Descrizione del progetto
Un’alternativa organica biodegradabile agli imballaggi in plastica per uso agricolo
I rifiuti plastici rappresentano un grave pericolo per l’ambiente a livello globale, in quanto se ne accumulano quantità impressionanti e solamente meno del 40% di essi viene riciclato. Unitamente alla crescente domanda di plastica nel quadro dell’espansione dell’industria alimentare, si tratta di una minaccia significativa per l’ambiente in tutto il mondo. Il progetto REBIOLUTION, finanziato dall’UE, è dedicato allo sviluppo e all’introduzione di innovative miscele di poliestere completamente biodegradabili e organiche, materiali innovativi che potranno essere utilizzati in diversi settori. L’adozione di queste miscele di poliestere alternative potrebbe svolgere un ruolo cruciale nella sostituzione della plastica in applicazioni quali gli imballaggi alimentari e le pellicole per la pacciamatura agricola. Riducendo l’uso della plastica e di conseguenza i rifiuti generati, il progetto si propone di apportare un contributo sostanziale alla mitigazione dei danni ambientali causati da questo materiale.
Obiettivo
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
Campo scientifico
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-two-stage
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoMeccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinatore
67063 Ludwigshafen Am Rhein
Germania