Project description
Innovative bioplastics with improved functionalities
Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polylactic acid (PLA) are two bioplastics that exhibit enhanced sustainability performance. The EU-funded NEWPACK project aims to validate the production of at least two new bioplastics in industrial settings. These bioplastics will be derived from blends of PHB and PLA, enriched with natural extracts possessing antioxidant and antibacterial properties, as well as nanoadditives sourced from cellulose and chitin. NEWPACK will use agro-food waste for PHB production and will develop and validate the process up to the pilot scale. Moreover, it will conduct pilot-scale validation of PLA and PHB blending to meet specific requirements for the final products.
Objective
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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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
90014 Oulu
Finland