Here - PFI Group

14
Newsletter
Joint Project of PFI and Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences
The Eco Shoe – Still
Just a Dream?
New hydrothermal and enzymatic digestion plant
in the PFI engineering lab
BIoTECHNoLoGY
New Materials
and Recycling Methods
The joint project of PFI Biotechnology Department and
Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences envisages
that development and selection of special materials
(cellulose, starch blends, as well as other biopolymers)
and processing methods will enable all the materials
used in footwear together with the waste generated
during production first to be comminuted and
then merged together. Hydrothermal and enzymatic
digestion cleave the substances into smaller building
blocks and the resulting monomers or oligomers can
be transformed by microorganisms into new starting
materials such as biopolymers in a fermentation process.
Any remaining components that cannot be put to
material use are converted into biomethane (methane
produced from biomass). The objective is optimum
utilisation of all the energy and material resources
present in the footwear materials. Headed by Professor
Dr.-Ing. Jens Schuster, the Western Palatinate Institute
of Plastics Engineering (Institut für Kunststofftechnik
Westpfalz, IKW) on the Pirmasens Campus of Kaiserslautern
University of Applied Sciences serves as second
research establishment for the polymeric components
of footwear. In the course of the project it is intended
to develop an outsole material which has the rubberyelastic
properties of a conventional sole material while
also fulfilling all biodegradability criteria.