Description du projet
Une alternative biodégradable et biosourcée aux emballages plastiques agricoles
Les déchets plastiques représentent un risque environnemental important à l’échelle mondiale, avec des quantités stupéfiantes accumulées dont moins de 40 % sont recyclées. De plus, la demande de plastique ne cessant de croître dans un secteur de l’alimentation en pleine expansion, cela représente une menace de taille pour l’environnement à l’échelle mondiale. Le projet REBIOLUTION, financé par l’UE, est consacré au développement et à l’introduction de mélanges de polyester révolutionnaires, entièrement biosourcés et biodégradables. Ces matériaux innovants peuvent être exploités dans divers secteurs. Ces mélanges de polyester alternatifs pourraient jouer un rôle crucial en remplacement du plastique dans diverses applications telles que l’emballage des denrées alimentaires et les films de paillage agricole. En réduisant l’utilisation et les déchets de plastique, le projet entend apporter une contribution substantielle à l’atténuation des dommages environnementaux causés par le plastique.
Objectif
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
Champ scientifique
- 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
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Régime de financement
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinateur
67063 Ludwigshafen Am Rhein
Allemagne