Market News

UK company Teysha Technologies have developed an entirely unique technology platform for the production of an organic-based, plastic substitute with almost unlimited market applications.

Teysha’s investment team has been lead by Matthew Stone, one of the UK’s most prolific technology VC’s, alongside well-established industry figures such as ex Degussa Vice President Clive Rankin, and leading biopolymer scientists including Professor Karen Woolley of Texas A&M. The company insists that its AggiePol® technology stands alone as a renewable, biodegradable plastic substitute that is tunable to multiple short and long-term applications at a competitive price point. The company also claims that by being fully biodegradable and made from feedstock derived from plant waste and not traditional petrochemicals, it removes the environmental impact to the earth, rivers and oceans, reports of which have been so prevalent in the news recently after UK environment minister Michael Gove’s reaction on Twitter to the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 series.

The European Commission’s lawmakers recently announced plans to ban a range of plastic items, including single-use plates, straws and cutlery by 2021 with new rules that mark increasingly ambitious efforts by governments to reduce marine pollution. European officials said the move was also part of a broader strategy to create a market for recycled plastics and spur investment in new types of packaging in the bloc. The EU move is the latest in a series of similar policies which have been implemented by governments across the world as concerns have grown over plastics polluting oceans, damaging marine wildlife and infecting our food chain.

Teysha’s technology, which the company also asserts has low cost of raw materials, is fully compatible with existing production methods, and slots easily into current manufacturing facilities. Company founder and Managing Director Matthew Stone further states that “Market conditions and Government policy are now perfectly aligned for Teysha Technologies, with countries from all corners of the globe pledging to tackle plastic pollution and clean up the world’s lands, rivers and oceans. What is unique about our technology is that it can be tuned to hundreds of applications and it can break down in the natural environment with no negative impact to animals, plants or the surrounding ecosystem, making it objectively non-harmful. We do not expose further carbon stores on the front end as we do not use fossil fuels as a raw material, and we produce only natural by-products on the back-end, as it biodegrades.

Existing organic plastic substitutes are inhibited by limited usability, or the need to be treated in specific conditions to biodegrade. Teysha’s technology has none of these inhibitors, and can for the first time genuinely provide a realistic alternative to one of the biggest environmental challenges of a generation. Our manufacturing compatibility, product versatility, and end-point degradability, provide us with a technology that has the potential to change our lives, and those of future generations.”

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. 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.

The company which is headquartered in West London is currently raising A-round finance under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), going through optimisation and scale up, with sports fishing lures already sub-licenced for commercial markets, and will move towards the launch of full-scale production for broader markets shortly.

The government-owned research technology company SIRIM has built a first-of-its-kind pilot plant in Malaysia to convert palm oil into versatile biodegradable plastic materials. The facility is situated in Shah Alam, Selangor state. It is a fully automated plant and produces various types of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).

The pilot plant, which is installed at the Jalan Beremban facility of SIRIM in Shah Alam, became operational in July 2011. It uses palm oil mill effluent (POME) and crude palm kernel oil as feedstock to produce 2,000L of different PHA materials. The palm oil-based plastics are expected to become an alternative to the non-biodegradable petroleum-based plastics in the country.

The facility was designed and built jointly by SIRIM Berhad, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

SIRIM background

Palm is the most prominent agricultural industry in Malaysia and is grown in about 4.7 million hectares of land across the country. About 600,000 people depend on the crop, producing about 70Mtpa. There are about 430 palm mills and the crop accounts for about $15bn in exports (2010). It is available throughout the year as a result of both high rainfall and sunlight.

The country is also home to one of the largest palm oil industry-based agricultural waste producers. The lignocellulosic palm wastes are converted to biomethane and biomass. However, about 24Mt of POME wastes sent to ponds pollute the underground water resources.

“The SIRIM pilot plant uses palm oil mill effluent and crude palm kernel oil to produce 2,000L of different PHA materials.”

Technological development and finance

In 2006, SIRIM researchers demonstrated that the POME could be fermented, extracted and converted into organic acids to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) polyesters. The research was carried out in two phases led by the SIRIM researchers. MIT provided the cloning for PHA biosynthesis genes.

The Malaysia Palm Oil Board, the University Malaya, UPM, USM and SIRIM received MYR2.85m ($0.9m) funding for the first phase of research under the Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) programme. The first phase involved R&D of the PHA biosynthesis process and recovery processes, materials and product testing, and product applications.

“Palm is the most prominent agricultural industry in Malaysia; there are 430 palm mills and the crop accounts for about $15bn a year in exports.”

The study was conducted with MYR21m ($6.7m) financial support from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation under the Technofound Programme. This phase involved the optimisation and integration of the manufacturing process and establishment of the pilot plant. The pilot plant represents one tenth of the industrial scale facility. It will enable the researchers to further improve and optimise the processes through data collection, and mitigate risks.

SIRIM bioreactors

The SIRIM bioplastics project has integrated production processes and bioreactor facilities designed and fabricated indigenously. The pilot scale plant is based on SIRIM bioreactor technology. The sealed bioreactor vessels have foam sensors, a sparging system and mirror-polished 0.5µm finish interiors for precise environmental control. The sparging system enhances oxygenation and the foam sensor detects unwanted bubbles to accelerate the entire fermentation process.

The bioreactors are designed to allow scaling up to the capacities of between 10L and 2,000L, depending on specific requirements. The process also has the flexibility of total or semi-automated operations. Technical specifications of the bioreactors include the use of SS316 food grade stainless steel materials, coil or jacketed type cooling and heating systems, Rusthon turbine mixers, 415V 3-phase AC power, centralised and individual process control systems, Department of Occupational Safety and Health-approved mechanical seal systems, and a pressure vessel.

SIRIM process technology

The bioreactor system uses microorganisms for the production of bioplastics and other renewable sources. It also facilitates multipurpose anaerobic and aerobic bioreactions to produce organic acids such as caramelor and vinegar.

“The value of the global bioplastics market is expected to reach about $10bn by 2020 and account for 30% of total plastic demand.”

The technology provides precise and stringent environmental control of acidity, oxygen, temperature and pressure inside the bioreactor to facilitate the bacterial fermentation process. The process optimises both raw materials and productivity for efficient production of linear polyesters. It also avoids contamination and produces better outputs, thereby reducing the overall production costs.

Bioplastics market growth

The use of non-toxic bioplastics is increasing in the medical, packaging, food, toys, textile and horticulture industries. There are also plans to use them in the electronic and automotive industries. The value of the global bioplastics market is expected to reach about MYR30.3bn ($10bn) by 2020 as a result of consumer preferences and environmental concerns. It currently accounts for about 15% of the total plastic demand and this is expected to rise to 30% by 2020.

Biodegradable plastic produced from sugar cane is expected to cost about MYR28 ($9.47) per kg, while that produced from palm kernel oil is about MYR7 ($2.36) per kg. The cheaper costs are credited to palm oil wastes.

Source: Chemicals Technology

By Anna Hirtenstein

Companies that make packaging from plants instead of fossil fuels are starting to challenge the oil industry’s ambition to increase the supply of raw materials for plastics.

Use of bioplastics made from sugar cane, wood and corn will grow at least 50 percent in the next five years, according to the European Bioplastics Association in Berlin, whose members include Cargill Inc. and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. German chemical giant BASF SE and the Finnish paper maker Stora Enso Oyj have stepped into the business to meet demand from the likes of Coca-Cola Co. to Lego A/S.

“Biochemicals and bioplastics could erode a portion of oil demand, much like recycling can erode overall virgin plastics demand,” said Pieterjan Van Uytvanck, a senior consultant at Wood Mackenzie, a research group focused on the oil industry. “Provided the challenges facing biomass today are overcome, it will become a larger portion of the supply.”

Moviegoers famously learned in the 1967 film “The Graduate” that “there’s a great future in plastics.” Oil companies make ethylene and other basic building blocks for plastic. They’ve been eyeing that market for growth as electric cars threaten to trim demand for gasoline.

Plastic material’s ubiquity in packaging has left the world literally swimming in disused bottles, bags and wraps. That’s starting to worry both environmentalists and the companies that use it the most. There’ll be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and those materials are finding their way into the food chain.

Bioplastics currently make up about 1 percent of the plastics market, according the industry’s organization in Europe. They are made by processing sugars from plants and tend to have a smaller carbon footprint than their conventional counterparts. Some are also designed to naturally degrade after use. Top producers include Sao Paulo-based Braskem SA, NatureWorks LLC in the U.S. and Novamont SpA of Italy.

“Attitudes are evolving,” said David Eyton, the head of technology at BP Plc. “The question that faces the petrochemicals industry that has yet to really be answered is, ‘How are people going to deal with some of the environmental impacts of petrochemicals? Particularly plastics, which are a growing concern.’”

The International Energy Agency forecasts that growth in the plastics market should boost petroleum demand. It takes about 8.5 barrels of oil-derived naphtha to produce the a ton of ethylene needed to manufacture 160,000 plastic bags, according to Bloomberg Intelligence calculations.

“Petrochemicals will take center stage in driving oil demand,” said IEA analyst Tae-Yoon Kim. “This is why oil majors are very much focusing on petrochemicals.”

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA are expanding their plastic footprints, according to the IEA.

“We’re expecting petrochemicals to grow 4 percent per year,” said Ahmad Al Khowaiter, chief technology officer at Saudi Aramco. “That’s an opportunity we’re really trying to leverage.”

The new technology will have to compete against massive refineries that convert hundreds of thousands of barrels of every day into plastics.

“Alternative raw materials must be competitive,” Stora Enso’s Chief Financial Officer Seppo Parvi said in an interview in London, anticipating eventual price parity with crude plastics. “I’m confident we’ll be able to do it.”

Demand for bioplastics also needs to grow among retailers and consumers, according to Coke.

“It won’t ever work if there’s just one big consumer company like a Coca-Cola trying to drive suppliers,” said Ben Jordan, head of environmental policy at Coca-Cola. “You need more demand out there in industry.”

Source: Bloomberg