“The technology is not yet at the commercial stage. However, our thermoset polymers have demonstrated the ability to be molded and cured, by both UV and heat, to form prototype fishing lures. The thermoplastics will likely be best for injection molding, but we have not begun testing this yet.

“Beyond these applications, our technology platform allows us to be very versatile, because the products can be either rigid or flexible depending on the monomers used for polymerization. As such, there is a wide range of potential applications, from building insulation to food packaging and medical implants to drug delivery systems. We have even considered molding for automobiles.”

Sources: https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/plug-and-play-bioplastic-platform-results-in-various-grades-of-pc

 

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

The UK’s recycling industry says it doesn’t know how to cope with a Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste.

Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped.
At the moment the UK cannot deal with much of that waste, says the UK Recycling Association.
Its chief executive, Simon Ellin, told the BBC he had no idea how the problem would be solved in the short term.
“It’s a huge blow for us… a game-changer for our industry,” he said. “We’ve relied on China so long for our waste… 55% of paper, 25% plus of plastics.
“We simply don’t have the markets in the UK. It’s going to mean big changes in our industry.”
China has introduced the ban from this month on “foreign garbage” as part of a move to upgrade its industries.
Other Asian nations will take some of the plastic, but there will still be a lot left.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has admitted that he was slow to spot the problem coming.
The UK organisation Recoup, which recycles plastics, said the imports ban would lead to stock-piling of plastic waste and a move towards incineration and landfill.
Peter Fleming, from the Local Government Association, told the BBC: “Clearly there’s a part to play for incineration but not all parts of the country have incinerators.

“It’s a challenge – but mostly in the short term… and we will cope. In the longer term we need a much more intelligent waste strategy.”
Any move towards burning more plastic waste, though, would be met with fierce resistance from environmental groups.

‘Wrong answer’

Louise Edge, from Greenpeace, told the BBC: “The government has got us into this mess by continually putting off decisions and passing the buck.
“Incineration is the wrong answer – it’s a high-carbon non-renewable form of generating electricity. It also creates toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
“If you build incinerators it creates a market for the next 20 years for single-use plastics, which is the very thing we need to be reducing right now.”
The government is consulting with industry over a tax on single-use plastics and a deposit scheme for bottles.

Reduce and simplify

Mr Gove told the BBC his long-term goals were to reduce the amount of plastic in the economy overall, reduce the number of different plastics, simplify local authority rules so people can easily judge what’s recyclable and what isn’t as well as increase the rate of recycling.
The UK must, he said, “stop off-shoring its dirt”.
The Commons Environmental Audit Committee said Britain should introduce a sliding scale tax on plastic packaging with the hardest to recycle being charge most and the easiest to recycle being charged least.
There is broad agreement over much of that agenda, but it is not yet clear how the UK will achieve that long-term goal – or how it will solve its short-term China crisis.

Source: BBC