Descripción del proyecto
Alternativa biodegradable y de origen biológico a los envases de plástico agrícola
Los residuos plásticos son un importante peligro medioambiental mundial, ya que se acumulan cantidades asombrosas y se recicla menos del 40 %. Combinado con la creciente demanda de plástico en una industria alimentaria en expansión, ello supone una importante amenaza para el medio ambiente en todo el mundo. El equipo del proyecto REBIOLUTION, financiado con fondos europeos, se dedica a desarrollar e introducir innovadoras mezclas de poliéster de origen totalmente biológico y biodegradables. Dichos materiales innovadores pueden utilizarse en diversos sectores. La adopción de estas mezclas alternativas de poliéster podría tener un papel fundamental en la sustitución del plástico en aplicaciones como el envasado de alimentos y películas para acolchado agrícola. Al reducir el uso y los residuos plásticos, en el proyecto se pretende contribuir sustancialmente a mitigar los daños medioambientales causados por el plástico.
Objetivo
Plastic waste poses an important environmental problem in Europe and worldwide, especially from leakage to natural habitats. Of more than 29 Mt of plastic post-consumer waste collected in the EU in 2020, the average recycling rate of packaging waste was less than 40%. Packaging is the largest end-use market of plastic demand (40.5%). Multilayer packaging (e.g. paper/plastic composites), widely used in the food and beverage industry, applies mostly polyethylene (PE) film as plastic coating.
In the agriculture sector, plastics are used to enhance crop yield, save water and agrochemicals but bear the risk of being lost during operation. Agricultural plastics market represents 3.2% of the plastic demand and the 50% increase in global food supplies expected by 2050 will lead to a substantially higher demand of plastics for mulch films (today mainly made of PE).
REBIOLUTION aims to design and synthetize novel fully bio-based and biodegradable polyester blends based on 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and other bio-based monomers fit for specific product-market applications selected in this project for their widespread use and negative impact on the environment: (1) plastic coating for food packaging (e.g. for frozen/chilled food or ready meal trays) and (2) mulch films for agricultural applications.
Well-defined properties will be established by carefully tuning the polymer blends for each application in order to boost the sustainability performance (non-toxic substances used, reduced non-renewable energy consumption, recyclable and at the same time home compostable and biodegradable in soil and aquatic environments) and improved functionality while ensuring product and processes safety. REBIOLUTION is committed to remove barriers to market penetration by providing a drop-in bio-based polymer blend replacement that fosters a seamless transition for the downstream value-chain, avoiding additional investment in the processing industrial lines and extra-costs for consumers
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcomposites
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technologyfood packaging
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-two-stage
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaRégimen de financiación
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinador
67063 Ludwigshafen Am Rhein
Alemania