Description du projet
Des bioplastiques innovants aux fonctionnalités améliorées
Le polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) et l’acide polylactique (PLA) sont deux bioplastiques qui affichent des performances de durabilité avancées. Le projet NEWPACK, financé par l’UE, ambitionne de valider la production d’au moins deux nouveaux bioplastiques en milieu industriel. Ces bioplastiques seront dérivés de mélanges de PHB et de PLA, enrichis d’extraits naturels dotés de propriétés antioxydantes et antibactériennes, ainsi que de nano-additifs provenant de la cellulose et de la chitine. NEWPACK utilisera des déchets agroalimentaires pour la production de PHB et développera et validera le processus jusqu’à l’échelle pilote. Il procédera en outre à la validation à l’échelle pilote d’un mélange de PLA et de PHB conforme aux exigences spécifiques des produits finaux.
Objectif
The objective of NEWPACK is to validate in industrial setting the production of at least two new bio-plastics based on PHB- PLA blends with improved sustainability performance, obtained by the addition of natural extracts with antioxidant/antibacterial properties and nanoadditives from cellulose and chitin. A new circular economy value chain will be generated from agro-food wastes that will be exploited for the production of PHB, while designing and validating the process up to pilot scale. Blending of PLA and PHB will be validated at pilot scale to achieve specific final product requirements based on targeted products. New bioplastic properties and functionalities will be achieved through incorporation of nanocellulose or nanochitin additives (to improve typical problems of processability and mechanical properties of PLA-PHB), antioxidant and antimicrobial additives. The ability to extend the functionalities will be validated in real industrial environments. NEWPACK activities are underpinned by the prior experience and results (already validated at TRL 3-4) of the partners in order to achieve advanced TRLs (5-6) for the developed technologies, including PHB production from agro-food waste; co-blending of PHB with PLA; nanocellulose extraction from wheat straw and incorporation into PHB-PLA blends and encapsulation of natural antioxidants/antimicrobials for addition to PHB-PLA. Great emphasis will be on assessing technical and economic feasibility of the processes; demonstrating the biodegradability of solutions; ensuring the compliance to the market and regulatory requirements; LCA evaluation; preparing for future scale-up of the processes to achieve a pre-industrial production and identification of stakeholders perceptions, attitudes and expectations towards bioplastics. The NEWPACK consortium has 12 partners with academic research organizations and small and large industries which cover the whole innovation, production and final use value chain.
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RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
90014 Oulu
Finlande