issue 02/2022

Bioplastics - CO 2 

-based Plastics - Advanced Recycling 

bioplastics MAGAZINE Vol. 17 

Basics 

Plastic or no plastic - 

that’s the question 47 

Highlights 

Thermoforming / Rigid packaging | 49 

Masterbatch / Additives | 30 

... is read in 92 countries 


02 / 2022 

ISSN 1862-5258 March/April

What are 

bioplastics?

dear 

Editorial 

readers 

I recently read an essay in The New Yorker called ”In A World On Fire, Stop Burning 

Things” that resonated with me a lot. While the article did not touch on the issues of 

our industry specifically (e.g. plastic pollution or bioplastics vs. fossil-plastics) it did 

touch on the issue that goes far beyond – climate change, or I should rather say 

the climate crisis. The key message that Bill McKibben, author of the essay, tries to 

bring across is that we can switch from fossil to renewable energy right now – and 

that it would be cheaper long term to boot. 

Current geopolitical developments are more than proof that such a switch 

would be advisable. The war in Ukraine has sent shock waves through our global 

community, especially in “the West”. The incredible dependency on imported 

fossil fuels turned out to have a couple of pitfalls that many politicians (especially 

in Germany) only seem to realize now. The “easy and cheap” solution is now 

neither easy nor cheap. And European leaders scramble to fill their gas tanks, 

by swapping the dependency on Russia with a dependency on one or another 

potentially questionable big fossil-fuel exporter. 

Yet, I remain hopeful, or rather my hope is reawakening. Hope that this horrible 

war will be a catalyst that finally pushes renewables to the forefront. We need more 

renewable energy and we need more renewable materials – two industries that 

are often complementary. Resource independence is something that we should 

thrive for, not just because renewables are better for the climate, but because 

they offer a stabler economic environment. And just like with renewable energy 

that has become cheaper and cheaper over the years I am sure the same will hold true 

with bioplastics, given the chance. And I am not alone with this view, on page 44 Remy 

Jongboom shares his opinion on the fossil-fuel addiction and how to overcome it. 

This is not an addiction we’ll be able to cold turkey on, and fossil fuels will still play an 

important role in the coming years – the degree of that role is up for us to decide. 

Of course, this issue is not only philosophical excursions on why we should finally 

“go green”. We also have plenty of articles under our focus point of Additives & 

Masterbatches and our first On-site report after quite a while. Furthermore, our very 

own Editor in Chief tackled the topic of “plastics or no plastics” in our Basics section, 

albeit it might as well carry the label “Opinion”. Last but not least we also have a 

review of the esteemed bio!PAC conference (with the 7 th PLA World Congress already 

on the horizon), and many more stories big and small all around our little corner of the 

bioeconomy. 

And until we meet again in person, stay safe, fight the good fight, and cling to the 

hope that tomorrow will change for the better. 

Yours sincerely 

EcoComunicazione.it 

WWW.MATERBI.COM 

as orange peel 

adv arancia_bioplasticmagazine_01_02.2020_210x297.indd 1 24/01/20 10:26 

r1_01.2020 


Bioplastics - CO 2 -based Plastics - Advanced Recycling 

Basics 



Highlights 





Follow us on twitter! 

www.twitter.com/bioplasticsmag 


ISSN 1862-5258 March/April 

Like us on Facebook! 

www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine 

bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17 3

Imprint 

Content 

34 Porsche launches cars with biocomposites 

32 Bacteriostatic PLA compound for 3D printingz 

Mar/Apr 02|2022 

Materials 

26 A new packaging solution for aerosols 

3 Editorial 

5 News 

38 Application News 

47 Basics 

48 Brand Owner 

49 10 years ago 

50 Suppliers Guide 

54 Companies in this issue 

Publisher / Editorial 

Dr. Michael Thielen (MT) 

Alex Thielen (AT) 

Samuel Brangenberg (SB) 

Head Office 

Polymedia Publisher GmbH 

Dammer Str. 112 

41066 Mönchengladbach, Germany 

phone: +49 (0)2161 6884469 

fax: +49 (0)2161 6884468 

info@bioplasticsmagazine.com 

www.bioplasticsmagazine.com 

Media Adviser 

Samsales (German language) 

phone: +49(0)2161-6884467 

fax: +49(0)2161 6884468 

sb@bioplasticsmagazine.com 

Michael Thielen (English Language) 

(see head office) 

Layout/Production 

Michael Thielen 

Events 

10 7 th PLA World Congress 

12 4 th bio!PAC - Review 

CCU 

14 Melt spinning of CO 2 

-based 

thermoplastic polyurethanes 

16 Engineered bacteria upcycle 

carbon waste into commodity chemicals 

Advanced Recycling 

17 Enzymatic recycling technology for 

textile circularity 

18 Protective furniture packaging from 

pyrolysis oil 

19 Converting plastic waste into 

performance products 

Materials 

20 When Zero-Waste Meets 3D Printing 

22 There are no silver bullets 

but this one has a pretty shine 

24 100 % biobased surfactants and 

polyethylene glycols (PEGs) 

26 Plastics as CO 2 

sinks 

From Science & Research 

28 Self-cleaning bioplastics – the lotus effect 

Masterbatch / Additives 

30 Making the leap into a new era 

31 Let’s adopt the right BioHaviour 

32 Breakthrough for biobased HMDA 

33 New compostable mineral fillers 

& black masterbatches 

34 Unique antistatic ingredient for bioplastics 

36 Masterbatches for soil improvement 

Applications 

37 Home compostable 

3D printing filament 

On-Site 

42 Tecnaro 

Methodology 

46 Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance (BFA) 

– new guidance 

Opinion 

44 About reducing the fossil 

fuel addiction via compostables 

47 Plastic or nor plastic - that’s the question 

Print 

Poligrāfijas grupa Mūkusala Ltd. 

1004 Riga, Latvia 

bioplastics MAGAZINE is printed on 

chlorine-free FSC certified paper. 

bioplastics magazine 

Volume 17 - 2022 

ISSN 1862-5258 

bM is published 6 times a year. 

This publication is sent to qualified subscribers 

(169 Euro for 6 issues). 

bioplastics MAGAZINE is read in 

92 countries. 

Every effort is made to verify all Information 

published, but Polymedia Publisher 

cannot accept responsibility for any errors 

or omissions or for any losses that may 

arise as a result. 

All articles appearing in 

bioplastics MAGAZINE, or on the website 

www.bioplasticsmagazine.com are strictly 

covered by copyright. No part of this 

publication may be reproduced, copied, 

scanned, photographed and/or stored 

in any form, including electronic format, 

without the prior consent of the publisher. 

Opinions expressed in articles do not necessarily 

reflect those of Polymedia Publisher. 

bioplastics MAGAZINE welcomes contributions 

for publication. Submissions are 

accepted on the basis of full assignment 

of copyright to Polymedia Publisher GmbH 

unless otherwise agreed in advance and in 

writing. We reserve the right to edit items 

for reasons of space, clarity or legality. 

Please contact the editorial office via 

mt@bioplasticsmagazine.com. 

The fact that product names may not be 

identified in our editorial as trade marks 

is not an indication that such names are 

not registered trade marks. 

bioplastics MAGAZINE tries to use British 

spelling. However, in articles based on 

information from the USA, American 

spelling may also be used. 

Envelopes 

A part of this print run is mailed to the 

readers wrapped bioplastic envelopes 

sponsored by Sidaplax/Plastic Suppliers 

(Belgium/USA). Another part is sponsored 

by Minima Technology,Taiwan. 

Cover 

Shutterstock/AboutLife 

Follow us on twitter: 

http://twitter.com/bioplasticsmag 

Like us on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine

TerraVerdae Bioworks 

to acquire PolyFerm 

Canada 

TerraVerdae Bioworks (Edmonton, AL, Canada) 

announced that it has signed a binding letter of 

intent to acquire 100 % of the equity of PolyFerm 

Canada. 

TerraVerdae is a world-leading performance 

biopolymers company. 

PolyFerm (Harrowsmith, ON, Canada) has 

a unique technology portfolio of biobased and 

biodegradable elastomeric polymers known as mcl 

PHAs. The addition of PolyFerm will strengthen 

TerraVerdae’s core capabilities and enhance the 

Company’s ability to produce biopolymers and 

resins for a wider range of applications, including 

for films, coatings, and adhesives. 

“The addition of PolyFerm’s capabilities and 

know-how represents a significant opportunity for 

TerraVerdae to advance new and valuable solutions 

to help the world develop sustainable plastic 

solutions that can reduce its carbon footprint”, 

said William Bardosh, CEO of TerraVerdae. 

As part of the acquisition, Bruce Ramsay, 

President of PolyFerm, will join the TerraVerdae 

team to help expand its PHA technology 

development programs. Ramsay is a recognized 

leader in the field of biobased elastomeric PHA 

technologies. With over 30 years of significant 

achievements, he has developed a unique 

intellectual property portfolio in medium chain 

length (mcl) PHA technologies. 

“I am very pleased to be joining one of the 

biopolymer industry’s leading product development 

teams”, said Bruce Ramsay. “And, I look forward to 

accelerating TerraVerdae’s development process 

with the exceptional resources available at the 

Company”. 

The transaction is anticipated to close in the 

second quarter of 2022. AT/MT 

www.terraverdae.com | www.polyfermcanada.com 

Chinaplas postponed 

Trade fair organizer Adsale announced on March 18 that the 

CHINAPLAS, one of the world's leading plastics and rubber 

trade fairs and widely recognized by the industry as the most 

influential exhibitions next to the K fair, will be postponed. 

In view of the latest COVID development and the further 

tightening of the pandemic control measures in Shanghai and 

other provinces of China, and to protect the health and safety of 

all show participants as well as to ensure the best participation 

result for the exhibitors, it was decided that the 35 th Chinaplas, 

International Exhibition on Plastics and Rubber Industries, 

scheduled to be held from 25-28 April 2022 at National Exhibition 

and Convention Center in Shanghai will be postponed. New dates 

and other details of the exhibition are not known yet but will be 

announced soon. 

The World Health Organization (WHO), announced that China 

had nearly 16,000 new cases within 24 hours around the date 

of Adsale’s announcement. The daily total number of cases has 

dropped by more than 50% though over a week's time. Other 

news reported the big industrial cities of Shenzhen, Changchun, 

Dongguan, Jilin City, and Langfang were completely shut down. 

Although the 35 th Chinaplas cannot be held as scheduled, the 

organisers assure that the promotion of companies and their 

products via their different online channels will continue. “CPS+ 

eMarketplace” is ready and positioned to connect interested 

parties with buyers from China and overseas. AT 

https://www.chinaplasonline.com 

News 

daily updated News at 


Picks & clicks 

Most frequently clicked news 

Here’s a look at our most popular online content of the past two months. 

The story that got the most clicks from the visitors to bioplasticsmagazine.com was: 

tinyurl.com/news-20220128 

Huntsman develops biobased polyurethane for 

Keen's plant-based soles 

(28 January 2022) 

Footwear experts at Huntsman have helped Keen develop a breakthrough 

production innovation – a range of sneakers with plant-based soles. The 

Field to Foot (F2F) sneakers were created by Keen’s Advanced Concepts 

Team, utilizing a specially developed biobased polyurethane system from 

Huntsman that contains a by-product from agricultural processing. 


News 



Sulzer PLA technology 

for China 

Sulzer has been awarded by Yangzhou Huitong 

Biological New Material to supply technology and key 

equipment for its polylactic acid (PLA) production facility 

in Jiangsu Province, China. The facility will have a 

production capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year. 

The plant will be able to produce a large portfolio 

of PLA grades serving a broad range of end-use 

applications from food packaging to kitchen utensils or 

toys. Replacing traditional plastics with non-fossil based 

plastics directly contributes to an improved carbon 

footprint. 

The versatility of Sulzer’s PLA technology allows the 

production of a large range of molecular weights and 

stereoisomer ratios while meeting product high-quality 

standards. 

To meet Yangzhou Huitong Biological New Material’s 

requirements, Sulzer Chemtech will design and provide 

its lactide purification, polymerization, devolatilization 

and post-reaction proprietary technologies. The 

licensing agreement framework also includes extensive 

service support from engineering to technical assistance 

and field services. Sulzer Chemtech was selected for its 

proven track record as market leader, delivering scalable 

production solutions with both improved efficiency and 

quality for the production of PLA. 

Zhang JianGang, President of Yangzhou Huitong 

Biological New Material, adds: “This new facility will 

allow us to enter the fast-growing bioplastic market. 

We consider Sulzer an extremely valuable partner in 

this project. The company’s comprehensive technical 

services and cutting-edge production technologies 

for PLA will help us to effectively produce sustainable 

plastics and meet our customers’ strategic demands”. 

Torsten Wintergerste, Division President of Sulzer 

Chemtech, comments: “We are excited to support 

Yangzhou Huitong Biological New Material in their 

flagship project. Our PLA technologies are currently used 

in most PLA facilities worldwide. We couldn’t be prouder 

to be supporting customers with monomer purification 

and polymer production units that are helping advance 

the sustainable and circular plastics sector”. MT 

www.sulzer.com 

The Bioplastics Award 

is facing new 

horizons 

After 15 editions of the Global 

Bioplastics Award, the last 11 

hosted by bioplastics MAGAZINE, 

this prestigious prize is now 

facing new horizons. 

bioplastics MAGAZINE decided to 

discontinue this award. Instead, 

after pausing for one year, 

European Bioplastics will come 

up with a new edition of the 

award in 2023. 

Of course, bioplastics MAGAZINE 

will continue to report about 

nominees and winners. So stay 

tuned. MT 

Plant-derived 

ethylene & propylene 

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and 

Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Nagoya, Japan) have begun 

a joint consideration to manufacture and sale ethylene, 

propylene, and their derivatives using bioethanol as raw 

material, with an aim to commence operation in 2025. 

There is a growing need for plastic reuse and recycling to 

achieve the realization of a sustainable recycling-oriented 

society. There are also strong expectations for realizing a 

sustainable life cycle by using plant-derived materials. 

MCC and Toyota Tsusho are working on the 

commercialization of various recycling processes and 

aim to realize a recycling-oriented society by switching 

from raw materials derived from fossil fuels to plantderived 

materials. 

In order to make a wide range of products more 

sustainable, including products that are generally difficult 

to collect and recycle among packaging/containers and 

sanitary goods, both companies have decided to examine 

how to commercialize the manufacture and sale of 

ethylene, propylene, and their derivatives made from 

plant-derived raw materials. 

MCC and Toyota Tsusho will evaluate the manufacture 

of 100 % plant-derived ethylene (bioethylene) and 

its derivatives using bioethanol as raw material, 

and the manufacture and sale of the first plantderived 

propylene in Japan (biopropylene) and its 

derivatives using bioethylene as its raw material. AT 

www.m-chemical.co.jp | www.toyota-tsusho.com/english/ 

6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17

Global treaty targeting plastic pollution 

Heads of State, Ministers of environment and other representatives from 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN 

Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) on the 2 nd of March 2022 in Nairobi (Kenia) to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally 

binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal. 

The resolution, based on three initial draft resolutions from various nations, establishes an Intergovernmental Negotiating 

Committee (INC), which will begin its work in 2022, with the ambition of completing a draft global legally binding agreement by the 

end of 2024. It is expected to present a legally binding instrument, which would reflect diverse alternatives to address the full lifecycle 

of plastics, the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials, and the need for enhanced international collaboration to 

facilitate access to technology, capacity building and scientific and technical cooperation. 

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will convene a forum by the end of 2022 that is open to all stakeholders in conjunction 

with the first session of the INC, to share knowledge and best practices in different parts of the world. It will facilitate open discussions 

and ensure they are informed by science, reporting on progress throughout the next two years. Finally, upon completion of the INC’s 

work, UNEP will convene a diplomatic conference to adopt its outcome and open it for signatures. 

“Today marks a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics. This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since 

the Paris accord. It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it”. 

“Let it be clear that the INC’s mandate does not grant any stakeholder a two-year pause. In parallel to negotiations over an 

internationally binding agreement, UNEP will work with any willing government and business across the value chain to shift away 

from single-use plastics, as well as to mobilise private finance and remove barriers to investments in research and in a new circular 

economy”, said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. 

Plastic production soared from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at USD 

522.6 billion, and it is expected to double in capacity by 2040. The impacts of plastic production and pollution on the triple planetary 

crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution are a catastrophe in the making. 

The historic resolution, titled “End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument” was adopted with the 

conclusion of the three-day UNEA-5.2 meeting, attended by more than 3,400 in-person and 1,500 online participants from 175 UN 

Member States, including 79 ministers and 17 high-level officials. AT 

https://www.unep.org 

News 



We design colors with a purpose to allow our 

planet to remain as colorful today and tomorrow. 

Our SUKANO® PHA color Portfolio, designed for direct food contact, available for industrially 

and home compostable applications and allows soil and marine biodegradability. 

Formulated to your needs and requirements. 

www.sukano.com 


News 



PHA production capacity to increase tenfold 

A new market report “Mimicking Nature – The PHA Industry Landscape. Latest trends and 28 producer profiles” was recently 

published by GO!PHA and nova-Institute. 

Natural PHAs are a class of materials that exist in nature for millions of years. These materials are both biobased and 

biodegradable, similar to other natural materials such as cellulose, proteins, and starch. Natural PHAs are produced by 

an extensive variety of microorganisms through bacterial fermentation. Due to its high performance, biocompatibility, 

biodegradability, and green credentials, the PHA family has a large design space and accommodates a wide range of market 

applications, as a broad variety of different polymers can be produced and blended. The potential of PHAs is enormous. 

Natural PHAs have been intensively researched for many years and many hopes for more environmentally friendly polymers 

are based on these PHAs. There have been highs and lows over the last 20 years, several expansions and scale-up plans have 

been postponed or even cancelled. A few reasons for that were the challenges of technology scale-up, product and application 

development needs, an underestimation of how much time it takes for a new polymer-platform to penetrate the market, and 

the time it takes for previously unconnected disciplines to understand each other for the benefit of successfully addressing all 

opportunities. But now, the momentum for this new polymer platform is rapidly changing for the better. 

At the end of 2021, there was an installed manufacturing capacity of about 48,000 tonnes per up and running, based on the 

information from the companies described in the market report “Mimicking Nature – The PHA Industry Landscape. Latest 

trends and 28 producer profiles”. Capacity expansions have been announced and there are numerous plants under construction. 

Together, the manufacturers aim for a manufacturing capacity of about 570,000 tonnes per annum by 2027. 

Developing new products to create a sustainable future for polymers, respecting the environment and our future generations 

is the motivation for most parties working on this new materials platform. They are in tune with a rapidly changing plastics 

industry. Most companies portrayed in the market report are/were start-ups when they began their natural PHA activities. Only 

six companies are already established in the market. The report is a must-read for all those interested in the very latest in 

PHAs, as developers, producers or, above all, users. The information on the companies described has been checked with each 

of them and is state-of-the-art for February 2022. 

The Author of “Mimicking Nature” is Jan Ravenstijn, who has been working intensively on the topic of PHAs for 20 years, 

is the author of numerous publications and co-founder of the Global Organization for PHA, GO!PHA. The report is a joint 

publication of GO!PHA and nova-Institute. 

“Mimicking Nature – The PHA Industry Landscape. Latest trends and 28 producer profiles” is available at www.renewablecarbon.eu/publications 

starting at EUR 1,500” (see also p. 9). AT 

www.nova-institute.eu | www.gopha.org 

ECO profile of PLA available to product designers 

To support designers TotalEnergies Corbion (Gorinchem, 

The Netherlands) has enabled Sphera’s Product 

Sustainability (formerly GaBi) database users to access the 

Luminy ® PLA ecological product profile. The ECO profile 

allows designers to quantify the environmental impact of 

PLA in product design and production choosing Luminy PLA. 

Sphera’s Product Sustainability software is the world's 

leading Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling and 

reporting software with intuitive data collection and result 

analytics. LCA is a scientific-based technique that allows 

optimizing the environmental impact of a product, through a 

comprehensive assessment of its lifecycle. From extraction 

of a raw material to its disposal or preparation for reuse, 

all relevant environmental impacts are considered, as far 

as quantifiable. Sphera’s Product Sustainability database 

has by far the largest Lifecycle Inventory (LCI) data industry 

coverage worldwide. Also, regionalized water and land use 

data are included throughout. 

“The detailed analysis of scenarios in the production and 

end-of-life phase enables our customers to choose the 

most sustainable solution for their products. Making our 

LCA data available in the leading databases will give access 

to our data to every Sphera LCA Software user globally. All 

users will be able to add our data to their own modelling to 

complete their view on the environmental impacts of their 

supply chain”, says François de Bie, Senior Marketing and 

Supply Chain Director at TotalEnergies Corbion. He adds 

“now producers and brand owners are quickly able to quantify 

the Green House Gas emissions saving that a conversion 

to biobased Luminy PLA will bring for their products. Such 

‘cradle to grave’ analyses are helpful to comply with the 

latest EU Taxonomy regulations and allow brand owners to 

make credible claims about the CO 2 

reductions”. 

Informed decision-making in production, setup and 

design will contribute to achieving sustainability goals 

across industries. Sphera’s Product Sustainability 

databases provide explicit knowledge of the product’s 

environmental performance through scenario analysis. This 

is an important tool to meet today’s market expectations 

and for the contribution of product designers to tackling 

environmental concerns. TotalEnergies Corbion believes in 

an unbiased and transparent reporting of the environmental 

impact of its PLA resins. MT 

www.totalenergies-corbion.com | www.sphera.com 


All figures available at www.bio-based.eu/markets 

Adipic acid (AA) 

11-Aminoundecanoic acid (11-AA) 

1,4-Butanediol (1,4-BDO) 

Dodecanedioic acid (DDDA) 

Epichlorohydrin (ECH) 

Ethylene 

Furan derivatives 

D-lactic acid (D-LA) 

L-lactic acid (L-LA) 

Lactide 

Monoethylene glycol (MEG) 

Monopropylene glycol (MPG) 

Naphtha 

1,5-Pentametylenediamine (DN5) 

1,3-Propanediol (1,3-PDO) 

Sebacic acid 

Succinic acid (SA) 

© -Institute.eu | 2020 

fossil 

available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/graphics 

Refining 

Polymerisation 

Formulation 

Processing 

Use 

renewable 

Depolymerisation 

Solvolysis 

Thermal depolymerisation 

Enzymolysis 

Purification 

Dissolution 

Recycling 

Conversion 

Pyrolysis 

Gasification 

allocated 

Recovery 

Recovery 

Recovery 

conventional 



PVC 

EPDM 

PP 

PMMA 

PE 

Vinyl chloride 

Propylene 

Unsaturated polyester resins 

Methyl methacrylate 

PEF 

Polyurethanes 

MEG 

Building blocks 

Natural rubber 

Aniline Ethylene 

for UPR 

Cellulose-based 

2,5-FDCA 

polymers 

Building blocks 

for polyurethanes 

Levulinic 

acid 

Lignin-based polymers 

Naphtha 

Ethanol 

PET 

PFA 

5-HMF/5-CMF FDME 

Furfuryl alcohol 

Waste oils 

Casein polymers 

Furfural 

Natural rubber 

Saccharose 

PTF 

Starch-containing 

Hemicellulose 

Lignocellulose 

1,3 Propanediol 

polymer compounds 

Casein 

Fructose 

PTT 

Terephthalic 

Non-edible milk 

acid 

MPG NOPs 

Starch 

ECH 

Glycerol 

p-Xylene 

SBR 

Plant oils 

Fatty acids 

Castor oil 

11-AA 

Glucose Isobutanol 

THF 

Sebacic 

Lysine 

PBT 

acid 

1,4-Butanediol 

Succinic 

acid 

DDDA 

PBAT 

Caprolactame 

Adipic 

acid 

HMDA DN5 

Sorbitol 

3-HP 

Lactic 

acid 

Itaconic 

Acrylic 

PBS(x) 

acid 

acid 

Isosorbide 

PA 

Lactide 

Superabsorbent polymers 

Epoxy resins 

ABS 

PHA 

APC 

PLA 

available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/graphics 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

OH 

O 

OH 

HO 

OH 

HO 

OH 

O 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

■ 

OH 

HO 

OH 

O 

OH 

O 


nova Market and Trend Reports 

on Renewable Carbon 

The Best Available on Bio- and CO2-based Polymers 

& Building Blocks and Chemical Recycling 

Mimicking Nature – 

The PHA Industry Landscape 

Latest trends and 28 producer profiles 

Bio-based Naphtha 

and Mass Balance Approach 

Status & Outlook, Standards & 

Certification Schemes 

Bio-based Building Blocks and 

Polymers – Global Capacities, 

Production and Trends 2020–2025 

Polymers 

News 



Principle of Mass Balance Approach 

Feedstock 

Process 

Products 

Use of renewable feedstock 

in very first steps of 

chemical production 

(e.g. steam cracker) 

Utilisation of existing 

integrated production for 

all production steps 

Allocation of the 

renewable share to 

selected products 

Author: Jan Ravenstijn 

March 2022 

This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at 

www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications 

Authors: Michael Carus, Doris de Guzman and Harald Käb 

March 2021 



Authors: Pia Skoczinski, Michael Carus, Doris de Guzman, 

Harald Käb, Raj Chinthapalli, Jan Ravenstijn, Wolfgang Baltus 

and Achim Raschka 

January 2021 



Carbon Dioxide (CO 2) as Chemical 

Feedstock for Polymers 

Technologies, Polymers, Developers and Producers 

Chemical recycling – Status, Trends 

and Challenges 

Technologies, Sustainability, Policy and Key Players 

Plastic recycling and recovery routes 

Production of Cannabinoids via 

Extraction, Chemical Synthesis 

and Especially Biotechnology 

Current Technologies, Potential & Drawbacks and 

Future Development 

Virgin Feedstock 

Renewable Feedstock 

Plant extraction 

Chemical synthesis 

Monomer 

Secondary 

valuable 

materials 

Chemicals 

Fuels 

Others 

Cannabinoids 

Polymer 

Primary recycling 

(mechanical) 

Plastic 

Product 

Secondary recycling 

(mechanical) 

Tertiary recycling 

(chemical) 

CO 2 capture 

Genetic engineering 

Plant extraction 

Biotechnological production 

Product (end-of-use) 

Quaternary recycling 

(energy recovery) 

Energy 

Landfill 

Authors: Pauline Ruiz, Achim Raschka, Pia Skoczinski, 

Jan Ravenstijn and Michael Carus, nova-Institut GmbH, Germany 




Author: Lars Krause, Florian Dietrich, Pia Skoczinski, 

Michael Carus, Pauline Ruiz, Lara Dammer, Achim Raschka, 

nova-Institut GmbH, Germany 

November 2020 

This and other reports on the bio- and CO 2-based economy are 

available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications 

Authors: Pia Skoczinski, Franjo Grotenhermen, Bernhard Beitzke, 

Michael Carus and Achim Raschka 




Commercialisation updates on 

bio-based building blocks 

Levulinic acid – A versatile platform 

chemical for a variety of market applications 

Global market dynamics, demand/supply, trends and 

market potential 

Succinic acid – From a promising 

building block to a slow seller 

What will a realistic future market look like? 

Production capacities (million tonnes) 

Bio-based building blocks 

Evolution of worldwide production capacities from 2011 to 2024 

4 

3 

2 

1 

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024 

OH 

OH 

O 

HO 

diphenolic acid 

O 

H 2N 

OH 

O 

5-aminolevulinic acid 

O 

O 

OH 

O O 

levulinate ketal 

O 

OH 

O 

levulinic acid 

O 

OR 

O 

levulinic ester 

O 

O 

ɣ-valerolactone 

O 

HO 

OH 

O 

succinic acid 

H 

N 

O 

5-methyl-2-pyrrolidone 

Pharmaceutical/Cosmetic 

Acidic ingredient for denture cleaner/toothpaste 

Antidote 

Calcium-succinate is anticarcinogenic 

Efferescent tablets 

Intermediate for perfumes 

Pharmaceutical intermediates (sedatives, 

antiphlegm/-phogistics, antibacterial, disinfectant) 

Preservative for toiletries 

Removes fish odour 

Used in the preparation of vitamin A 

Food 

Bread-softening agent 

Flavour-enhancer 

Flavouring agent and acidic seasoning 

in beverages/food 

Microencapsulation of flavouring oils 

Preservative (chicken, dog food) 

Protein gelatinisation and in dry gelatine 

desserts/cake flavourings 

Used in synthesis of modified starch 

Succinic 

Acid 

Industrial 

De-icer 

Engineering plastics and epoxy curing 

agents/hardeners 

Herbicides, fungicides, regulators of plantgrowth 

Intermediate for lacquers + photographic chemicals 

Plasticizer (replaces phtalates, adipic acid) 

Polymers 

Solvents, lubricants 

Surface cleaning agent 

(metal-/electronic-/semiconductor-industry) 

Other 

Anodizing Aluminium 

Chemical metal plating, electroplating baths 

Coatings, inks, pigments (powder/radiation-curable 

coating, resins for water-based paint, 

dye intermediate, photocurable ink, toners) 

Fabric finish, dyeing aid for fibres 

Part of antismut-treatment for barley seeds 

Preservative for cut flowers 

Soil-chelating agent 

Author: 

Doris de Guzman, Tecnon OrbiChem, United Kingdom 

Updated Executive Summary and Market Review May 2020 – 

Originally published February 2020 

This and other reports on the bio- and CO 2-based economy are 

available at www.bio-based.eu/reports 

Authors: Achim Raschka, Pia Skoczinski, Raj Chinthapalli, 

Ángel Puente and Michael Carus, nova-Institut GmbH, Germany 

October 2019 

This and other reports on the bio-based economy are available at 

www.bio-based.eu/reports 

Authors: Raj Chinthapalli, Ángel Puente, Pia Skoczinski, 

Achim Raschka, Michael Carus, nova-Institut GmbH, Germany 

October 2019 

This and other reports on the bio-based economy are available at 

www.bio-based.eu/reports 

renewable-carbon.eu/publications 


ioplastics MAGAZINE presents: 

7 th PLA World Congress 

24 + 25 MAY 2022 > MUNICH > GERMANY 

The PLA World Congress in Munich/Germany, organised by bioplastics MAGAZINE 

now for the 7 th time, is the must-attend conference for everyone interested in PLA, 

its benefits, and challenges. The global conference offers high-class presentations 

from top individuals in the industry from Europe, USA, Thailand, and more. There 

will also be excellent networking opportunities along with a table top exhibition. 

More details, programme updates and a registration form can be found on the 

conference website. 

Together with the Holiday Inn Munich City Centre we’ll elaborate a suitable 

hygiene concept for the conference. For those who cannot travel due to Corona 

restrictions, we’ll offer online access to the event. Stay tuned. 

7 th PLA World Congress, preliminary programme 

For updates vitis www.pla-world-congress.com 

www.pla-world-congress.com 

Remy Jongboom, Biotec 

Oliver Buchholz, European Bioplastics 

Udo Mühlbauer, Uhde Inventa-Fischer 

Sebastian Körber, Fraunhofer ICT 

Francois de Bie, TotalEnergies Corbion 

Andrew Gill, Floreon / Clariant 

Patrick Gerritsen, Bio4Pack 

Lien Van der Schueren, Centexbel 

Ramani Narayan 

Kevin Yang, Shenzhen Esun Industrial Co 

Keynote Speech: The fossil addiction and bioplastics (t.b.c.) 

Policy and market information 

Lactic Acid and Lactide Technology by Uhde Inventa-Fischer 

Development of High-Temperature Resistant Stereocomplex PLA 

for Injection Moulding 

PLA capacity and recycling (t.b.c.) 

Floreon: Redefining PLA 

Current market reaction on PLA 

PLA melt spinning, coating and printing for fully biobased clothing 

Reviewing the science around biodegradability and (home) compostability of PLA 

Application and Recycling of PLA 

Nopadol Suanprasert, Global Biopolymers Biocomposites of PLA/natural rubber/fiber 

Frédéric van Gansberghe, Galactic 

Gregory Coué, Kompuestos (t.b.c.) 

Zsolt Bodnar, Filaticum 

Kerstin Müller, Fraunhofer IVV 

Michael Thielen, bioplastics MAGAZINE 

Panel discussion 

Chemical Recycling of PLA 

Masterbatches for PLA (t.b.c.) 

Composite 3D printing filaments 

PLA in current Research Projects: Material Development - 

Packaging Applications – Recycling 

Plastic or no plastic — that's the question 

Market development of PLA 

Subject to changes. We still have a few speaking slots available. 

Especially if speakers cannot travel due to Corona restrictions, we might have to swap 

speakers due to time zone differences. 

Please visit the conference website regularly. 


한국포장협회로고.ps 2016.11.21 8:26 PM 페이지1 MAC-18 

Register now! 


24 + 25 MAY 2022 > MUNICH > GERMANY 

HYBRID EVENT 

organized by 


PLA is a versatile bioplastics raw material from renewable 

resources. It is being used for films and rigid packaging, for 

fibres in woven and non-woven applications. Automotive, 

consumer electronics, and other industries are thoroughly 

investigating and even already applying PLA. New methods 

of polymerizing, compounding, or blending of PLA have 

broadened the range of properties and thus the range of 

possible applications. That‘s why bioplastics MAGAZINE is 

now organizing the 7 th PLA World Congress on: 

24 + 25 May 2022 in Munich / Germany 

Experts from all involved fields will share their knowledge 

and contribute to a comprehensive overview of today‘s 

opportunities and challenges and discuss the possibilities, 

limitations, and future prospects of PLA for all kinds 

of applications. Like the five previous congresses, the 

7 th PLA World Congress will also offer excellent networking 

opportunities for all delegates and speakers as well as 

exhibitors of the table-top exhibition. Based on the good 

experience with the hybrid format (bio!TOY and PHA World 

Congress 2021) we will offer this format also for future 

conferences, hoping the pandemic does no longer force us 

to. So participation at the 7 th PLA World Congress will be 

possible on-site as well as online. 

Media Partner 

Gold Sponsor: 

organized by 

Silver Sponsor: 

KOREA PACKAGING ASSOCIATION INC. 

Supported by: 


Automotive Events 

bio!PAC 2022 

To unlock the potential of 

bioplastics recycling routes 

T 

he 4 th conference on bioplastics and packaging, the 

bio!PAC 2022, had a strong focus on unlocking the 

potential of different routes for the recyclability of 

bioplastics. Next to that, preventing the accumulation of 

microplastics, the environmental benefits of biodegradable 

packaging, and the developments of new packaging 

applications were very prominent on the agenda. 

The international speakers’ line-up consisted of 27 

speakers from industry, knowledge institutions, and brand 

owners. About 100 participants from 18 countries from all 

over the world were represented. The presentations provided 

the participants with the most up-to-date information 

to be able to evaluate the possibilities and challenges of 

packaging based on bioplastics. The conference was held 

online on 15 th and 16 th March 2022. 

Recycling routes 

“To process all our plastic waste, we need all the different 

end-of-life options”, said Erwin Vink from NatureWorks 

in his presentation ‘The compostables Project’. He 

demonstrated that the problems are much bigger than just 

handling plastic waste but also gave guidance for what is 

needed to implement a successful composting system. His 

arguments were also confirmed by other speakers such as 

expert Bruno de Wilde of Organic Waste Systems (OWS). 

A new technique of bioplastics recycling was presented 

by Jan Pels, senior scientist at TNO. He is the developer 

of Torwash and demonstrated that this technology enables 

selective removal of biodegradables like PLA or PHA from 

contaminated waste streams and multilayer packaging by 

depolymerizing them to their original monomers. These 

monomers can be used again to make food approved virgin 

plastics. This allows full recycling, not down-cycling. 

Political influence on bioplastics 

“Nature is much better at recycling than humans”, 

said Remy Jongboom from Biotec in his presentation on 

the added value of compostable materials in packaging 

applications. He also pointed out what the current war 

between Ukraine and Russia can mean for the supply of 

fossil resources and how we should consider using biogas 

through anaerobic digestion as a supplement. “Biogas can 

also provide secured energy supply in comparison with wind 

and solar”. His presentation was overall a strong argument 

for resource independence that biobased and biodegradable 

materials can offer (see also page 44). 

Microplastics & Packaging 

“Mechanical or chemical recycling will not prevent 

microplastic problems. It is therefore crucial that policy 

guidelines recognize the benefits of biodegradable and 

biobased materials and provide a level playing field for 

all sustainable forms of carbon, including organically and 

chemically recycled carbon”, said Heidi Koljonen from 


By: 

Caroli Buitenhuis 

Green Serendipity 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Automotive 

Sulapac in Finland. Sulapac developed luxury jar lids 

for Chanel, based on FSC certified wood chips that are 

by-products of industrial side-streams combined, upon 

Chanel’s request, with upcycled camellia seed shells. 

Leaving no microplastics behind. 

Packaging developments 

In his presentation on barrier materials for food 

packaging, Peter Ragaert, director at Pack4Food 

and professor of food packaging technology at Ghent 

University, demonstrated the outcomes of bioplastics 

barrier and shelf life projects. There were some 

surprising outcomes like there is no significant 

difference between the PET tray for meat packaging and 

a tray based on PHA (PHBV). The first results showed 

that the gas barrier properties of the PHBV tray were 

even a bit higher than the PET tray. His conclusion was: 

“For meat packaging, PHBV performed in the tests the 

same as PET”. 

Johann Zimmermann of NaKu demonstrated an 

innovative cartridge based on PLA for a cosmetics 

packaging which allows very precise dispensing of 

cream per use. For this development Naku teamed 

up with a cosmetics company to develop the reusable 

packaging (see also page 41). 

A biobased multilayer packaging foil based on sidestream 

starches and biobased PE is developed by 

Rodenburg Biopolymers. It is a three layers foil with 

the possibility to regulate the OTR and WVTR to keep 

fruits and vegetables fresh, to expand their shelf life and 

prevent food losses. “Test results show that lettuce stays 

fresh longer, sugar snaps stay crunchy longer”, said 

Thijs Rodenburg, CEO of the company. 

The bio!PAC takes place every two years and is 

organized by bioplastics MAGAZINE in collaboration with 

Green Serendipity. This year’s bio!PAC was a 100 % 

digital event, hopefully soon live events will become 

the norm again, but as the recent postponement of the 

Chinaplas showed – corona is not over yet. 

And in case you missed the conference, you can still 

get access to all presentations via video on demand. Just 

contact mt@bioplasticsmagazine.com. 

www.bio-pac.info 

Join us at the 

17th European 

Bioplastics Conference 

– the leading business forum for the 

bioplastics industry. 

REGISTER 

NOW! 

6/7 December 2022 

Maritim proArte Hotel 

Berlin, Germany 

@EUBioplastics #eubpconf2022 

www.european-bioplastics.org/events 

For more information email: 

conference@european-bioplastics.org 


CCU 

Melt spinning of CO 2 

-based 

thermoplastic polyurethanes 

An environmentally friendly approach for the production of elastic yarns 

T 

he market of elastic yarns has grown massively over 

the past years, mainly driven by applications in apparel, 

sports, and medical textiles. For example, approx. 80 % 

of all currently circulated apparel textiles contain elastic yarns 

to provide stretch and comfort. Most of these elastic yarns are 

produced by dry spinning of thermoset polyurethanes (PU) 

which causes specific challenges: Production is slow as well 

as expensive and potentially hazardous solvents have to be 

used. These challenges may be overcome by switching from 

dry to melt spinning processes. Thermoplastic polyurethanes 

(TPU) fulfil the needs of high elasticity and melt spinnability. 

Additionally, the greenhouse gas CO 2 

can be used as one of 

the resources for TPU production. By this, “Carbon Capture 

and Utilization” (CCU) can be applied to the textile industry. 

Motivation: CCU, High Economic Efficiency and 

Improved Processability 

TPU are linear and basically structured in hard and soft 

segments. Soft segments are typically polyols while hard 

segments are composed of isocyanates and a chain extender 

[1, 2]. There are three major categories of polyols being 

applied: polyether, polyester, and polycarbonate polyols [3]. 

Specific polyols offer a huge potential for increasing the 

sustainability of TPU. Over the past years and decades, large 

efforts have been made to enable the use of renewable 

materials for (thermoplastic) PU production. For example, 

biobased polyols have been derived from vegetable oils [4, 5]. 

Besides these biobased approaches, the incorporation of CO 2 

as a resource is eligible for the production of polyols. Covestro 

AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has developed a process for the 

production of polyether-polycarbonate PU, based on CO 2 

containing polyols. The technology involves the reaction of 

epoxide with CO 2 

under the application of selective catalysts. [6] 

Figure 1: Mission Statement of “CO2Tex” 

The approach of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) does 

not only provide the opportunity for the circulation of CO 2 

with positive environmental aspects but also offers economic 

advantages. Allied Market Research (Portland, Oregon, USA), 

estimated the market volume of elastic filaments to be USD 

10.5 billion in 2022, starting from USD 5.8 billion in 2015. This 

corresponds to a CAGR of 8.8 % over the past seven years. [7] 

Roughly 80 % of this market is currently being supplied by 

dry-spun yarns, whose production requires the use of solvents 

such as dimethylformamide (DMF) [8, 9]. Melt-spun CO 2 

-based 

TPU-filaments can be expected to be 50 to 60 % lower in price 

than conventional solution-spun PU filaments [10]. The main 

reasons for this economic advantage can be found in processes 

as well as facilities. Generally, lower winding speeds of 500 to 

2,000 m/min can be achieved in dry spinning in comparison 

to up to 6,000 m/min in melt spinning [11]. For TPU, melt 

spinning processes with a winding speed of 2,500 m/min 

have already been developed on pilot scale [10]. Additionally, 

solvent evaporation in dry spinning processes is energyintensive 

but does not need to be applied for melt spinning 

processes [11]. 

The main obstacle to the wide use of melt-spun TPU is the 

strong tackiness of these yarns which especially hampers 

the unwinding from spools and transport through the 

machines for fabric production. To reduce this tackiness, 

different approaches are being developed, investigated, and 

evaluated in the research project CO2Tex. 

The Research Project CO2Tex 

RWTH Aachen Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) (Aachen, 

Germany) is currently conducting the publicly funded 

research project CO2Tex in cooperation with the funded 

partners W. Zimmermann (Weiler-Simmerberg, Germany), 

medi (Bayreuth, Germany), Schill+Seilacher (Böblingen, 

Germany), Oerlikon Textile (Remscheid, Germany), Carbon 

Minds (Köln, Germany) and adidas (Herzogenaurach, 

Germany). 

The Target of this project is the establishment of 

commercially viable elastic filament yarns made from 

CO 2 

-containing TPU. At the end of the project, these yarns 

should be processed as easily as possible in existing 

industrial plants into textile pre- and end products. For 

the development of at least one stable and reproducible 

melt spinning process, modifications are made to spinning 

plants. These modifications include the investigation of 

spinnerets, filament cooling, godet surfaces, as well as 

winding technology. Additionally, spin finishes are adapted 

to the process and tested. All developments are scaled up 

from pilot to industrial scale. If the production of suitable 


By 

Jan Thiel, Henning Löcken, Lukasz Debicki, and Thomas Gries 

RWTH Aachen Institut für Textiltechnik 

Aachen, Germany 

yarns is possible, the process chain for the production of 

sports and medical textiles is investigated and adapted. 

This includes the processes of covering, knitting, and 

finishing. Finally, the use of TPU yarns containing CO 2 

is evaluated ecologically as well as economically and 

compared to conventional dry-spun yarns. The mission 

statement of CO2Tex is displayed in Figure 1. 

After a first benchmark definition, first melt spinning 

trials are about to start at the ITA on pilot and technical 

scale before being upscaled to industrial scale at 

Oerlikon. 

Acknowledgement 

The authors would like to thank the German Federal 

Ministry of Education and Research for funding 

the research project within the innovation space 

BioTexFuture (funding code: 031B1207A). 

www.ita.rwth-aachen.de 

Bibliography 

[1] Fabricius, M.; Gries, T, Wulfhrost, B.: Fiber Tables: Elastane Fibers 

(spandex) Frankfurt am Main, Schwenk & Co. GmbH, 1995 

[2] Prisacariu, C.: Polyurethane elastomers: From morphology to mechanical 

aspects. Wien [a.o.]: Springer, 2011 

[3] Zhu, R.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Ma, D.; Wang, X.: Synthesis of polycarbonate 

urethane elastomers and effects of the chemical structures on their thermal, 

mechanical and biocompatibility properties. Heliyon 2 (2016), pp. 1-17 

[4] Javni, I.; Petrović, Z.S.; Guo, A.; Fuller, R.: Thermal stability of 

polyurethanes based on vegetable oils. Journal of Applied Polymer Science 

77 (2000), No. 8, pp. 1723-1734 

[5] Lligadas, G.; Ronda, J.C.; Galià, M.; Cádiz, V.: Oleic and undecylenic acids 

as renewable feedstocks in the synthesis of polyols and polyurethanes. 

Polymers 2 (2010), No. 4, pp. 440-453, doi:10.3390/polym2040440 

[6] Gürtler, C.: “Dream production” : CO2 as raw material for polyurethanes. 

Brussels, 07.06.2013 

[7] Allied Market Research: Spandex fiber market by type of production 

method and application – global opportunity analysis and industry forecast, 

2014-2022. Pune, India, 2016: URL www.alliedmarketresearch.com/spandexfiber-market 

, Accessed on March the 09th, 2022 

[8] Koslowski, H.-J.: Chemiefaser-Lexikon. Begriffe – Zahlen – 

Handelsnamen. 12. erw. Auflg.: Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Fachverlag 

GmbH, 2008 

[9] Gries, T.; Veit, D.;Wulfhorst, B.: Textile Fertigungsverfahren: Eine 

Einführung. München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2014 

[10] Manvi, P.: Melt spinning of carbon di-oxide based thermoplastic 

polyurethane. Aachen [Diss.], Shaker, 2018 

[11] Gupta, V.B., Kothari, V.K. (Eds.): Manufactured fibre technology London 

[u.a.]: Chapman & Hall, 1997 


Stay in the loop! 

Subscribe 

for free! 

@ 

ogy.de/rubber-newsletter 

Subscribe 

for free! 

@ 

ogy.de/pu-newsletter 

Subscribe 

for free! 

@ 

ogy.de/tpe-newsletter 


CCU 

Engineered bacteria 

upcycle carbon waste into 

commodity chemicals 

You might not recognize the words acetone and isopropanol 

(IPA), but the chances are that you use them. While these 

chemicals are beneficial – serving as the building blocks 

for thousands of products, including fuels, materials, acrylic 

glass, fabrics, and even cosmetics – they are generated from 

fossil inputs, leading to emissions of climate-warming CO 2 

into the air. 

Researchers led by LanzaTech (Skokie, Illinois, USA), 

Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, USA), and Oak 

Ridge National Lab (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA) have 

developed an efficient new process to convert waste gases, 

such as emissions from heavy industry or syngas generated 

from any biomass source, into either acetone or IPA. The 

secret to the new platform is Clostridium autoethanogenum, 

or C. auto, a bacterium engineered at LanzaTech that can 

convert waste carbon selectively into either ethanol, acetone, 

or IPA. 

Their methods, including a pilot-scale demonstration 

and life cycle analysis (LCA) showing the economic viability, 

are published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. The new 

technology actually uses greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 

destined for the atmosphere, avoids burning fossil fuels and 

removes CO 2 

from the air. According to LCA, this carbonnegative 

platform could reduce GHG by over 160 %, playing 

a critical role in helping the USA reach a net-zero emissions 

economy. 

“This discovery is a major step forward in avoiding a climate 

catastrophe”, said Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech CEO. “Today, 

most of our commodity chemicals are derived exclusively 

from new fossil resources such as oil, natural gas, or coal. 

Acetone and IPA are two examples with a combined global 

market of USD 10 billion. The acetone and IPA pathways and 

tools developed will accelerate the development of other new 

products by closing the carbon cycle for their use in multiple 

industries”. 

Acetone and IPA are necessary industrial bulk and platform 

chemicals. For example, acetone is used as a solvent for 

many plastics and synthetic fibres, thinning polyester resin, 

cleaning tools, and nail polish remover. IPA is a chemical 

used in antiseptics, disinfectants, and detergents and can be 

a pathway to commercial plastics such as polypropylene, used 

in both the medical and automotive sectors. Both are used in 

acrylic glass. IPA also is a widely used disinfectant, serving as 

the basis for one of the two World Health Organization (WHO) 

-recommended sanitiser formulations, which are highly 

effective against SARS-CoV-2. 

The collaborators developed a gas fermentation process 

for carbon-negative production of either acetone or IPA by 

reprogramming LanzaTech’s commercial ethanol-producing 

bacterial strain through cutting-edge synthetic biology 

tools, including combinatorial DNA libraries and cell-free 

prototyping advanced modelling, and omics. The scientists 

relied on a three-pronged approach that comprised innovations 

in pathway refactoring, strain optimization, and process 

development to achieve the observed level of performance. 

“These innovations, led by cell-free strategies that guided 

both strain engineering and optimization of pathway enzymes, 

accelerated time to production by more than a year”, said 

Michael Jewett, the Walter. P Murphy Professor in Chemical 

and Biological Engineering in Northwestern’s McCormick 

School of Engineering and director of the Center of Synthetic 

Biology. 

The optimized process was scaled up to the pilot plant, and 

LCA showed significant GHG savings. “Conversion pathways 

for the production of any biofuel or bioproduct, including 

acetone and IPA, inevitably involve chemical byproducts 

that can cause or be the result of major bottlenecks”, said 

ORNL’s Tim Tschaplinski. “We used advanced proteomics and 

metabolomics to identify and overcome these bottlenecks for 

a highly efficient pathway. This approach can be applied to 

create streamlined processes for other chemicals of interest”. 

By proving scalable and economically viable bulk 

chemical production, the researchers have set the stage 

for implementation of a circular economic model in which 

the carbon from agriculture, industrial and societal waste 

streams can be recycled into a chemical synthesis value 

chain to perpetually displace ever-increasing volumes of 

products made from virgin fossil resources. Thereby, chemical 

synthesis would become a path to capturing, recycling, and 

utilizing waste carbon resources. 

The acetone strain and process development, genomescale 

modeling, life cycle analysis, and initial pilot runs 

were supported by the Bioenergy Technologies Office in 

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 

The cell-free prototyping and omics analyses were funded 

by the Biological and Environmental Research program in 

DOE’s Office of Science. DNA sequencing and synthesis was 

supported by the Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of 

Science User Facility. AT 

The journal article can be found at 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-021-01195-w. 

www.lanzatech.com | www.northwestern.edu | www.ornl.gov 

Genome 

Mining 

Pathway 

optimization 

Engineered 

enzymes 

Combinatorial library 

Strain 

optimization 

Cell-free prototyping 

Omics 

m/z 

Metabolic modeling 

Process 

optimization 

Fermentation 

development 

& scale-up 

Life cycle analysis 

How it works: the team took a three-pronged optimization approach 

to increase fermentation efficiency and output. (Courtesy: FE Liewet 

al/Nature Biotechnology) 

LCA 


Enzymatic recycling technology 

for textile circularity 

Carbios (Saint-Beauzire, France), a pioneer in the 

development of enzymatic solutions dedicated to the endof-life 

of plastic and textile polymers, recently announced 

the validation of the 3 rd and final technical step of the CE-PET 

research project, co-funded by ADEME (France’s Environment 

and Energy Management Agency), for which Carbios is the 

lead partner alongside its academic partner Toulouse White 

Biotechnology (Toulouse, France). This achievement confirms, 

once again, the full potential and breadth of Carbios’ enzymatic 

recycling process, C-ZYME. This breakthrough innovation 

makes it possible to produce a wide variety of products of 

equivalent quality to those of petro-sourced origin from any 

PET waste, including textiles. 

The first white PET fibre recycled enzymatically 

from coloured textile waste 

Worldwide, around 90 million tonnes of PET are produced 

each year, more than 2/3 of which are used to manufacture 

fibres. However, only 13 % of textile waste is currently recycled, 

mainly for downcycling, i.e. for lower quality applications (such 

as padding, insulators, or rags). By successfully manufacturing 

at pilot scale a white PET fibre that is 100 % enzymatically 

recycled from coloured textile waste, Carbios is paving the way 

for the circular economy in the textile industry. C-ZYME is now 

on the doorstep of industrialization and will soon enable the 

biggest brands to move closer to their sustainability goals. 

“Thanks to our breakthrough process, it will soon be 

possible to manufacture, on a large scale, t-shirts or bottles 

using polyester textile waste as raw material”, said Emmanuel 

Ladent, CEO of Carbios. “This is a major breakthrough that 

gives value to waste that currently has little or no value. It is a 

concrete solution that opens up a global market of 60 million 

tonnes per year of potential raw materials and will help to 

reduce the use of fossil resources”. 

Textile waste that can also be used to 

manufacture food contact packaging 

In November 2020, Carbios had already produced the first 

transparent bottles from textile waste. These 100 % recycled 

PET bottles have now passed the food contact validation 

tests. This is an important step that paves the way for the use 

of a new waste source for the production of biorecycled PET 

food packaging. 

Separate collection of textile waste soon to be 

mandatory in Europe 

From 1 January 2025 the separate collection of textile waste, 

which is already in place in some countries, will be mandatory 

for all EU Member States (European Directive 2018/851 on 

waste). Carbios’ process will be one of the solutions that will 

enable this waste to be sustainably recovered and included 

in a truly circular economy model. These technological 

validations were carried out as part of the CE-PET research 

project, co-funded by ADEME. In particular, the project 

aimed to develop Carbios’ enzymatic PET recycling process 

on textile waste. The C-ZYME technology is complementary 

to thermomechanical recycling and will make it possible to 

process plastic and textile waste deposits that are currently 

not or poorly recovered. For the validation of this stage of 

the project, Carbios received EUR 827,200 (EUR 206,800 in 

grants and EUR 620,400 in repayable advances). AT 

www.carbios.com/en 




Protective furniture packaging 

from pyrolysis oil 

As of November 2021, Ekornes, a Norwegian (Ikornnes) 

manufacturer of high-end design furniture uses EPS 

(expandable polystyrene) protective packaging that has a 

lower carbon footprint than virgin material by safeguarding 

the same properties. This is achieved by replacing fossil 

resources with recycled raw materials at the beginning 

of production. BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) supplies 

Styropor ® Ccycled to VARTDAL PLAST (Vartdal, Norway), 

who converts the material into moulded packaging parts for 

Stressless ® furniture made by Ekornes. 

“We are really proud to be the first company to launch 

this project together with Vartdal Plast and BASF with 

regards to design furniture. We always strive to have the 

best packaging solution to protect our quality furniture, 

and Styropor Ccycled offers exactly what we want: same 

properties as virgin material but at the same time meeting 

the needs to reduce our carbon footprint, a perfect fit 

into our sustainability strategy”, says Solveig Gaundal, 

Compliance and CSR Manager at Ekornes. 

Virgin-quality packaging – smaller carbon 

footprint 

Due to its manufacturing process, Styropor Ccycled has 

the same properties as conventional Styropor. Maintaining 

excellent packaging properties such as outstanding 

impact absorption and high compressive strength, which 

are essential for the protection of sophisticated design 

furniture. In the production of the packaging foams that 

have become so well-known over the last 70 years, pyrolysis 

oil replaces fossil raw materials. BASF sources this oil from 

technology partners who use a thermochemical process 

called pyrolysis to transform post-consumer plastic waste 

that would otherwise be used for energy recovery or go to 

landfill into this secondary raw material. BASF then uses the 

oil at the very beginning of the value chain to manufacture 

new plastics and other products. 

Since recycled and fossil raw materials are mixed in 

production and cannot be distinguished from each other, 

the recycled portion is allocated to Styropor Ccycled using 

a mass balance approach. Both the allocation process and 

the product itself, have been certified by an independent 

auditor. Compared with conventional Styropor, at least 50 % 

of CO 2 

is saved in the production of Styropor Ccycled. 

Also, for the converter Vartdal Plast Styropor Ccycled 

brings a lot of advantages as the product is identical to 

virgin material. Therefore, the production process does not 

have to be adjusted. The company and their products are 

certified according to the ecoloop certification programme, 

confirming that for the products 100 % recycled material 

was used as feedstock. “We are thrilled to be working 

together with BASF and Ekornes on this project. This is 

a testament of our mutual commitment towards a more 

sustainable future”, says Mounir El’Mourabit, product 

manager at Vartdal Plast. 

Contributing to the circularity of plastics 

“Current environmental policy focuses on reducing 

greenhouse gas emissions, conserving fossil resources, 

and avoiding or using waste. By using products from our 

ChemCycling project, our partner Ekornes is actively 

contributing to the recovery of plastics after their use phase 

and feeding them back into the materials loop”, says Klaus 

Ries, head of BASF’s Styrenics business in Europe. AT 

www.basf.com | www.vartdalplast.no | www.ekornes.com 


Converting plastic waste into 

performance products 

The Advanced upcycling start-up Novoloop (Menlo Park, 

CA, USA) is pioneering the chemical transformation of plastic 

waste into high-performance chemicals and materials. 

The company’s proprietary process technology, ATOD 

(Accelerated Thermal Oxidative Decomposition), breaks 

down polyethylene into chemical building blocks that can 

be synthesized into high-value products. Polyethylene is the 

most widely used plastic today yet only 9 % is recycled and 

virtually none is upcycled. 

The start-up has raised USD 11 million in Series A 

financing led by Envisioning Partners (Seoul, South Korea) 

with participation from Valo Ventures (Palo Alto, CA, USA) 

and Bemis Associates (Shirley, MA, USA); earlier investors 

who joined the round included SOSV (Princeton, NJ, USA), 

Mistletoe (Tokyo, Japan), and TIME Ventures (San Francisco, 

CA, USA). 

The first product based on Novoloop’s ATOD process is 

Oistre, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for use in highperformance 

applications such as footwear, apparel, sporting 

goods, automotive, and electronics. Oistre is the first TPU 

made from post-consumer polyethylene waste that matches 

the performance characteristics of virgin TPUs made from 

petrochemicals. At the same time, Oistre’s carbon footprint is 

up to 46 % smaller than conventional TPUs and uses up to 50 % 

upcycled content from post-consumer plastic waste and. 

“What really compelled us to lead the investment round is 

that Novoloop has found product-market fit,” said June Cha, 

Partner of Envisioning Partners. “Novoloop has proven that 

Oistre has a wide range of applications in the market even at 

their early stage”. 

Novoloop’s technology can upcycle carbon content found 

in common plastic waste like grocery bags, packaging, and 

agricultural plastics that is too low value for material recovery 

facilities to bale and sell. Instead, the plastics go into landfills 

or incinerators today. Novoloop’s ATOD technology aims to 

increase commercial demand for waste polyethylene. 

“Plastics are not going away anytime soon, so we need to 

innovate to close the gap between what is produced and what 

is repurposed. After years of technology development, we’re 

thrilled to announce backing by high-calibre investors and 

partners to commercialize this much-needed technology”, 

said Novoloop Co-founder and CEO Miranda Wang. 

“With this funding, we look forward to completing crucial 

pilot scale-ups and commercializing our process technology 

to make a lasting impact. Our team is excited to lead the 

circular economy revolution for plastics”, said Novoloop Cofounder 

and COO Jeanny Yao. 

Novoloop is also announcing the company’s new 

partnership with Bemis Associates, the leader in apparel 

bonding solutions such as seam tapes, which can be found 

in high-performance outerwear. Together, the companies 

will introduce Oistre into the Bemis product portfolio as a 

first step to replace virgin petroleum-based thermoplastic 

polyurethane. 

“We are extremely excited to partner with Novoloop”, said 

Bemis Director of Sustainability Ben Howard. “Novoloop’s 

technology is a major breakthrough for our supply chain. 

Scaling it will be a huge step in shifting away from virgin 

petroleum sources and reducing our products’ carbon 

footprints”. 

Novoloop is currently sampling and taking pre-orders for 

Oistre 65A, a soft grade polyester TPU for injection moulding 

especially suitable for footwear applications. Higher 

durometer grades of Oistre TPU will be introduced soon. AT 

www.novoloop.com 

All photos courtesy Novoloop Inc. 



Materials 

When Zero-Waste 

meets 3D printing 

GREENFILL3D – a Polish start-up (located in Łódź) 

operating on the edge of ecological, biodegradable 

materials, and 3D printing, announces the premiere 

of its unique filament based on wheat bran – GF3D 

Branfill3d. The material was created in accordance with 

the modern concepts of zero-waste and circular economy 

in mind – the wheat bran is a waste product of pasta and 

noodles production. 

From the material, the start-up 3D printed proprietary 

advertising stands (so-called POS – point of sales), on 

which ready-made pasta will be presented. The 

project is being developed in cooperation with 

the MASPEX Group (Wadowice, Poland) – one of 

the largest food producers in Europe. 

The GF3D Branfill3d material is a composite 

of wheat bran, polylactic acid (PLA) – a 

popular bioplastic used in 3D printing, 

and other fully biodegradable ingredients 

that together give GF3D Branfill3d unique 

properties. “The material has fantastic and 

surprising properties. Initially, we were afraid 

that it would be brittle – a typical problem in 

composite materials based on e.g., wood. 

However, it turned out that because wheat 

bran is fibrous, the fibres connect with each 

other in finished 3D prints in such a way that 

they are flexible (but not elastic!)”, commented 

Paweł Ślusarczyk, Senior Marketing Manager 

at Greenfill3d. “If the printout has thick walls 

(more than 1 cm), the model is very durable and 

has internal elasticity, which greatly increases 

the impact toughness. Thin elements (1–5 mm) 

can be bent to some extent without the risk of 

breaking”. 

What’s more, during the 3D printing process, 

the material offers the scent of baked bread, 

which stays on the 3D printed parts for a long 

time. 

Greenfill3d prints POS stands with its 3D 

printer farm of over 40 machines. Each stand 

consists of 34 elements – assembly is quick 

and easy. In addition, the structure of the stand 

is modular, which may allow for its further expansion with 

additional modules. And it is sturdier than conventional 

stands. “The stand was assembled and loaded with noodles 

in mid-January – today (mid-March), the lowest side 

walls began to slightly deform, but nothing threatens the 

stability of the structure. It should also be remembered that 

traditional advertising stands (e.g. made of cardboard) are 

designed to survive only for 3–4 weeks after which they are 

disposed of. Ours has been in operation for over 8 weeks 

and apart from the delicate visual aspect, there are no signs 

of wear”, says Ślusarczyk. 

The result is an advertising stand presenting food 

products, which was created based on the remains of the 

same food material. Production wastes – instead of being 

thrown away or disposed of, were used to produce common 

tools to support sales. 

“3D printing that has its obvious limitations and will 

always lose to injection moulding in terms of quantities. A 

cardboard or PVC stand will always win to a stand made 

on a 3D printer in terms of quantities and prices. This is 

why we are looking for applications where personalization 

or uniqueness of the product is a factor”, so 

Ślusarczyk. 

The project perfectly fits the assumptions of 

the Zero-Waste and Circular Economy ideas and 

can be scaled to other areas. The properties of 

wheat bran material allow performing a number 

of different applications – everyday use items, 

decorative items but also industrial. Currently, 

the Greenfill3d team is conducting the first 

tests of the use of applications made of GF3D 

Branfill3d for a customer representing the 

automotive industry and intends to successively 

test it in other industries. 

“The world is changing before our eyes 

and so is the approach to production. In the 

world of typical industrial manufacturing (e.g., 

automotive), the standard was to produce 

hundreds of thousands of spare parts for 

stock. For several years, thanks to the greater 

efficiency of 3D printers, these parts can now 

be produced on-demand – only when they are 

needed,” Ślusarczyk elaborates. “We view our 

business in the same way. 3D printing allows you 

to change from a mass-production approach to 

a more personalized, targeted one. Fewer things 

reaching specific people”. 

So far, the material has not been tested for 

its CO 2 

savings or biodegradability rate, which 

is mainly due to the fact that it’s still quite new. 

“This year, we plan to commission our 

scientific partner – the Polish Academy of 

Science (Warsaw, Polen) with a series of tests examining 

the material in this respect. However, we’re still thinking 

about changing the current chemical blend. What will 

stay untouched for sure is wheat bran, but the rest of the 

components may be completely changed. As for the current 

chemical blend, all ingredients are biodegradable, so there 

is no physical or chemical chance of them not biodegrading 

– we just don’t know how fast yet,” explained Ślusarczyk. 

Cooperation with the MASPEX Group 

MASPEX is the largest private Polish company in the 

food industry and one of the largest in Central and Eastern 


COMPEO 

Automotive 

Europe. Greenfill3d was selected as part of the 

ScaleUp Program organized by PARP (Polish Agency 

for Enterprise Development) to implement a joint 

project with the MASPEX Group for one of its main 

brands – the leader in the pasta category in Poland 

(Lublin) – the Lubella brand. 

Leading compounding technology 

for heat- and shear-sensitive plastics 

Joint work on the project began on July 1, 2021, and 

on December 15, 2021, the first prototype was ready for 

logistic trials. The final POS display was made of 20 % 

wheat bran filament, using shelf connectors made of 

PLA polymer, mounted on a pedestal made of 100 % 

recyclable cardboard, with the print of Greenguard ® 

certified paints. 

The innovative “ecoPOS” will soon be delivered to 

selected retail outlets, but Greenfill3d has quite big 

ambitions. 

“What we have achieved so far is quite extraordinary. 

However, at the moment we are working on something 

other – a certain technological solution in the field of 

post-processing, which will make our products not 

only natural and biodegradable but also very visually 

attractive. What we are going to do will be, to some 

extent, a breakthrough for 3D printing itself. I have 

no idea why no one has figured it out before, but I’m 

glad it’s us”, says Ślusarczyk not without pride. “We 

have already carried out a few tests and the effects 

are amazing. I hope that by the summer holidays we 

will manage to create something so intriguing that we 

will be able to share it with the world. We will strive to 

expand the boundaries in the field of natural materials 

and find the perfect bridge between biodegradability 

and usability”. AT 

https://greenfill3d.com 

Uniquely efficient. Incredibly versatile. Amazingly flexible. 

With its new COMPEO Kneader series, BUSS continues 

to offer continuous compounding solutions that set the 

standard for heat- and shear-sensitive applications, in all 

industries, including for biopolymers. 

Info: 

On March 14, 2022, representatives of the Polish 3D 

Printing Industry met to sign a joint statement on Russia’s 

aggression against Ukraine. Representatives of 13 companies 

submitted their signatures in person, and 5 others signed 

them electronically. The statement condemned the actions 

of the Russian Federation towards the Ukrainian Nation 

and declared the suspension of any economic activity in 

the markets of the Russian Federation and the Republic of 

Belarus. 

Greenfill3d was one of the signatories of the statement. 

• Moderate, uniform shear rates 

• Extremely low temperature profile 

• Efficient injection of liquid components 

• Precise temperature control 

• High filler loadings 

www.busscorp.com 


Materials 

There are no silver bullets 

Since I joined bioplastics MAGAZINE in a bigger capacity 

about two years ago I came across one material that just 

sounded too good to be true – the UBQ material. The 

premise of taking mixed municipality waste (or municipality 

solid waste – MSW) and turning it into plastic material 

without the need for separation lies somewhere between 

an oil sheikhs’ fever dream and an environmentalist’s wet 

dream. I was quite sceptical for a long time, as things that 

sound too good to be true often aren’t good at all. But UBQ 

kept popping up, be it collaboration with McDonald’s, or the 

use of UBQ material in the first Zero-Waste Car Luca (bM 

01/21), and the announcement of PepsiCo (Harrison, NY, 

USA) just a couple of weeks ago. UBQ was even featured 

in the last issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE in the context of 

Mercedes-Benz’s VISION EQXX (bM 01/22). This story was 

the kick-off to a closer examination of UBQ and I sat down 

(digitally) with Jack “Tato” Bigio, Co-CEO & Co-Founder 

at UBQ Materials. So, what is UBQ? Where does it come 

from? Where does it go? And is Tato secretly Cotton-Eye 

Joe? As with most things in life the answers are not always 

as straightforward as we’d like. 

Same-same, but different 

The purpose of UBQ is to substitute fossil-based plastics. 

From injection moulding through to extrusion and 3D 

printing anything is possible. It is compatible with most 

common resins on the market, but mainly in combination 

with PP, PE, PLA, PS and PVC. It can be compounded with 

additives commonly used in the industry to tune properties 

like any other polymer, while not being a polymer itself. 

“UBQ is a new member of the thermoplastics’ family, 

however, it is not a polymer, it is a composite thermoplastic 

material. The beauty of UBQ is that it performs very 

similar to other members of this family of polymers like 

e.g., polypropylene or polyethylene. Of course, all these 

materials have different mechanical properties, some are 

more rigid, some more flexible etc. UBQ falls into its own 

range of properties, which is within the range of all these 

other plastic materials. The incredible thing about UBQ, the 

‘too good to be true’ part, is that it can bond with all these 

other materials. If it bonds with polypropylene it becomes 

polypropylene, and this works also with PS, PVC, or PE. 

UBQ takes on the properties of the material it is bonded to. 

It can therefore do things that other thermoplastic can’t”, 

Tato explained. In general, UBQ’s substitution rates lie 

between 20 % and 60 %, depending on the application. The 

real difference of UBQ is its origin. 

Recycling, waste, and value 

UBQ starts where most other processes stop, with the 

unrecyclable that usually ends up in incineration or landfill. 

While waste management is different in different regions 

the average household waste (MSW) is a mix of about 85 % 

organic material and 15 % plastic materials. These waste 

streams have one common problem – contamination. 

The plastic materials are dirty, wet, and often multilayer 

applications – things that make them difficult to recycle 

and not that useful for incineration (wet materials need 

extra energy input). All these shortcomings are properties 

UBQ needs, or rather UBQ was designed to make these 

mixed and contaminated waste streams into a feedstock. 

“Society is obsessed with the recycling of plastics, but the 

large majority of the waste is overlooked. Plastics are only 

about 15–16 % of waste and you cannot recycle about half 

of them in the best of the cases”, says Tato. “The problem 

of waste cannot be solved by recycling plastics alone – it 

is a good thing to try to increase recycling rates from 

household waste, but nobody is talking about that 85 % that 

we happily sent to landfills and decompose into GHG gases 

like methane and CO 2 

”. 

So UBQ tries to tackle these overlooked 85 % in a process 

that is very different from chemical recycling, which 

needs very clean plastic material streams and very high 

temperatures. UBQ is created at low temperatures that 

range within 200 °C as higher temperatures would destroy 

all the organic particles that are necessary for the process. 

The process, therefore, needs comparatively little energy 

and no added water as the base material – waste – tends to 

be rather wet anyways. 

“In a first step metals and minerals that are highly 

recyclable are filtered out, they are valuable materials 

but don’t have any added value for our material. After the 

removal, we send these to recyclers and are left with the 

food residues, trimmings, cardboard, paper, mixed plastics, 

and diapers. All those materials together without the need 

for separation will be converted into UBQ – so UBQ is not 

a recycling technology. We’re converting these streams 

of materials, which are very heterogeneous and different, 

into one homogeneous, consistent material“, so Tato. “The 

problem for most recycling processes is the dirtiness of the 

material, but the dirtiness in trash – it’s organic matter – 

UBQ actually loves that ‘dirtiness.’ Luckily organic matter 

has a number of common particles that create the building 

blocks that we use to create this new bonding matrix. The 

mixed plastics that are part of the waste, those that are 

recyclable and unrecyclable then melt into the matrix, bond 

with it, and become part of the matrix. So, at the end of the 

day, you have a composite material where all these previous 

heterogeneous materials disappear into one material that 

has thermoplastic properties. These novel and unique 

properties enabled us to get patents on UBQ material 

worldwide”. 

One of the main goals of UBQ is to give waste value, if 

MSW has intrinsic value then the likelihood of it ending up 

in uncontrolled landfills (which are still the norm in many 

parts of the world) decreases. Due to the high GHG potential 

of waste in such landfills (as they lead to the development 

of methane which is 86 times more potent than CO 2 

) UBQ 

has a huge impact on materials’ carbon footprint. To put 

things in perspective, every tonne of fossil-based plastics 


ut this one has a pretty shine 

By Alex Thielen 

Materials 

emits between 2–5 tonnes of CO 2 

eq. Replacing one tonne of 

polypropylene (+2.7 tonnes CO 2 

eq/tonne) with UBQ (-11.7 CO 2 

eq/ 

tonne), a total amount of +14.4 tonnes CO 2 

eq/tonne can be 

avoided. 

“The development of this discovery took us very, very many 

years because we needed to understand the chemistry of each 

and every step on the conversion process to then reach one 

consistent and homogenous material is not a simple thing. 

The fact that we got patents all over the world on UBQ material 

is because we created a new composition of matter – a novel 

thermoplastic that didn’t exist before us. A material to replace 

common resins that are scarce, expensive, and polluting”. 

UBQ has not been in the spotlight of the plastic world for long, 

as they started marketing the material in early 2019, but they 

have already made some waves. It is a USDA Certified Biobased 

material, EU and UK REACH compliant (the 100 % UBQ powder) 

and IFTA compliant. UBQ Materials is also a Certified B Corp 

company, among other things. 

“We are not a huge company yet, but the people already 

involved here are really remarkable. Our Board of Directors is 

really AAA and the International Advisory Board we put together 

is quite remarkable. We have Roget Kornberg of Stanford, Nobel 

Prize winner in chemistry in 2006, and Connie Hedegaard who is 

the former European Commissioner for climate action in Europe 

that led the Paris Accord. John Elkington who is considered one 

of the godfathers of sustainability in the world and all these, 

all these incredible people are around us since 5–7 years ago, 

helping us develop this idea – this technology, the network, the 

certifications, the validations, the permitting, and policy matters. 

And internally, we have a really remarkable team”. 

As Tato said UBQ is still rather small with a pilot plant just 

out of Tse’elim (Israel) with an annual capacity of 7,000 tonnes. 

However, a new large-scale facility with an annual capacity of 

80,000 tonnes is planned to start production this year – and many 

more are planned. 

While there are no silver bullets for our problems, and 

probably never will be, the technology behind UBQ might be able 

to make a dent in the climate/plastic pollution crisis, with a price 

competitive and highly valuable sustainable material that is also 

highly recyclable, thus supporting a truly circular economy. 

www.ubqmaterials.com 


Masterbacth / Additives 

100 % biobased surfactants 

& polyethylene glycols (PEGs) 

Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland) recently unveiled its 

new Vita 100 % biobased surfactants and polyethylene 

glycols (PEGs) to help directly address climate change 

by helping remove fossil carbon from the value chain. 

As our climate gives us increasing and alarming signals 

of change, individuals and industries are looking for ways to 

reduce their environmental footprints, and the demand for 

biobased chemicals is set to grow strongly in the coming 

years. Clariant is committed to fostering the transition to a 

more sustainable bioeconomy and has a growing share of 

biobased products and processing aids in its portfolio. 

The introduction of 100 % biobased surfactants and PEGs 

significantly expands Clariant’s Vita designated ingredients. 

Vita products are based on renewable feedstocks and have 

at least 98 % Renewable Carbon Index (RCI). It is just one 

example of its commitment to provide low carbon footprint 

solutions to customers and to Greater Chemistry – between 

people and planet. 

“From the packaging to the many ingredients, a typical 

consumer product in coatings, personal care, home 

care, industrial, and agricultural applications still uses 

petrochemicals and therefore fossil carbon”, said Christian 

Vang, Global Head of Business Unit Industrial & Consumer 

Specialties, Clariant. “Switching to biobased carbon 

chemistry remains a big challenge for manufacturers and 

by launching the Vita surfactant and PEG range we are 

offering them an important new solution to achieve this”. 

Designed for natural formulations targeting a high 

Renewable Carbon Index (RCI), the new Vita products 

support manufacturers in maximizing the biobased carbon 

content of consumer goods such as detergents, hair and 

body shampoo, paint, industrial lubricants, and crop 

formulations. 

Clariant uses 100 % bioethanol derived from sugar 

cane or corn to create ethylene oxide for its innovative 

new surfactants and PEGs. The biobased material is fully 

segregated along the value chain from the field to the final 

consumer product. 

Because only biobased feedstocks are used, the 

ingredients have significantly lower carbon footprints than 

their fossil-based counterparts. The Vita surfactants are 

CO 2 

emissions savers: they can help save up to 85 % of CO 2 

emissions compared to their fossil analogues (based on EO 

estimative). 

Importantly, in addition to setting the standard in a greener 

production, these new solutions are chemically equivalent 

to Clariant’s fossil versions, offering the same performance 

and efficiency to formulators and brand owners. Customers 

can currently benefit from more than 70 biobased products, 

and the range will continue to be expanded to meet evolving 

market needs. In Q1 2022, double-digit kilotonnes of the 

biobased surfactants and PEGs will be available for the 

worldwide business segments from Clariant IGL Specialty 

Chemicals (CISC), a Clariant joint venture. 

As one of the global leaders in specialty chemicals, and 

a member of the UN Global Compact, Clariant is at the 

forefront of advanced carbon solutions with a unique level 

of expertise, know-how and industry knowledge. AT 

www.clariant.com 


ioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17 25

Materials 

Plastics as CO 2 

sinks 

Building a carbon-negative plastics industry with 

low-CO 2 

compounds and masterbatches 

Plastics can become a permanent CO 2 

sink and contribute 

to the de-fossilisation of the plastics industry. As a 

division of carbonauten GmbH based in Giengen an der 

Brenz (Germany), carbonauten polymers has developed the 

so-called carbonauten NET Materials ® (Negative Emission 

Technology), which consist of a combination of biopolymers 

or polymers and CO 2 

-negative biocarbons. carbonauten 

NET Materials describe a new category of compounds and 

masterbatches that are used for a wide range of applications 

such as construction, infrastructure, packaging, automotive, 

agriculture, engineering, housing, and others. The effect: 

the more CO 2 

-negative plastics are used, the better for the 

environment, people, and the economy. 

The aim of carbonauten polymers is to become a global 

catalyst for change in reducing the carbon footprint while 

creating innovative plastic products with added value. 

The business model is based on maximising the material 

and energy use of woody (carbonaceous) biomass residues. 

These come from agriculture, forestry, and the wood and 

food industries. Thus, for companies, cities, municipalities, 

and local authorities, their waste becomes a valuable 

material and thus an important resource. These biomass 

residues are pyrolytically carbonised in an industrial process 

at temperatures between 400 °C and 700 °C in the absence 

of oxygen. Subsequently, the biocarbons are cooled down to 

be anhydrous and, depending on the specification, ground 

up in the range of nanometres and micrometres. In further 

processes, the polarity of the biocarbons can be influenced. 

Depending on the carbon content of the biomass residues 

used, each tonne of biocarbon permanently stores between 2.5 

tonnes and 3.3 tonnes of CO 2 

. This is because the biocarbons 

are long-chain and therefore stable even after hundreds 

of years. Only through thermal utilisation would the carbon 

return to the atmosphere as natural CO 2 

that the plants had 

From waste to recyclable material: biomass residues are turned into 

high-quality and sustainable minus CO 2 

plastics 

previously absorbed through photosynthesis and used the 

carbon fraction for structural building. 

Another special feature of the decentralised carbonautenprocess 

is that pyrolysis requires only 5 % of the energy 

stored in the biomass for carbonisation and 90 % is used as 

green electricity for preparation, compounding, and further 

processing. 

The polymeric carriers for the carbonauten NET Materials 

are polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate 

(PC), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyamide (PA6, 

PA66, PA12), and others. Thanks to the wide viscosity range 

from (MFI) 0.5 g/10 min to 40 g/10 min, the compounds and 

masterbatches are suitable for processing from extrusion to 

injection moulding. 

By using biopolymers such as polylactic acid (PLA) or 

polybutylene succinate (PBS) as a carrier material, the 

company has also developed innovative compounds and 

masterbatches that can be used to produce biodegradable 

and compostable plastic products with improved functions. 

In agricultural films, such as bio-mulch films, the biocarbon 

contained in the carbonauten polymers and carbonauten 

masterbatches acts as a soil conditioner and water reservoir 

during degradation, contributing to sustainable farming 

carbonauten minus CO2 polymers will be used in many industries and 

sectors in the future 


By: 

Torsten Becker, Dreamer + Innovator 

and Cristian Hedesiu, CFO 

Carbonauten 

Giengen, Germany 

Materials 

methods, plant growth, and avoidance of agrochemicals (the 

popular German TV-Scientist Prof Harald Lesch says: “Super 

Fertiliser Terra Preta”). 

In addition to reducing the carbon footprint, carbonauten 

compounds and masterbatches offer a number of advantages 

for the plastic products, such as: 

• Improved product performance, e.g. the ratio of stiffness 

to impact strength, which can lead to longer durability or 

material savings for the same performance 

• excellent UV resistance 

• improved temperature resistance 

• improved dimensional stability CLTE (coefficient of linear 

thermal expansion) 

• weight reduction in automotive parts compared to talcfilled 

compounds 

• natural black pigment 

• 100 % recyclability 

Currently, carbonauten polymers is working with major 

brands in the automotive, packaging, and construction 

industries on numerous R&D projects to develop tailor-made 

minus CO 2 

plastic products that meet pressing environmental 

and economic demands and needs. 

A further and decisive advantage lies in economic efficiency. 

This is because the optimised processes mean that the 

carbonauten compounds and masterbatches are no more 

expensive than petroleum-based plastics. And they replace 

between 10 % and 70 % of expensive petroleum-based 

polymers. 

Due to the future decentralised production sites worldwide, 

large quantities will be produced regionally. In the smallest 

version, the modular plants produce over 6,000 tonnes of 

biocarbons annually. The carbonauten compounds and 

masterbatches contain between 10 % and 70 % biocarbon. 

From this, an average of 10,000–20,000 tonnes of carbonauten 

compounds and masterbatches can be produced. 

The carbonauten minus CO 2 

factory 1 is located in 

Eberswalde (Germany) and will start industrial operation this 

June. In the course of the year, the first tonnes of carbonauten 

compounds and masterbatches will be delivered. 

The next development step is the material use of the biooils 

that are produced during the pyrolysis of the biomass 

residues. These complex molecules serve as basic chemicals 

for the production of biobased polymers. This is old 

knowledge rediscovered: Until 1928, Germany was the world 

market leader with an annual production of 100,000 tonnes of 

pyrolysis oils, until after the Second World War, when cheap 

crude oil displaced this sustainable resource. 

www.carbonauten.com 



Self-cleaning bioplastics 

The innovative plastic developed at RMIT University 

(Melbourne, Australia) repels liquids and dirt – just 

like a lotus leaf – then breaks down rapidly once in soil. 

RMIT researcher Mehran Ghasemlou, lead author of the study 

published in Science of the Total Environment [1] said the new 

bioplastic was ideal for fresh food and takeaway packaging. 

“Plastic waste is one of our biggest environmental 

challenges but the alternatives we develop need to be 

both eco-friendly and cost-effective, to have a chance of 

widespread use”, Ghasemlou said. “We designed this new 

bioplastic with large-scale fabrication in mind, ensuring it was 

simple to make and could easily be integrated with industrial 

manufacturing processes”. 

Ghasemlou said nature was full of ingeniously-designed 

structures that could inspire researchers striving to develop 

new high-performance and multifunctional materials. “We’ve 

replicated the phenomenally water-repellent structure of 

lotus leaves to deliver a unique type of bioplastic that precisely 

combines both strength and degradability”, he said. 

The bioplastic is made from cheap and widely-available 

raw materials – starch and cellulose – to keep production 

costs low and support rapid biodegradability. The fabrication 

process does not require heating or complicated equipment 

and would be simple to upscale to a roll-to-roll production 

line, Ghasemlou said. 

Naturally compostable 

While biodegradable plastics are a growing market, not all 

bioplastics are equal. Most biodegradable or compostable 

plastics require industrial processes and high temperatures 

to break them down. The new bioplastic does not need 

industrial intervention to biodegrade, with trials showing it 

breaks down naturally and quickly in soil. “Our ultimate aim 

is to deliver packaging that could be added to your backyard 

compost or thrown into a green bin alongside other organic 

waste, so that food waste can be composted together with the 

container it came in, to help prevent food contamination of 

recycling”, said Ghasemlou. 

Lotus-inspired structures 

Lotus leaves are renowned for having some of the most 

water-repellent surfaces on earth and are almost impossible 

to get dirty. The secret lies in the leaf’s surface structure, 

which is composed of tiny pillars topped with a waxy layer. 

Any water that lands on the leaf remains a droplet, simply 

rolling off with the help of gravity or wind. The droplets sweep 

The lotus effect 

up dirt as they slide down, keeping the leaf clean. To make 

their lotus-inspired material, the RMIT team of science and 

engineering researchers first synthetically engineered a 

plastic made of starch and cellulosic nanoparticles. The 

surface of this bioplastic was imprinted with a pattern that 

mimics the structure of lotus leaves, then coated with a 

protective layer of PDMS, a silicon-based organic polymer. 

Tests show the bioplastic not only repels liquids and dirt 

effectively, but also retains its self-cleaning properties after 

being scratched with abrasives and exposed to heat, acid, and 

ethanol. Corresponding author, Benu Adhikari, said the design 

overcomes key challenges of starch-based materials. “Starch 

is one of the most promising and versatile natural polymers, 

but it is relatively fragile and highly susceptible to moisture”, 

Adhikari said. “Through our bio-inspired engineering that 

mimics the ‘lotus effect’, we have delivered a highly-effective 

starch-based biodegradable plastic”. 

Ghasemlou is currently working with a bioplastic company, 

which is evaluating further development of these novel 

water repellent materials. The RMIT research team is keen 

to collaborate with other potential partners on commercial 

applications for the bioplastic. 

A study describing the lotus leaf-inspired structure of 

the bioplastic was published in ACS Applied Materials and 

Interfaces [2]. AT 

[1] Ghasemlou et al: Biodegradation of novel bioplastics made of starch, 

polyhydroxyurethanes and cellulose nanocrystals in soil environment. https:// 

doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152684 

[2] Ghasemlou et al: Robust and Eco-Friendly Superhydrophobic Starch 

Nanohybrid Materials with Engineered Lotus Leaf Mimetic Multiscale 

Hierarchical Structures. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.1c09959 

www.rmit.edu.au 

Magnified image showing the pillared structure of a lotus leaf 

(left) and the new bioplastic (right). Images magnified 2,000 times. 


BOOK 

STORE 

Automotive 

New 

Edition 

2020 

New 

Edition 

2020 

ORDER 

NOW 

www.bioplasticsmagazine.com/en/books 

email: books@bioplasticsmagazine.com 

phone: +49 2161 6884463 



Making the leap into a new era 

According to the industry association European 

Bioplastics (EUBP), Berlin Germany, global 

production capabilities for bioplastics will almost 

double in 2022 and are estimated to reach 2 % of global 

plastic production by 2026. Both the market and end 

consumers are increasingly demanding more sophisticated 

material and end applications. As a result, bioplastics 

are and will continue to play an important role in the 

development of a circular economy and a decisive role in 

reaching the Green Deal objectives. That is why bioplastics 

are definitely part of the solution. 

At Sukano, Schindellegi, Switzerland, it is clear that only 

by joining forces along the whole value chain can we achieve 

a holistic and impactful change for the environment, society 

and, in the end, for each one of us. This is why Sukano 

embarked on this journey from the very beginning, over 15 

years ago. Initially focusing on PLA, followed by PBS(A) and 

finally, in 2021, leading the way into a new era, offering PHA 

colour masterbatches. 

The concept of PHA foresees two main areas of use. 

The first is organic recycling. This includes applications 

where it is difficult to separate the polymers from the 

organic material, such as coffee capsules or tea bags. 

Applications made from PHA can go directly to organic 

recycling, increasing organic waste collection and therefore 

supporting recycling. Of course, this is presuming that 

policy-makers can offer such collection systems and that 

recyclers accept such fast-degrading organic materials 

in their incoming stream. The second area of use for PHA 

as a polymer is in applications where it is challenging or 

prohibitively expensive to avoid fragments ending up in the 

open environment or to remove them after use, such as 

mulch films in agriculture. With PHA, even if there is a leak 

to the open environment, there is no risk. This is because 

PHA is degradable in soil (according to ASTM D6400, and 

anaerobically digestible under ISO 15985 standards), open 

water (UV Marine Biodegradable OK Certification), and 

home composting conditions, following the certifications 

ASTM D6400 and TÜV Home Compost OK Certification. 

Sukano has recently launched a dedicated PHA 

colour portfolio, which is formulated for direct food 

contact applications, available for industrially and home 

compostable applications up to soil/marine biodegradable 

applications and fully tailored to the properties and 

performance requirements of the final application. Of 

course, it is up to 100 % biobased with a fully compatible 

PHA carrier. 

“At Sukano we design colours with a purpose. Everything 

we put on the market is designed and tailored according 

to specific end-of-lives depending on the end article and 

the local market where it will be sold“, states Alessandra 

Funcia, Head of Sales and Marketing. ”We want to make 

sure that our planet remains as colourful as it is and always 

has been”, she adds. 

The Sukano PHA colour portfolio is inspired by the planet, 

nature, and the people that live on it. The colours, shades, 

and effects allow responsible innovation and freedom 

in design while ensuring compostability compliance. 

All masterbatches are formulated and certified for 

compostability. 

“For every biopolymer masterbatch, Sukano issues 

a so-called compostability letter disclosing all relevant 

and critical information according to the compostability 

schemes required by the certifying bodies”, Daniel Ganz, 

Global Product Manager Bioplastics confirms. 

In addition to the PHA colour palette, Sukano offers the 

technical background expertise used to formulate these 

products to achieve the critical polymer properties and 

end applications that PHA stands for. When it comes to 

processing PHA, Sukano offers an established three-step 

processing guide and provides technical on-site service 

whenever needed. 

Sukano takes action to be part of the solution. Are you 

ready to join them and build back stronger? MT 



Let’s all adopt the 

right biohaviour now! 

It is the slogan of the last digital marketing campaign of 

CABAMIX, launched in 2021. 

It underlines how Cabamix, a family-owned company 

producing bio and recycled mineral compounds in southern 

France (Cabannes), is acting concretely towards the urgency 

of changing the game for preserving our planet through a 

cleaner and more responsible industry (but now!) 

It is above all a question of global change in our behaviour: 

change in our way of consuming (3R) and in our way of 

producing also (3R again), so that we can really adopt the right 

Biohaviour. Cabamix’s responsible contribution is tangibly 

translated into their range of products Carbomax ® Bio. 

Carbomax Bio is a compound based on CaCO 3 

, compostable, 

biodegradable, partially biobased and certified by TÜV Austria 

(OK Compost Industrial, OK Compost Home, OK Compost 

Soil). Carbomax Bio is suitable for different materials such 

as PBAT, PLA, PBS, PHA, and their compounds, or in starch 

based compounds. 

Carbomax Bio is successfully used all around the globe 

in film extrusion, injection, thermoforming, and 3D printing. 

Carbomax Bio gives 3 main advantages: process optimization 

(like significantly reduced cycle times in injection), improved 

finished product performances and the possibility of reducing 

formulation costs. 

A recent European study has highlighted the use of 

biodegradable mulch film as a perfect solution for a greener 

agriculture. This is one of the core applications where 

Carbomax Bio is used. 

In 3D printing, converters can reach higher productivity and 

better look of printed parts thanks to the addition of Carbomax 

Bio in PLA filaments. 

There are many other applications where Carbomax Bio is 

now commonly used like biobags (fruit and vegetable bags, 

garbage bags for the selective collection of organics, etc.), 

flexible packaging, horticulture, coffee capsules, and many 

more. In collaboration with their customers and partners, they 

constantly discover new possibilities to introduce Carbomax 

Bio in applications where compostability makes sense and is 

an added value. 

The company will continue to launch new products to 

support the needs of their customers and soon they will offer 

a 100 % recycled revolutionary solution. 

From 2023, Cabamix aims to manufacture 100 % of their 

products based on bio-sourced, compostable, or recycled raw 

materials. AT 

www.carbomaxbio.com 


*: may become a paid service in future 

Download the free 

bioplastics MAGAZINE 

App! 

Our free Android and iOS App lets you read 

bioplastics MAGAZINE on your mobile device two weeks 

before you have the printed copy on your desk. 

You can easily read bioplastics MAGAZINE not only 

on your smartphone, but on your tablet as well. 

Our 15 th anniversary gift to you: 

Read all issues back to 2006 on your mobile device*. 

Try it now! Go to the Google Play Store or 

Apple App-Store search for “bioplasticsmagazine“. 

The QR Code will lead you to the respective store automatically. 

You can also check out the new ePaper webkiosk at: 

https://epaper.bioplasticsmagazine.com 

Automotive 



Breakthrough for 

biobased HMDA 

Material manufacturer Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany) 

and biotechnology pioneer Genomatica (San Diego, 

California, USA) announced an important industry 

milestone to advance sustainability resulting from their 

partnership. The two companies have teamed to be the 

first to successfully produce significant volumes of a 100 % 

plant-based version of the chemical raw material HMDA 

(hexamethylene diamine). 

HMDA, with a worldwide market of 2 million tonnes 

per year, is a key ingredient for the widely-used nylon-6,6 

(with a USD 6.4 billion market), as well as an important 

component for raw materials for coatings and adhesives 

from Covestro. Up to now, HMDA has been manufactured 

from fossil feedstocks. Coatings and adhesives can be 

produced more sustainably thanks to biobased HMDA, 

made from renewable feedstocks – Genomatica utilizes 

plant- or waste-based feedstocks for its sustainable 

materials, generally consisting of the sugars from starchy 

plants like industrial corn, sugar beets, or cassava. Areas 

of application include automotive, construction, furniture, 

textiles, and fibres. The automotive industry alone uses 

500,000 tonnes of polyurethane coating based on HMDA 

annually. 

Teams from Genomatica and Covestro have been working 

together to develop a commercial process technology for 

biobased HMDA. The companies expect to produce tonne 

quantities of high-quality material over the course of 

multiple production campaigns. Both partners are already 

processing and testing material from their initial production 

campaigns, and the resulting bio-HMDA is of high purity 

and quality. The companies plan to advance the program to 

full commercial scale, and Covestro has secured an option 

from Genomatica to license the resulting integrated GENO 

HMD process technology for commercial production. 

Genomatica develops widely-used ingredients and 

materials using biotechnology and renewable, plant-based 

feedstocks rather than fossil feedstocks and their associated 

extractive processing methods. These materials are used 

by brands and their suppliers in popular goods ranging 

from apparel to cosmetics. Covestro brings extensive 

know-how in the field of research, chemical process 

technology and application development. The cooperation 

for the development of alternative raw materials based 

on biotechnology advances Covestro’s global program to 

achieve the circular economy. 

Covestro established an R&D Competence Center for 

biotechnology to further strengthen its overall know-how in 

this field. Biobased raw materials and biotechnology have 

also been identified as one of five focus areas at Covestro´s 

Venture Capital (COVeC) approach. 

“The increased use of alternative raw materials, including 

the utilization of biotechnology, is an important pillar of 

our approach to fully embrace the circular economy and 

help make it a global guiding principle”, says Covestro 

CEO Markus Steilemann. “Our program with Genomatica, 

which complements our internal R&D, is one of our 

largest external funding of biotechnology R&D to date, and 

underscores both the field’s importance to Covestro and the 

results it can deliver”. AT 

https://www.covestro.com | www.genomatica.com 


New compostable mineral 

fillers & black masterbatches 

Committed to sustainable innovation and circular economy 

By: 

Grégory Coué 

Technical Manager 


Kompuestos 

Palau Solità i Plegamans, Spain 

Bioexfill: mineral fillers for a lower carbon 

footprint 

Kompuestos is a Spanish company based in Palau Solità 

i Plegamans near Barcelona in Spain. Over the past 

three decades, Kompuestos has both acquired an indepth 

knowledge of the plastic industry, as well as gained 

market recognition. With a production capacity of over 

230,000 tonnes per year, Kompuestos has acquired a wealth 

of knowledge. Due to its pioneering activities and the quality 

and efficiency of its materials, it is today one of the leading 

suppliers within the plastic transforming industries, while 

still seeking to expand its business horizons. To answer the 

demand for greener products, Kompuestos has developed 

a whole range of biodegradable and compostable resins 

made of starches and other biologically sourced polymers. 

Several grades for film and extrusion applications have 

already been certified as compostable by TÜV Austria. 

A new range of compostable masterbatches 

Kompuestos has combined its know-how in masterbatches 

with the benefits offered by compostable resins to bring 

on a whole new range of eco-friendly masterbatches. The 

ingredients of this new range of products are carefully 

chosen to meet industrial and legislative requirements. 

Several of these grades have been certified by TÜV Austria 

as OK Compost INDUSTRIAL and/or OK Compost HOME. 

These easy-to-use compostable masterbatches ensure 

a dust-free and healthy production, eliminating the health 

risk that is involved in using powder additives, especially at 

their ultrafine state. Unlike using powder additives, these 

concentrates can easily achieve the desired final properties 

with complete safety at low addition levels. 

Using these concentrates in biodegradable packaging or 

other plastic products can help avoid the significant costs 

and time required to test products for compostability. These 

concentrates are available to improve the performance of a 

wide range of compostable resins including, but not limited 

to, PLA, PBAT, PBS, thermoplastic starch, and PHA. 

Mineral concentrates play a key role in compounding, 

as they are used in polymers not only as lower-cost 

fillers but increasingly as modifiers to improve properties 

such as stiffness, heat deflection temperature, and creep 

resistance. The mineral particle size, shape, surface area, 

matrix compatibility, and dispersion are all important factors 

affecting performance. It is also critical to understand 

mineral chemistry to choose the best products for each 

polymer. 

Bioexfill is a unique combination of 100 % treated and 

ultrafine minerals together with compostable polymer 

resins. Thanks to its excellent dispersion and homogeneity, 

high amounts of Bioexfill can be added to the final article. 

Bioexfill reduces costs as well as carbon footprint while 

maintaining the mechanical properties of the final article. In 

a typical example for blown film extrusion applications, with 

the addition of up to 25 wt% Bioexfill, similar mechanical 

properties can be achieved compared to the neat resin, both 

in machine and transverse directions. Additional benefits 

include lower cost, lower carbon footprint, and increased 

productivity. On the finished product, Bioexfill can be used 

as an opacifier or to colour white while reducing the amount 

of titanium dioxide needed. 

BK325: black and compostable 

The compostable black masterbatch BK325 ensures 

an excellent dispersion enabling converters to produce 

compostable films & bags, as well as packaging articles 

with very high opacity. 

Mulch films are used to cover the soil in order to suppress 

weeds and to promote crop growth. The compostable black 

masterbatch BK325 can be used for mulch films meant 

to biodegrade in soil. BK325 has been shown to avoid the 

penetration of light through these mulch films to eliminate 

the development to weeds under the film. BK325 is also 

compatible with the formulation of any compostable plastic 

article, for which black colour is desired. 

www.kompuestos.com 



Unique antistatic ingredient 

for bioplastics 

There are different types of static charge control 

additives for polymers: these are permanent, 

internally added, and externally applied, depending 

on the level of performance and application. Croda Smart 

Materials ((Snaith, UK) offers all three of them. 

When antistatic performance is required in synthetic 

plastics or bioplastics, such as PLA and its blends, Atmer 

190 is a fantastic option. The advantage of Atmer 190 is that 

it can be added either directly or via masterbatch during 

extrusion or injection moulding, without the need for extra 

steps for external application methods, which increase 

costs. The recommended dosage is 2–3 %. The surface 

resistivity which can be achieved is in the order of 10 10 Ω. 

Atmer 190 is an internally incorporated additive that can 

be dispersed evenly through the polymer in the melt phase. 

It migrates to the surface of the polymer where it interacts 

with atmospheric moisture, reducing surface resistivity, and 

allowing dissipation of static charge over a long period of 

time. 

Alternatively, Atmer 190 can be applied externally to the 

surface of a polymer giving an immediate but temporary 

effect. Atmer 190 has FDA approvals. 

Additive Type What are they? How do they work? Why choose this type? 

Permanent 

Short & medium 

term 

Externally coated 

Internally incorporated, 

non-migrating static 

dissipative polymers 

Internally incorporated low 

molecular weight migrating 

anti-static additives 

Externally applied antistatic 

additives 

They reduce the resistivity of the 

plastic by forming a co-continuous 

ion conductive phase within the host 

polymer 

They are incorporated via a masterbatch 

and migrate to the surface after 

extrusion where they pick up moisture 

They are dissolved in an appropriate 

solvent and are then applied by spraying 

a wet coating onto the surface, or by 

dipping 

For applications where permanent and 

humidity independent static control is needed. 

Applications include EX, EPA and ESA. 

For short- or medium-term performance for 

example in packaging or where wide ranging 

food contact approval is needed 

When internal additives can’t be used, where 

clarity is affected too much or no internal 

additive is available, for example, PET 

Atmer TM 

Migrating anti-static 

additives 

Electromagnetic Interference 

(EMI) 10 1 - 10 4 

Anti-static 10 10 - 10 12 

Metals 10 -5 - 10 -1 Conductive 10 1 - 10 6 Static Dissipative 10 6 - 10 12 Plastics ≥ 10 12 

Surface resistivity (Ω) 

Additionally, Atmer 190 does not have any adverse effect 

on the optical properties of PLA or PLA blends. This is 

clearly illustrated in the Figure below 

By conducting tensile tests using the ASTM D638, Croda 

clearly demonstrates in the figures (right page) that Young’s 

modulus tensile strength & strain at break are not influenced 

by Atmer 190, i.e. the additive does not behave as a plasticizer. 

Material Charge decay half-life (s) Surface resistivity 

PLA +2 % 

Atmer 190 

a) b) c) d) e) 

PLA +3 % 

Atmer 190 

a) control cast extruded PLA film, b) PLA+ 2 % Atmer 190, c) 

PLA+ 3 % Atmer 190, d) control PLA/PBS/PCL cast extruded film 

and e) PLA/PBS/PCL +2 % Atmer 190 

More importantly, Atmer 190 does not have any adverse 

effect on the mechanical properties of PLA or PLA blends. 

PLA/PBT/PCL 

(Ω) 

Internally incorporated, 

non-migrating static 

dissipative polymers 

They reduce the resistivity of the 

plastic by forming a co-continuous 

ion conductive phase within the 

host polymer 

Base PLA (2500HP) > 40 7x10 14 

PLA + 2% Atmer 190 3 2x10 11 

PLA + 3% Atmer 190 3 3x10 10 

PLA/PBT/PCL* > 40 2x10 14 

PLA/PBT/PCL* + 2% 

Atmer 190 

PLA/PBT/PCL 

+2 % Atmer 190 

1 1x10 11 

Charge Decay and Surface Resistivity Change with Concentration level 

* PLA/PBS/PCL f‌ilms supplied by Floreon TM 


Young‘s modulus, E (GPa) 

2.5 — 

2 — 

1.5 — 

1 — 

0.5 — 

0 — 

Control 2% Atmer 190 

Young‘s modulus, E (GPa) 

2.5 — 

2 — 

1.5 — 

1 — 

0.5 — 

0 — 


By 

Dimitris Vgenopoulos and Emile Homsi 

Croda Smart Materials 

Snaith, UK 

Masterbacth Automotive Additives 

PLA 

PLA/PBS/PCL 

Young’s modulus, E, of PLA (left) and PLA/PBS/PCL (right); comparison between control vs. 2 % Atmer 190 

Tensile strenght, UTS (MPa) 

70 — 

60 — 

50 — 

40 — 

30 — 

20 — 

10 — 

0 — 


PLA 

Tensile strenght, UTS (MPa) 

60 — 

50 — 

40 — 

30 — 

20 — 

10 — 

0 — 


PLA/PBS/PCL 

Tensile strength, UTS, of PLA (left) and PLA/PBS/PCL (right); comparison between control vs. 2 % Atmer 190 

250 — 

500 — 

Strain at break, ε (%) 

200 — 

150 — 

100 — 

50 — 

Strain at break, ε (%) 

400 — 

300 — 

200 — 

100 — 

0 — 


0 — 


PLA 

PLA/PBS/PCL 

Strain at break, ε, of PLA (left) and PLA/PBS/PCL (right); comparison between control vs. 2 % Atmer 190 

Summary 

Atmer 190 is an ideal antistatic additive for PLA & PLA blends because it combines the following benefits: 

• Good antistatic performance with a surface resistivity of 10 10 

• Internally added either via direct addition or via MB 

• No adverse effect on optical properties 

• No adverse effect on mechanical properties 

www.croda.com 


Masterbacth / Additives 

Masterbatches with 

soil improving pigments 

Colouring plastics is a standard procedure throughout 

the industry, but what if instead of simply getting the 

desired colour of an application a colour masterbatch 

could have an added value on its own? 

CAPROWAX P (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) recently 

developed a new line of masterbatches for universal 

colouration aimed at biodegradable plastics that does 

just that. Next to colouring they have the added value of 

containing soil-improving pigments. The soil-improving 

properties fall in general into two categories: pigments that 

improve the water retention capacity of soil, and pigments 

that have acid-binding capacity and are soil similar. 

Water retention capacity is the ability for soil to hold 

water and is, therefore an important factor for agricultural 

purposes, it reduces the need for irrigation as well as the 

risk of drought or desert desertification. Pigments that 

increase water retention capacity are vegetable carbon or 

lava rock flour from the Volcanic Eifel. 

Acid-binding capacity can help to reduce acidity levels of 

soil. Acidic soils are less productive as they contain fewer 

nutrients important for plant growth, high acidity levels also 

hinder root growth and many plants have difficulty growing 

in soil with high acidity levels. 

Soil similar pigments with acid-binding properties include 

biomineral natural calcite, calcined Kaolin (a brightening 

pigment without the addition of titanium dioxide. 

The carrier material Caprowax P is compostable and 

waterproof, and complies with the specification of DIN 

EN 13432. Caprowax P masterbatches are suitable for 

universal colouration of bioplastics, blends, biocomposites, 

and filaments including: PLA, PBS, PHA, PCL, Caprowax P/ 

Blends / BioMineralComposites, Polysaccharide/Derivates, 

PVAc/Bioplastic-Blends, PVOH, Bio-NFC/WPC, Bio-UPR, 

Bio-TPE, and NIPU. 

The masterbatches can be used translucent, covering, 

chromatic/achromatic and pearlescent colouration. 

They are lightfast, non-migratory, temperature stable, 

insoluble in water, comparable with natural, mineral 

pigments, and already mineralised. Masterbatch pellets are 

added to different bioplastics in a range of 0,5–6 %. They 

have a processing range of 90–200 °C, and for a short time 

up 220 °C. The content of each separate pigment in the 

coloured final products is ≤1 %. 

In the course of composting the brown to black colour of 

compost or humus change over to the coloured bioplastic 

and the colourful appearance disappears. Colourations with 

natural, biomineral calcite support biogenic weathering in 

soil and waters. 

After the biological degradation of the coloured biopolymer, 

the used pigments are able to regenerate acidic soil, improve 

plant fertilization, and increase water retention capacity. AT 

www.caprowax-p.eu 

Examples of masterbatches for soil improvement QX 

CAPROWAX P TM Shade Description 

Lava Red 134 QX LP lava rock f‌lour, Volcanic Eifel / iron oxide red 

Yellow 314 BM QX LP natural calcite / iron oxide yellow 

White C 004 BM QX 

natural Calcite 

Green 444 BM QX LP natural Calcite / iron oxide yellow / ultramarin blue 

Blue G 545 BM QX LP natural calcite / ultramarin blue 

Violet B 636 BM QX LP natural calcite / mangan violet, bluish 

Lava Brown 715 QX LP lava rock f‌lour Volcanic Eifel / iron oxides red / black 

Lava Brown 717 QX LP lava rock flour Volcanic Eifel / iron oxides red / black 

Lava-Grey FK 833 QX LP lava rock flour Volc. Eifel / iron oxide black / kaolin calcined 

Grey 821 BM wcb QX 

natural calcite / iron oxide black 

Grey FK V 827 bb QX LP kaolin calcined / vegetable carbon 

Black V 804 bb QX 

vegetable carbon 

Lava-Black 806 QX LP lava rock flour Volcanic Eifel / iron oxide black 

V: vegetable carbon, bb: biobased , wcb: without carbon black , LP: laboratory prototype 

QX: biobased carbon black and lava rock f‌lour from Volcanic Eifel are soil improver with water retention capacity 

BM: biomineral, natural calcite, acid-binding, FK: calcined kaolin, compost friendly 


Within its work on the European 

Nenu2phar project, Elixance (Elven, 

France), a company specialized in the 

elaboration and production of masterbatches 

and compounds, has developed a compostable 

3D printing filament based on PHA. The R&D 

department formulated two types of filaments 

to cover a large field of applications: a rigid 

filament, and a more flexible one. The objective 

was to develop a fully biodegradable filament 

without losing the performance of a petroleumbased 

plastic like, e.g. TPE, ABS. 

The company already has a large range of green 

products under its brand Elixbio and acquired 

a strong knowledge in the use of naturals 

fillers blend with biopolymers. By applying 

this knowledge to the 3D printing area with its 

partner Nanovia (Louargat, France), they made 

printable formulations based on biodegradable 

raw materials. These formulations include 

PHA, a compostable polymer that comes from 

renewable resources, and natural fillers, such as 

hemp or oyster powder. 

In the exploration of their mechanical 

performance, the formulations were extruded 

and printed into test bars for mechanical 

characterization. These properties were 

compared to properties of non-compostable 

3D filaments. The formulations with the most 

interesting performances were then used to print 

different complex geometry parts. 

The rigid filament is a blend of PHB, PHBV, 

and incorporated hemp fibres and achieves 

mechanical properties close to a filament made 

of PLA: high tensile modulus and good impact 

resistance. The flexible filament is a blend of PHB 

and PBAT with oyster powder, with a low tensile 

modulus and a high elongation at break (around 

300 % according to ISO 527-1). These properties 

are similar to those of TPE. 

For several years, Elixance has been developing 

bioplastics with a circular economy philosophy, 

using natural fillers and fibres (oyster and scallop 

shells, flax, hemp, etc.) from local resources. By 

working with natural fillers, they find a way to 

convert by-products into valuable materials and 

to naturally colourize the filaments, even though 

these compostable filaments could be colourized 

with vegetable or mineral pigments. 

These new home-compostable filaments open 

up the field of external applications for 3D printer 

owners with a sustainable management of the 

end-of-life. 

The NENU2PHAR project has received funding 

from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking 

(BBI-JU) under grant agreement No 887474. The 

JU receives support from the European Union’s 

Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 

and the Bio-Based Industries Consortium. AT 

https://www.elixbio.com/ 

https://nenu2phar.eu/ 

Home 

compostable 

3D printing 

filament 

Applications 


Application News 

Ballpoint pens 

Mitsubishi Chemical Corpora- tion (Tokyo, 

Japan) recently announced that their 

biobased engineering plastic DURABIO 

has been adopted as the main body part 

(rear shaft) of Pilot Corporation’s (Tokyo, 

Japan) ballpoint 

pen Acroball T Series 

Biomass Plastic and FRIXION Ball Knock 

05 Biomass Plastic. These products 

have been offered for sale by Pilot since 3 

February 

2022 (These products are currently 

only available for novelty items). 

Durabio is a biobased engineering plastic 

made from the renewable plant-derived 

raw material isosorbide, a highly durable 

material. In addition, the plastic can be applied 

to various design parts because it has excellent colour 

development during colouring and mouldability during 

processing. These excellent characteristics have been 

highly evaluated, which has led to its adoption. This is the 

first case for using Durabio in a stationery application. AT 

wwwmitsubishi-chemical.com 

www.pilot.co.jp 

Carbon negative 

composites 

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC, 

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) announced in February that Diamond 

Edge Ventures, Inc. (DEV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 

MCHC”) has invested in Lingrove, Inc. (San Francisco, 

California, USA). 

Lingrove – whose high-performance, carbon-negative 

composite technology can replace wood, high-pressure 

laminates, and plastics with its less expensive, cleanchemistry 

product Ekoa ® – has secured its Series A 

funding with lead investor Diamond Edge Ventures 

(DEV). 

Ekoa, developed from plant fiber, delivers a higher 

strength-to-weight ratio than steel. Ekoa is already 

being used to replace mainstream materials such as 

wood in musical instruments and designer furniture. 

Upcoming uses in late-stage testing include instrument 

consoles in electric vehicles, kitchen & bath products, 

and acoustic panels. Ekoa, with its extreme 

endurance, moldability, and 

general 

performance, 

provides a 

sustainable 

alternative to 

other composites 

and incumbent 

materials, with a 

luxurious and natural 

aesthetic.MT 

www.mitsubishichem-hd.co.jp/english 

www.diamondedgeventures.com 

https://lingrove.com 

Beauty joins 

PEFerence consortium 

Avantium (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), a leading 

technology company in renewable chemistry, announces 

that world luxury goods leader LVMH Group (Moët Hennessy 

Louis Vuitton – Paris, France) and Avantium have agreed 

to further explore the potential of Avantium’s 100 % plantbased, 

recyclable polymer PEF (polyethylene furanoate), 

as a sustainable packaging solution for LVMH beauty 

brands. To this end, LVMH Beauty will be the first luxury 

cosmetic company to join the PEFerence consortium, 

further enabling the commercial introduction of PEF to the 

Cosmetics market. 

The PEFerence consortium, coordinated by Avantium, 

aims to replace a significant share of fossil-based 

polyesters with the novel, sustainable polymer PEF. PEF 

is a plant-based, highly recyclable plastic, with superior 

performance properties compared to today’s widely 

used petroleum-based packaging materials. Joining the 

PEFerence consortium supports the ambitions of LVMH 

Group’s social and environmental strategy LIFE 360 (LVMH 

Initiative for the Environment), and the company’s target of 

zero plastic from virgin fossil feedstock. 

“LVMH Beauty is always looking for sustainable materials 

with superior performance for our luxury products as part of 

our sustainability strategy,” says Claude Martinez Executive 

President and Managing Director, Beauty Division of LVMH 

Group. “The environmental and performance features of 

PEF are unique and very promising to meet our sustainable 

packaging goals, which is why LVMH Beauty decided to 

join the PEFerence consortium. Together, with the other 

PEFerence consortium partners, we aim to shape this 

next-generation, fully circular and sustainable packaging 

material”. 

Avantium CEO Tom van Aken comments: “We are pleased 

with the decision of LVMH to join the PEFerence consortium, 

demonstrating the importance of our mutual work to develop 

packaging solutions for a circular and sustainable future. We 

look forward to continuing and expanding our collaboration 

with LVMH Beauty for many years to come”. AT 

www.lvmh.com | www.avantium.com 


Biomaterial pendant 

Visitors walking into New Zealand’s Expo Restaurant Tiaki in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) will be in awe of the David 

Trubridge pendant lights suspended above their heads – one of those being made from a shimmering biomaterial formulation 

developed by Crown research institute Scion (Rotorua, New Zealand). 

Showcasing New Zealand’s innovative and sustainable spirit, the Navicula pendant light features a composite of sustainable 

biobased plastics and native pāua shells developed by Scion scientists with a beautiful iridescent sparkle. 

The Navicula design is inspired by microscopic diatoms which live in water and produce 50 % of the oxygen in the air we 

breathe. Designer David Trubridge is a recognised leader in sustainable design for his high-end lighting that is produced with 

minimal environmental impact. 

“Scion havs been experimenting with New Zealand materials to make biomaterial colour. They’ve used kiwifruit to make 

green, harakeke (flax) to make brown, the pāua added more of a glitter effect”, Trubridge said. 

“I love the pāua navicula pendant light they developed because it’s different – the light shines through, the colour works well. 

The whole way along we said it’s important to get a texture, as we didn’t want it to 

have a glossy shine that made it look like plastic. Scion achieved a rough texture which is 

important – it works really well, it’s quite different to our plywood lights and I like that”. 

Scion’s biomaterials technology platform takes biomass fillers, such as sander dust, 

kiwifruit hair and skin, seashells, grape marc, harakeke, bark, or casein and combines 

them with biobased polymers. Compounding the filler with the polymer creates a 

biocomposite which is then extruded or reshaped into a new form that can be used. 

“As kaitiaki (guardians), New Zealanders believe we have a responsibility to leave 

the world in a better place for future generations – and we can see this in the shared 

sustainability ethos of the design companies”, said Scion Materials, Engineering 

and Manufacturing Research Group Leader Marie Joo Le 

Guen. 

Trubridge adds, “it’s wonderful to be part of New 

Zealand’s creative community on exhibit in Dubai – to be 

there telling the story of our land and our people”. MT 

youtu.be/6h8yD98dZP8 

Photo: Stephen Parker 

www.scionresearch.com | https://davidtrubridge.com/nz 


Wakeboards from bio-epoxy 

Sicomin Epoxy Systems (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, France), the leading formulator of high-performance epoxy resin 

systems and the market-leading GreenPoxy bio-resin range, announces its new collaboration with sports equipment giant 

Decathlon (Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France). 

Sicomin will supply its GreenPoxy 33 resin to produce Decathlon’s new JIB and BLOCK wakeboards that will be manufactured 

at Meditec, the specialist composite board manufacturer based in Tunisia (Mornaguia). 

With a desire to produce products that are as sustainable as possible, GreenPoxy 33 resins will contribute to Decathlon’s 

environmental mission, deriving 28 % of its carbon content from plant sources, whilst also providing high mechanical properties 

and exceptional clarity in the finished laminates. Formulated with rapid processing in mind, GreenPoxy 33 has been seamlessly 

integrated into Meditec’s manufacturing process, allowing it to match Decathlon’s production demand and keep cure cycles as 

short as 10 minutes at 100˚C. 

Meditec combines GreenPoxy 33 with Forest Stewardship 

Council ® (FSC) accredited wood cores, further increasing 

the percentage of responsibly sourced materials in the new 

Jib and Block boards. Both models have been designed for 

intermediate wakeboarders looking for a rigid yet flexible 

board to be used at cable parks or when towed. The Block 

model also features a unidirectional carbon strip on the lower 

part to further increase its pop on the water. 

Decathlon closely monitors all factors that contribute to the 

ecological impact of its products, including the supply chains 

and transport miles incurred by both raw materials and 

finished products. Sicomin’s manufacturing site in Southern 

France combined with Meditec’s location close to Europe near 

Tunis also provides a reliable and low mileage supply chain 

that avoids extended shipping from East Asia. AT 

www.sicomin.com | www.decathlon.com | 

www.meditec-sports.com 



Casio’s new PRO TREK with biomass plastics 

The new PRW-61 is the first Casio watch to be made with 

biomass plastics sourced from renewable organic substances. 

Casio Computer (Tokyo, Japan) recently 

announced the latest addition to the PRO 

TREK line of outdoor watches. Produced 

from regenerable resources, biomass 

plastics are attracting attention as a material 

that can help reduce environmental impact 

by curbing CO 2 

emissions. 

For the first time in any Casio watch, the 

PRW-61 uses biomass plastics in the case, 

band, and case back. The environmentally 

friendly biomass plastics are produced using 

materials derived from castor seeds and 

corn, as well as other raw materials. Casio is 

proud of this new material application for its line of outdoor 

tools, Pro Trek, for nature lovers. 

Delivering on outdoor utility, the model is equipped with 

Triple Sensor (digital compass, barometer/altimeter, and 

thermometer), as well as Multi-Band 6 radio wave reception 

from 6 transmission stations around the world, and Tough 

Solar to provide stable power for these 

functions and more. For optimum readability, 

the design features thick bar indexes to 

check time, direction, and other indicators at 

a glance, as well as slits on the band above 

and below the dial that serve as guides to 

quickly read the compass direction indicated 

by the second hand. 

As part of its focus on the Sustainable 

Development Goals, Casio is pursuing 

a number of environmentally friendly 

initiatives, including a shift from plastic to 

recycled paper in packaging for the PRW- 

61. Moving forward, Casio will also contribute to efforts to 

build a circular economy by expanding its use of sustainable 

materials in the design of other watch models, as well. AT 

https://world.casio.com 

Cellulose-based heat-sealed sandwich bags 

St1’s HelmiSimpukka (Helsinki, Finland), in collaboration with Woodly (Helsinki, Finland) and Amerplast (Tampere, Finland), 

launches the Woodly heat-sealed take-away bag. 

The heat-sealed bag is 100 % carbon-neutral and recyclable wood-based packaging material. Consumers will recognize the 

new packaging from the Woodly logo and the sandwiches can be found in all St1 HelmiSimpukka outlets in Finland. 

Recognized as one of the biggest companies in Finland, St1 and their HelmiSimpukka outlets are known for comprehensive 

services and delicious foods. With the new environmentally friendly packaging solution, St1 aims to reduce food waste, increase 

consumer recycling, and improve the quality and shelf life of products. 

“Sandwiches packaged in the Woodly heat-sealed take-away bags retain freshness even longer than those packaged in 

a traditional plastic bag, which supports our goal of reducing food waste. In addition, the Woodly heat-sealed bag is made 

of renewable material and is suitable for recycling, which is in line with our responsibility thinking”, says Emil Huttunen, 

Marketing and Concept Manager of the HelmiSimpukka chain. 

The Woodly heat-sealed bags are manufactured by Amerplast, a company with extensive experience in manufacturing flexible 

packaging and strong expertise in food industry 

requirements and packaging materials. 

For Woodly, the collaboration with St1 and 

Amerplast can lead to extraordinary results with 

hopes of many more to follow suit in packaging 

products more environmentally friendly. “The 

development of the bag solution together with 

the HelmiSimpukka restaurant chain and bag 

manufacturer Amerplast has been exciting and 

inspiring. We see a lot of new opportunities here to 

expand similar Woodly heat-sealed take away bag 

solutions to other product categories as well”, says 

Jaakko Kaminen, CEO of Woodly Oy. AT 

www.woodly.com 


Renewable, aesthetically pleasing, and reusable 

Sensibly sustainable packaging is becoming increasingly important for high-priced products such as cosmetics. In the past, it was 

enough to simply have a beautiful design, now aesthetics need to be combined with sustainability and functionality. If you want to be a 

packaging trailblazer in the luxury segment, you cannot afford to make any compromises when it comes to sustainability. Half-baked 

ideas that are not properly thought through and only do lip service to the goals of the circular economy don’t give any added value in the 

best of cases and are plain greenwashing in the worst. 

If you are planning on becoming a pioneer with your sustainable packaging, you should first turn to experienced specialists in the 

bioplastics industry. Product requirements, material pairings, and design must be perfectly coordinated. 

NaKu (Vienna, Austria) is such a specialist. In close cooperation with freemee cosmetics (Scharnstein, Austria) they created a reusable 

packaging made of wood and glass containing a replaceable cartridge made of bioplastic, which optimally protects biocosmetics and 

can be emptied completely. As the ideals of the circular economy stand front and centre, only materials such as glass, sustainably grown 

wood, and renewable and compostable plastics were allowed to be used. 

The luxury segment has particularly high requirements for simple and reliable usability. The product design does not only require the 

end product to be aesthetically appealing, all individual parts must be ideally matched to each other so that everything is properly sealed 

while being easy to use at the same time. This is a particularly difficult challenge with bioplastics, many are still new and experience in 

their use are scarce, thus less data for design and simulations are available. A lot has to be considered, tried, and tested. 

What is already a challenge with conventional plastic can be a “make or break” scenario for projects 

utilizing bioplastics. Anyone who succeeds in combining reusable, compostable, and renewable 

materials takes on a clear pioneering role in sustainable packaging. 

Currently, many recycling and collection systems are not yet prepared for the newly emerging 

circular economy, yet NaKu doesn’t want to wait for these systems to be in place. This is why the 

refillable cartridges are both industrially compostable and chemically recyclable. 

NaKu invites both cosmetic brand owners who are interested in this packaging for their cream 

products, as well as companies who need similar packaging for their products in the future. AT 

www.naku.at/naku-freemee-cosmetics 


10-12 May – Cologne, Germany 

renewable-materials.eu 

The stars of Renewable Materials meet in Cologne 

The unique concept of presenting all renewable material solutions at one event 

hits the mark: bio-based, CO2-based and recycled are the only alternatives to 

fossil-based chemicals and materials. Preliminary program available. 

First day 

• Bio- and CO2-based 

Refineries 

• Chemical Industry, 

New Refinery Concepts 

• Chemical Recycling 

Second day 

• Renewable Chemicals 

and Building Blocks 

• Renewable Polymers and 

Plastics – Technology 

and Markets 

• Fine Chemicals (parallel session) 

• Innovation Award 

Third day 

• Latest nova Research 

• The Policy & Brands View 

on Renewable Materials 

• Biodegradation 

• Renewable Plastics and 

Composites 

ORGANISED BY 

NOVA-INSTITUTE 

RENEWABLE 

MATERIAL 

OF THE 

YEAR 2022 

1 

INNOVATION AWARD 

Call for Innovation 

Vote for the Innovation 

Award “Renewable 

Material of the Year 2022” 

Organiser 

Premium 

Partner 

Innovation Award 

Sponsor 

Sponsors 


On-Site 

Tecnaro 

W 

e are sure that many of our readers know 

TECNARO or have at least heard about the 

company from Isfeld, Germany. Who does not 

know the term ‘liquid wood’? Who has never 

seen the picture of the famous loudspeaker 

housing? 

However, we wanted to know 

more about the roots, the current 

status, and the future prospects 

of the innovative company 

that develops and produces 

its own bioplastics and 

biocomposites based on 

renewable raw materials 

and markets them 

worldwide. That’s 

why we visited 

Tecnaro in mid- 

February. 

Gucci high heel 

It all started back 

in 1998 when Helmut 

Nägele and Jürgen Pfitzer founded Tecnaro 

as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Well, actually 

it started a little earlier… 

In 1996 the Technical Business Economist Jürgen Pfitzer 

and Chemical Engineer Helmut Nägele met for the first 

time at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology 

(ICT), Pfinztal, Germany, by now the largest Institute of the 

Fraunhofer Society. Initially, Helmut Nägele wanted to PhDresearch 

online measurement of polymer melts. But then 

the newly upcoming topic of polymers based on renewable 

resources fascinated him much more, so he changed his 

mind. Initiated by the Climate Conference in Rio de Janeiro 

1992, Pfitzer and Nägele started discussing ways to reduce 

CO 2 

. “Not so many in the broad public in those days thought 

that carbon dioxide would become a topic as significant as 

it is today”, Nägele commented. 

The development of 

the Aquasolv paper 

pulping process at 

the ICT opened the 

door for Pfitzer 

and Nägele’s 

activities. The 

Aquasolv process 

uses heat and 

water (steam) to 

obtain cellulose 

fibres from wood, 

with lignin as a 

by-product. A patent 

search didn’t show any 

significant results. So, the 

Binabo by Tic Toys 

two sat down in Pfitzer’s backyard 

over beer and barbeque and wrote down some 

20 patent drafts. This was then followed by lots of 

experiments. Systematically the two researched and 

developed the conversion of lignin into a product family that 

would later become known as Arboform ® or liquid wood. 

The lignin content can be from 30 up to 70 %. 

Until then, and still today in many 

cases, the by-product lignin is just 

burnt to exploit the energy. “And 

we do not take away the lignin 

from the energetic use”, as 

Jürgen Pfitzer emphasised, 

“we add just one more 

value-added step. At the 

very end of its lifetime, 

after reuse and recycling, 

the lignin-based plastic can 

still be incinerated, and the 

energy used”. 

So, the much-used saying 

among representatives of the 

pulp and paper industries “One 

can make anything from lignin 

except money” proved not to be 

true for Pfitzer and Nägele. 

Urn made of Arboform 

This was the basement for the foundation of Tecnaro 

GmbH, the name abbreviating the German words for 

Technology Renewable Resources. It was the declared 

philosophy of the Fraunhofer Society to allow inventors to 

exploit their inventions themselves, as so many inventions 

in the Society ended up unused. This allowed for a very 

smooth spin-off. In 1998 the two started their own business 

without any venture capital and left the Fraunhofer Institute 

another two years later. 

After the first few years as a young start-up company, the 

head office was moved from Pfinztal in Baden-Württemberg 

to the government-funded start-up and innovation centre of 

Eisenach/Stedtfeld in Thuringia (one of the then so-called 

New Federal States) in May 2000. 

As a result of constantly growing 

demand, particularly in southern 

Germany, Tecnaro returned from 

Thuringia to Baden-Württemberg 

in August 2006 and moved into 

larger premises for production 

as well as research and 

development at the Ilsfeld- 

Auenstein location. 

The first product Arboform 

provides very good dampening 

properties and proved to 

be a very good material for 

acoustic applications, such as 

loudspeaker housings, but also 

musical instruments like bass guitars, 

recorders (flutes). But also for other Loudspeaker housing 

applications where you want a high level 

of design freedom for wooden products Arboform is the 


By: Michael Thielen 

On-site 

ideal material. This also includes automotive interior 

parts, where real wood veneer can be back-injected with 

Arboform, allowing the production of rigid “all-wood” parts 

in almost any design. 

An interesting application from the early days is a 

biodegradable urn. “In many so-called Friedwälder 

(cemetery forests) all over Europe and beyond the Tecnaro 

urns are the only allowed products”, Jürgen Pfitzer 

explained. 

Over the years the product family of Arboform (injection 

mouldable lignin-based bioplastics Liquid Wood) which are 

100 % biobased and biodegradable has been extended with 

further products for many different applications. 

Combined with other ingredients, such as PLA, PHA, 

waxes, minerals, and many more, the product family of 

Arboblend ® was created and the addition of fibres and 

fillers led to the Arbofill ® products. 

Today the material database of Tecnaro comprises 

about 6,000 recipes for tailormade resins for a plethora of 

applications “from fibres and yarns through to thick-walled 

parts”, as Pfitzer pointed out. From hard to soft (TPE) 

almost anything can be realised. 40-50 different grades are 

always on stock for immediate delivery. 

One example is the Eco Pump of Sergio Rossi (Gucci). 

Here the heels are made of Arboform the inner sole made 

of a soft Arboblend and the outer sole of a rigid type. 

Since 2005 Tecnaro is also a supplier to the automotive 

industry. “It started with a really spectacular product”, 

Pfitzer proudly said. “It is a lost core for high-performance 

carbon-ceramic brakes of cars like Porsche, Bentley, 

Lamborghini, Formula-1 cars, and others.” And Helmut 

Nägele added: “Due to the complex shape and very narrow 

tolerances the manufacture of these lost cores, that were 

initially made of machined plywood was very costly”. 

Injection moulding with Arboform showed significant 

advantages and outperformed high-performance plastics 

tin-bismuth alloys while simultaneously being a lot cheaper. 

The biobased origin and biodegradability were certainly of 

lesser importance. For the automotive industry once again, 

performance and cost are the key factors. 

Other remarkable applications areas include homecompostable 

organic coffee capsules, growth covers 

biodegradable under forest conditions for microplastic-free 

reforestation, a complete biobased range of household goods 

ranges, and many more. The company delivers resins to all 

market areas, including household, medical applications, 

consumer electronics, textile, toys, and many more. “All 

except aerospace”, as Nägele pointed out. Tecnaro grades 

can be processed in injection moulding, blow moulding, 

thermoforming, film blowing, and 3D printing. 

Today, Tecnaro is a company with 40 employees working 

in 3 shifts 24/7 compounding on four production lines about 

16,000 tonnes of material annually. The offive, production 

and storage area was recently doubled to 5,000 m 2 . 

To the last question, as in many of our interviews: “What 

are you particularly proud of?” Helmut Nägele said: “We 

started in 1996 and wanted to contribute our share to 

make the world a better place. And we are still there. With 

the same management, the same shareholder structure 

without any venture capital we are a successful player and 

have so many ideas for the future”. Jürgen Pitzer added, 

“and in times where everyone suffers from supply chain 

issues we can proudly say ‘we can deliver’”. 

www.tecnaro.de 

From left: Helmut Nägele, Alex and Michael 

Thielen, Jürgen Pfitzer 

Jürgen Pfitzer explains the compounding line 

Alex Thielen is fascinated of the carbon-ceramic 

brake application 


Opinion 

About reducing the fossil fuel 

addiction via compostables 

From a historical perspective, it is quite remarkable to 

see how geopolitical events can have an unexpected 

influence on the way we deal with our materials. 

During the American civil war, around the 1860s, a company 

in billiard supplies, called Phelan and Collender, faced a 

serious shortage in their supply of ivory as a direct result 

of the war. The company offered a USD 10,000 award for 

anyone who could offer an alternative material for making 

billiard balls. It led to the development of a cellulose-based 

material called Parkesine, which is often seen as the 

world’s first (semi)synthetic material that was ever made. 

Wallace Carothers – a Harvard professor in organic 

chemistry – only joined Dupont after significant pressure, 

to then further investigate the concept of macromolecules 

in 1928, which was formulated by Staudinger in 1920. 

Carothers patented numerous materials like Nylon 

(polyamide), various polyesters (incl. PLA), and Neoprene 

(synthetic rubber). When the United States got involved in 

WW2 in 1941 there was an urgent demand for lightweight 

materials in planes. As Japan had occupied the countries 

holding natural rubber plantations, it was good to have 

synthetic alternatives available. Nylon – promoted originally 

as artificial silk for lady’s stockings – came in handy as an 

alternative for regular silk for parachutes, as Japan was 

also in control of the global silk market. 

In 1973 the Yom Kippur war led to an oil and energy crisis 

in various western countries, when Arab countries decided 

to cut supplies to countries, who had chosen to side with 

Israel in this conflict. It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the 

first materials where starch was combined with synthetic 

polymers appeared in the market in the mid 1970s. Initially, 

it was only a cheap filler to reduce crude oil dependency, but 

was soon linked to biodegradable materials, e.g. in mulch 

film applications. 

Even at the grand opening of NatureWorks’ PLA facility in 

Blair (USA) in 2002, one of the key-note speakers asked the 

audience if they “want their raw materials to come from the 

Midwest or the Middle East”, referring to the attacks of 11 th 

September 2001. 

The recent geopolitical developments have been putting 

pressure on the situation related to energy supply. If we 

want to have a situation in Western Europe where the gas 

supply is re-evaluated, the short-term solution will be in 

shifting energy sources, away from natural gas towards 

oil, coal, lignite, and even nuclear energy. The side effects 

that are likely to occur in such situations are often ignored. 

Uncertainties for the future may influence the stock market, 

inflation might rise (significantly), and interest rates are 

likely to go through the roof in the upcoming months as well 

– even if a peaceful settlement can be reached soon. 

Have we learnt nothing from the oil and energy crisis of 

1973? Unpredicted changes in the price and availability of 

crude oil and raw materials (like plastics) have been the 

start of a strong recession that lasted for almost a decade. 

Which in turn lead to high unemployment rates and strong 

increases in prices. Yet the consumption of energy and 

plastics did not change. There seems therefore to be a 

direct connection between economic growth (GDP) and the 

consumption of plastics. Before 1973 there was a direct 

correlation between energy use and the development of 

the GDP in Europe. After 1973 there was a clear separation 

visible, with a growth of the GDP and a diversification in 

energy supply. 

For around 30 years the bioplastic industry has been 

developing new materials and processes, especially in 

the area of compostable materials. Initially, the driving 

force (in the early 90s of the previous century) was linked 

to agriculture. Creating added value for farmers was the 

focus of almost all starch producing companies – only a 

few companies from that pioneering phase managed to 

make the translation from starch to the world of plastics 

and packaging. Since these days, the bioplastic industry 

has been sending out different signals to the industry. 

Environmental benefits had to be clarified, separate waste 

separation was promoted as an approach to reduce landfills, 

climate change was addressed, and being biobased received 

attention. We have seen various hypes like agrification, the 

cradle-to-cradle approach, and currently, we are in the 

middle of the circular economy mantra. 

The plastic industry has kept on growing, and as 

environmental impacts become more and more visible to the 

general public (like the Plastic Soup), the communication 

on plastic recycling has been intensified. Unfortunately, it 

becomes increasingly eminent that mechanical recycling is 

simply not the holy grail that the plastic industry and big 

brand owners are trying to make it out to be. The European 

Plastics Pact had the ambition that the industry would 

reduce the consumption of plastics and increase recycling. 

Ambitious targets and voluntary agreements have been 

presented to the general public. How close to achieving 

these targets are we, and is it even realistic that we will 

reach them at all? Consumption of plastic has increased 

instead of decreasing, and the use of recycled plastics in 

packaging is still at embarrassingly low levels compared 

to glass, metal, and paper. The industry is kicking the can 

down the road with a new magical solution called chemical 

recycling. The processes that are being investigated are 


Opinion 

(with the exception of chemical 

recycling of PLA) far more 

expensive than using virgin 

materials like PE or PP, can be 

quite energy-intensive, and are 

overall rather controversial. 

What is missing to reach the 

necessary transition is a proper 

driving force. For companies 

that are using regular plastics, 

making a shift is expensive 

and risky. And as long as 

consumers believe that there 

are realistic environmental 

solutions in place - which 

help to reduce their guilty conscience – it will be difficult 

to achieve breakthrough changes. Yes, some brands and 

retailers have made enormous propaganda for their green 

solutions, but if you look at the relative numbers they were 

rather homeopathic in nature. And many positive initiatives 

have been stopped as soon as the actual target, creating 

brand value and a positive image, was achieved. Multibillion 

companies have marketing departments that can 

easily spend large amounts of money on communication 

to influence public opinion. That is their job. But as soon 

as the shareholder value comes under pressure and the 

competition is not following, environmental aspirations are 

thrown out the window again – quietly. 

In this context, it is also interesting to analyse the waste 

processing companies. There is an overcapacity of waste 

incineration plants in various regions in Western Europe. 

Coincidence or not: these are also the regions with the 

highest resistance against the use of compostable materials. 

Waste incineration plants earn more money if they run at 

full capacity. Considering that a waste incineration plant 

costs around EUR 1 billion to build, with a technical life 

expectancy of at least 30 years, it is not surprising that 

such companies try to protect their shareholders’ value. 

Municipalities that have difficulties dealing with low budgets 

easily fall into the hands of a company with overcapacity in 

incineration. There is no proper environmental driving force 

to change the status quo that can compete with this strong 

financial motivation to make ends meet. 

What do the considerations as described above mean 

for the bioplastic industry? The recent geopolitical 

developments might be a breaking point. We cannot take 

cheap energy and oil supply for granted anymore and 

we might be forced to reconsider how we deal with our 

resources and waste. Most compostable plastics are 

Remy Jongboom 

Director Business Development & Product Innovation 

Biotec 

Emmerich, Germany 

(partially) biobased. Examples like 

PLA and PHA are 100 % biobased, and 

starch blends have increased their 

biobased share over the last 5 years 

from 25 % up to more than 60 %. A 

silent revolution or a rapid evolution? 

Biobased monomers like butanediol 

or succinic acid can be produced at 

competitive prices compared with 

their fossil-based alternatives. 

So far, mainly feedstocks like starch 

and sugar have been considered as 

primary sources. However, we could, or 

should, also consider other feedstock 

like side streams of the food processing 

industry. Even wastewater plants can 

be used to produce new raw materials like PHA. While 

technically possible, they were often too expensive in the 

reality of yesterday. Mainly due to the relatively low costs 

of fossil energy and its abundant supply. This has recently 

changed, and it is not clear yet if these days will ever 

come back again, for better or worse. Compost can help 

to improve the structure of the soil and contains a certain 

amount of nutrients. Using more compost not only has a 

climate-friendly carbon binding potential but also reduces 

the need for energy-intensive mineral fertilizers. And if 

renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy keep 

on increasing in importance, then the conversion of organic 

waste, including compostable plastics, towards biogas may 

help to secure our energy supply when the sun is not shining 

and the winds are not blowing. 

Hopefully, the acts of war in Ukraine will soon come to an 

end. And maybe in 5 or 10, years we will look back at the 

current events as the big catalyst that led to major changes 

in the Western World on how we will look at and deal with 

our resources and waste streams. The cleaner technologies 

are available and getting cheaper – lucrative opportunities 

that bring change are there, with environmental benefits as 

positive side effects. The driving force for change is a new 

and unpredictable one. Only the future will tell us if we will 

manage to maintain and improve our current standards 

of living and freedom even further, by kicking our fossil 

resources addiction. 

www.biotec.de 


Methodology 

Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance 

new guidance 

T 

he Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance, the World Wildlife 

Fund (WWF) (Gland, Switzerland) led initiative 

to advance thought leadership on responsible 

biobased plastic, released an updated methodology for 

guiding responsible sourcing decisions. 

Responsibly sourced biobased plastic is one of the many 

circularity solutions that WWF is championing in its pursuit 

of No Plastic in Nature by 2030. The global environmental 

NGO launched the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance (BFA) in 

2013 to advance thought leadership on biobased plastic’s 

role in creating a more sustainable and circular material 

system. The group’s focus has been on building the 

knowledge around the responsible sourcing of feedstocks, 

which are key to realizing biobased plastic’s potential for 

both people and planet. 

In this pursuit, the BFA convenes to address the significant 

gap in guidance for decision making regarding biobased 

plastic sourcing, including the crucial first step of assessing 

the risks and benefits of different feedstocks from different 

places. The BFA created this methodology, BFA Methodology 

for the Assessment of Bioplastic Feedstocks, to serve as 

a tool to start the journey to responsible sourcing and its 

environmental and social benefits. 

The methodology defines 13 indicators that users explore 

to build their understanding of the relative benefits, tradeoffs, 

and risks of different feedstocks. The 2022 update 

integrates the latest science and guidance into this existing 

framework, as well as simplifying the user experience. 

The BFA methodology serves as a guide to help companies 

and producers navigate complex decision-making based on 

consistent and comprehensive criteria. Further, it provides 

guidance and resources across a broad range of sourcing 

topics in one place, helping users build a comprehensive 

understanding across environmental and social indicators 

as well as identify what issues require further due diligence 

or external expertise. 

The goal is to ensure that bioplastic purchasers and 

producers are asking the important questions that ultimately 

drive the entire industry toward sourcing decisions that do 

more good, resulting in better environmental and social 

outcomes. 

As science in both the bioplastic and conservation spaces 

are constantly advancing, it is important to update this 

guide to reflect the latest thinking. 

Since the BFA methodology was first developed in 2014, 

new guidance has been developed by many organizations 

on a range of topics, including water stewardship, climate 

resilience and mitigation, land-use change, and food 

security. This 2022 update to the BFA methodology brings 

these learnings together to create a central point for the 

latest research and developments in conservation science 

related to biobased plastic. 

Here’s what’s new in the 2022 BFA Methodology for the 

Assessment of Bioplastic Feedstocks, and what it means 

for the industry: 

• Integrating a climate resilience lens across the 

methodology. To successfully integrate biobased plastics 

into the circular economy at scale, their production 

must support climate resilience at the landscape level. 

The methodology now includes guidance to help users 

understand this complex topic and how their decisions 

can affect landscape resilience. 

• Widening the lens to adapt to novel feedstocks. As 

feedstocks such as algae, residues from crop harvesting, 

tall oil, CO 2 

capture and utilization, and used cooking 

oil come to market, it is crucial that they are assessed 

against consistent criteria. In this update, content 

is adapted to account for the broad range of issues 

associated with the expanding categories of feedstock 

options. 

• Simplifying user experience. The 2022 update includes 

updated research guidance and resources to help users 

navigate this complex topic, find external expertise 

when needed, and prioritize specific issues for further 

investigation. An updated scoring system makes it 

simpler to understand and communicate results. 

Together, the suite of updates included in the 2022 

Methodology for the Assessment of Bioplastic Feedstocks 

combines the most up-to-date guidance from experts 

across a wide range of disciplines. The updated Methodology 

will guide producers and purchasers of biobased plastic 

towards decisions that support a more sustainable future. 

www.bioplasticfeedstockalliance.org 

Info: 

The new BFA guidance can be 

downloaded from 

https://tinyurl.com/wwf-bfa 

By 

Kori Goldberg 

Plastic Waste Specialist 

World Wildlife Fund US 

Washington, DC, USA 


Plastic or no plastic – 

that‘s the question 

By Michael Thielen 

Basics 

Initially announced as a Basics article, this turns out to be 

more an opinion article. However, this article shall serve 

as food for thought. I explicitly encourage stakeholders 

in this topic to share their opinion with us. Maybe we can 

publish a kind of “Pro – Con” article in one of the upcoming 

issues. 

The motivation for this article is the fact that we see an 

increasing number of publications and products on the 

market, stating their products made of biobased and/or 

biodegradable/compostable plastics were “plastic-free” or 

“no-plastic”. A plastic planet is even starting a discussion 

about what they call “Plastic Free Standards” [1]. This not 

only confuses experts and consumers alike – in my opinion 

,it is simply wrong. 

I’d like to start with my personal opinion or definition of 

what plastics and what polymers are. 

Polymers 

A polymer (from the Greek terms poly-, “many” and 

-mer, “part”) is a substance or material consisting of very 

large molecules, or macromolecules, composed of many 

repeating subunits [2]. Polymers can be polymerized 

industrially from monomers (such as combining ethylene 

(C 2 

H 4 

) to long chains (C 2 

H 4 

) n 

= polyethylene). But polymers 

also exit in natural substances, for example, cellulose, 

lignin, in the exoskeleton of crustaceans (chitin) and many 

more. 

Plastic 

Since polymers, as they come from the reactor (e.g. pure 

polyethylene), cannot be processed into useful everyday 

products by injection moulding, blow moulding, film 

blowing, etc, they need to be compounded, i.e. combined 

with additives. 

Bioplastic 

The same holds true for bioplastics (plastics that are 

made from renewable resources, that are biodegradable or 

that are both). Biobased polymers, whether they are, e.g. 

polymerized from monomers obtained from fermentation 

processes from sugar sources (e.g. lactic acid to polylactic 

acid PLA) or otherwise obtained from natural sources 

(PHAs being natural polymers in the body of certain 

bacteria, chitin/chitosan from crustaceans, or many other 

possible sources), need to be compounded before they can 

be processed. 

Bioplastics are plastics 

Bioplastics are plastics: Materials, compounded from 

polymers that can be processed into useful products. This 

is what all definitions of the plastic industry, the European 

Commission or the industry association European 

Bioplastics confirm. According to the REACH regulations, 

for example (Article 3(5) Regulation 1907/2006), “plastics are 

polymers that include various additives making it possible 

to obtain materials that can be cast, shaped, generally 

under heat and pressure, in order to obtain market-ready 

final articles”. 

So, if a manufacturer of biobased plastic products wants 

to make a claim, it should not say “plastic-free”, or “noplastic”. 

It should rather read “free from conventional 

plastic” or “free from fossil-based plastic” or “no petroleumbased 

plastic” or the like. 

Potential pitfalls 

Talking about “no-plastic” or “plastic-free” can be a pitfall 

when marketing products made of biobased plastics. The 

abovementioned REACH regulation also states that all 

so-called “bio-sourced” and/or “biodegradable” materials 

are included in this definition and regarded as plastics 

in the same way as all the others, often referred to as 

“conventional plastics”. 

The Single-Use Plastic (SUP) directive of the European 

Commission includes all plastics, under the meaning of 

the REACH definition, with no distinction, and hence de 

facto including biodegradable and/or bio-sourced plastics, 

irrespective of their means of biodegradation (compost, soil, 

river or seawater). I think we all agree that this directive 

is not a good directive. But this topic shall be discussed 

separately. 

Pro and Con 

So, what is your opinion? Plastic or no plastic? Please let 

us know. We’d like to publish different opinions on this in 

one of our next issues. 

Source: aplasticplanet.com/trust-marks/ 

Courtesy: Naku 


Brand Owner 

Brand-Owner’s perspective 

on bioplastics and how to 

unleash its full potential 

What does fischer as a brand owner expect from 

the bioplastics industry? 

Moving away from a finite resource such as oil towards a 

renewable and therefore infinite resource is precisely the right 

approach. We have the same quality requirements we have for 

conventional resources in this respect. In addition to this, we 

also ensure that raw materials don’t compete with main food 

crops and that they have a neutral impact on the environment. 

Providing transparent information on ingredients and 

manufacturing methods is also of key importance. As such, 

the material must meet high recyclability requirements. As 

part of our comprehensive approach, we also emphasise 

compliance with CSR standards ranging from mining to 

further processing and logistics. 

Christian Ziegler 

Head of Department 

Sustainability, Environment and Energy, 

fischer group 

What does fischer think the bioplastics industry 

needs to do? 

The production of bioplastics would need to be optimised 

to the point that sustainable raw materials are available at a 

similar price as conventional ones. Furthermore, sustainable 

resources should be competitive in terms of quality, availability 

,and planning security. 

Under what circumstances would fischer use 

(more) bioplastics, what are the requirements? 

If the quality requirements for bioplastics are similarly high 

as they are for conventional resources, then from this aspect 

nothing speaks against using them more frequently. And the 

price has to be right, too. The purchasing price for bioplastics 

must be at a similar level as regular plastics. At the moment, 

bioplastics tend to be significantly more expensive and 

sometimes aren’t available as required. 

What is fischer already doing in this respect? 

fischer is the world’s first manufacturer to produce 

plugs made of primarily renewable resources with its 

GreenLine, which was honoured with a Green Brand 

award last year. The award and its corresponding quality 

seal recognises brands with a proven commitment to 

climate conservation, sustainability, and ecological 

responsibility. The regenerative market share of 

GreenLine has been confirmed by an independent testing 

and certification body by DIN CERTCO / TÜV Rheinland. 

We are continuously raising awareness of these products 

among our staff and customers to reduce reservations 

or concerns and demonstrate the advantages. One of 

our advantages from a production point of view is that 

we can use our existing manufacturing processes and 

tools regardless of the respective raw materials. 

www.fischer.de 

Magnetic 

for Plastics 

www.plasticker.com 

• International Trade 

in Raw Materials, Machinery & Products Free of Charge. 

• Daily News 

from the Industrial Sector and the Plastics Markets. 

• Current Market Prices 

for Plastics. 

• Buyer’s Guide 

for Plastics & Additives, Machinery & Equipment, Subcontractors 

and Services. 

• Job Market 

for Specialists and Executive Staff in the Plastics Industry. 

Up-to-date • Fast • Professional 


10 

Years ago 

Cover Application Story News 

the stadium’s visible demonstration of environmental awareness 

as promoter of new and fair-play solutions: 

The PLA cups offer a simple way of contributing to more 

sustainable environmental performance. Their PR appeal can 

rise an increased media interest. For sponsoring or advertising 

companies the cups can be used to improve the corporate and 

brand image and can help to differ from competition. And finally 

cups made from PLA offer a possibility for single waste stream. 

Moreover, the PLA beer cups are compostable and certified in 

accordance with EN 13432, European norm for compostability of 

packaging, meaning that they degrade completely in industrial 

composting facilities. The options for disposal are plentiful: 

incineration with energy recovery, composting and recycling. Apart 

from that, Huhtamaki and stadium operators are jointly working 

on a promising ‘from cradle to cradle’ project, planning to build a 

closed recycled PLA material loop for stadiums and arenas. 

Huhtamaki was the first to launch a complete range of 

compostable tableware. The BioWare family was launched in 

2004 and is continuously developed with new products. BioWare 

products are available in Europe and Oceania. 

Huhtamaki has maintained the Pass status in the Kempen SNS 

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Universe since 2002. Only 

those European companies that meet or exceed the strict business 

ethical, social and environmental performance standards set by 

Kempen Capital Management and SNS Asset Management qualify 

for inclusion. 

www.huhtamaki.de/foodservice 

Cover Story 

Fair play commitment 

to environment 

Our cover photo protagonists 

and their friends enjoy beer 

from PLA cups 

Huhtamaki’s PLA beer cup assortment emerges 

as a clear winner in stadiums and arenas 

S 

ustainable packaging is quite a new addition to the environmental 

considerations for packaging. With eco-friendly 

PLA cold drink cups for the catering market, Huhtamaki has 

since several years been promoting this aspect. Recently, more and 

more organizers of big events and football (soccer) games in stadiums 

decided to join the ranks. 

In 2009, the first Premier League arenas in Germany together 

with several Second League stadiums pioneered the concept 

of using biodegradable NatureWorks ® PLA beer cups for their 

big events. These were the early birds in recognising not only 

the positively practical benefits of these products, but also their 

sustainable aspects: PLA is made from annually renewable 

resources, is compostable and thus can be disposed of completely 

naturally. Other stadiums as well as various breweries were quick 

to follow, and soon both operators and visitors appreciated the 

evident advantages of this environmental-friendly solution for 

cups. Single use cups offer guaranteed hygiene, as each guest gets 

a new cup. There is no need for dishwashing as for reusable cups. 

This saves labour time, water, heating energy and detergents. The 

lightweight PLA cups are safe, as they do not break nor splinter. 

The cups are light to carry and easy to handle and in addition allow 

a faster and more focused customer service. Last but not least, the 

possibility for customised printing offers additional promotional 

opportunities. 

In terms of sustainability, the concept offers far more. Belonging 

to Huhtamaki’s future friendly BioWare packaging portfolio, PLA 

beer cups together with molded fibre strongholders stand out as 

In March 2022, 

Hendrik Müller – General Manager 

Huhtamaki Foodservice Germany 

Sales GMBH & Co. KG 

Alf, Germany 

says: 

Packaging for good: for Huhtamaki it is 

not only an international slogan but also 

the demand to think ahead and to constantly 

develop. 10 years ago Huhtamaki 

had already outgrown its infancy in the 

field of disposable cups/products made of PLA 

and the raw material developed into a real alternative 

to oil-based plastics in the field of packaging 

and still is today. 

Huhtamaki in Alf played a pioneering role in 

terms of further developing the processability of 

PLA in the thermoforming process. Today, many 

different industries and production processes 

use the same sources of raw materials as we 

do because they too have recognized the advantages 

of PLA. In this market, in particular, 

tact and flexibility are currently 

in demand. Plastic packaging 

is a hotly debated topic, plastic 

and disposable bans in certain 

areas of application put crisis 

security to the test. Unfortunately, 

European legislation 

has (almost) completely 

disregarded the undisputed 

benefits of biobased plastics 

when formulating the SUPD, 

which has pushed the materials’ 

advantages for use in 

service packaging more and 

more into the background. 

Personally, I believe that 

the potential and importance 

of PLA will continue 

to grow. This will certainly 

soon be supported by the 

possibility of resource-saving, 

chemical recycling. It 

remains to be seen whether 

this will be in time for 

our applications, but we in 

Alf are proud of the contribution 

we were allowed 

to make to the PLA success 

story and we still 

are today. 

www.foodservice.huhtamaki.de 

bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/12] Vol. 7 17 

https://tinyurl.com/2012-PLA-cups 

16 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/12] Vol. 7 


1. Raw materials 

Suppliers Guide 

AGRANA Starch 

Bioplastics 

Conrathstraße 7 

A-3950 Gmuend, Austria 

bioplastics.starch@agrana.com 

www.agrana.com 

Xinjiang Blue Ridge Tunhe 

Polyester Co., Ltd. 

No. 316, South Beijing Rd. Changji, 

Xinjiang, 831100, P.R.China 

Tel.: +86 994 22 90 90 9 

Mob: +86 187 99 283 100 

chenjianhui@lanshantunhe.com 

www.lanshantunhe.com 

PBAT & PBS resin supplier 

Kingfa Sci. & Tech. Co., Ltd. 

No.33 Kefeng Rd, Sc. City, Guangzhou 

Hi-Tech Ind. Development Zone, 

Guangdong, P.R. China. 510663 

Tel: +86 (0)20 6622 1696 

info@ecopond.com.cn 

www.kingfa.com 

BASF SE 

Ludwigshafen, Germany 

Tel: +49 621 60-99951 

martin.bussmann@basf.com 

www.ecovio.com 

Mixcycling Srl 

Via dell‘Innovazione, 2 

36042 Breganze (VI), Italy 

Phone: +39 04451911890 

info@mixcycling.it 

www.mixcycling.it 

FKuR Kunststoff GmbH 

Siemensring 79 

D - 47 877 Willich 

Tel. +49 2154 9251-0 

Tel.: +49 2154 9251-51 

sales@fkur.com 

www.fkur.com 

Simply contact: 

Tel.: +49 2161 6884467 

suppguide@bioplasticsmagazine.com 

Stay permanently listed in the 

Suppliers Guide with your company 

logo and contact information. 

For only 6,– EUR per mm, per issue you 

can be listed among top suppliers in the 

field of bioplastics. 

Gianeco S.r.l. 

Via Magenta 57 10128 Torino - Italy 

Tel.+390119370420 

info@gianeco.com 

www.gianeco.com 

Xiamen Changsu Industrial Co., Ltd 

Tel +86-592-6899303 

Mobile:+ 86 185 5920 1506 

Email: andy@chang-su.com.cn 

1.1 Biobased monomers 

1.2 Compounds 

GRAFE-Group 

Waldecker Straße 21, 

99444 Blankenhain, Germany 

Tel. +49 36459 45 0 

www.grafe.com 

39 mm 

For Example: 

Polymedia Publisher GmbH 

Dammer Str. 112 

41066 Mönchengladbach 

Germany 

Tel. +49 2161 664864 

Fax +49 2161 631045 

info@bioplasticsmagazine.com 


Sample Charge: 

39mm x 6,00 € 

= 234,00 € per entry/per issue 

Sample Charge for one year: 

6 issues x 234,00 EUR = 1,404.00 € 

The entry in our Suppliers Guide is 

bookable for one year (6 issues) and extends 

automatically if it’s not cancelled 

three month before expiry. 

PTT MCC Biochem Co., Ltd. 

info@pttmcc.com / www.pttmcc.com 

Tel: +66(0) 2 140-3563 

MCPP Germany GmbH 

+49 (0) 211 520 54 662 

Julian.Schmeling@mcpp-europe.com 

MCPP France SAS 

+33 (0)2 51 65 71 43 

fabien.resweber@mcpp-europe.com 

Microtec Srl 

Via Po’, 53/55 

30030, Mellaredo di Pianiga (VE), 

Italy 

Tel.: +39 041 5190621 

Fax.: +39 041 5194765 

info@microtecsrl.com 

www.biocomp.it 

Earth Renewable Technologies BR 

Estr. Velha do Barigui 10511, Brazil 

slink@earthrenewable.com 

www.earthrenewable.com 

Trinseo 

1000 Chesterbrook Blvd. Suite 300 

Berwyn, PA 19312 

+1 855 8746736 

www.trinseo.com 

BIO-FED 

Branch of AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH 

BioCampus Cologne 

Nattermannallee 1 

50829 Cologne, Germany 

Tel.: +49 221 88 88 94-00 

info@bio-fed.com 

www.bio-fed.com 

Green Dot Bioplastics 

527 Commercial St Suite 310 

Emporia, KS 66801 

Tel.: +1 620-273-8919 

info@greendotbioplastics.com 

www.greendotbioplastics.com 

Plásticos Compuestos S.A. 

C/ Basters 15 

08184 Palau Solità i Plegamans 

Barcelona, Spain 

Tel. +34 93 863 96 70 

info@kompuestos.com 


NUREL Engineering Polymers 

Ctra. Barcelona, km 329 

50016 Zaragoza, Spain 

Tel: +34 976 465 579 

inzea@samca.com 

www.inzea-biopolymers.com 

www.facebook.com 

www.issuu.com 

www.twitter.com 

www.youtube.com 

Tel: +86 351-8689356 

Fax: +86 351-8689718 

www.jinhuizhaolong.com 

ecoworldsales@jinhuigroup.com 

Global Biopolymers Co., Ltd. 

Bioplastics compounds 

(PLA+starch, PLA+rubber) 

194 Lardproa80 yak 14 

Wangthonglang, Bangkok 

Thailand 10310 

info@globalbiopolymers.com 

www.globalbiopolymers.com 

Tel +66 81 9150446 

a brand of 

Helian Polymers BV 

Bremweg 7 

5951 DK Belfeld 

The Netherlands 

Tel. +31 77 398 09 09 

sales@helianpolymers.com 

https://pharadox.com 


1.5 PHA 

3. Semi-finished products 

Sukano AG 

Chaltenbodenstraße 23 

CH-8834 Schindellegi 

Tel. +41 44 787 57 77 

Fax +41 44 787 57 78 


Biofibre GmbH 

Member of Steinl Group 

Sonnenring 35 

D-84032 Altdorf 

Fon: +49 (0)871 308-0 

Fax: +49 (0)871 308-183 

info@biofibre.de 

www.biofibre.de 

Zhejiang Hisun Biomaterials Co.,Ltd. 

No.97 Waisha Rd, Jiaojiang District, 

Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, China 

Tel: +86-576-88827723 

pla@hisunpharm.com 

www.hisunplas.com 

ECO-GEHR PLA-HI® 

- Sheets 2 /3 /4 mm – 1 x 2 m - 

GEHR GmbH 

Mannheim / Germany 

Tel: +49-621-8789-127 

laudenklos@gehr.de 

www.gehr.de 

1.4 Starch-based bioplastics 

Kaneka Belgium N.V. 

Nijverheidsstraat 16 

2260 Westerlo-Oevel, Belgium 

Tel: +32 (0)14 25 78 36 

Fax: +32 (0)14 25 78 81 

info.biopolymer@kaneka.be 

TianAn Biopolymer 

No. 68 Dagang 6th Rd, 

Beilun, Ningbo, China, 315800 

Tel. +86-57 48 68 62 50 2 

Fax +86-57 48 68 77 98 0 

enquiry@tianan-enmat.com 

www.tianan-enmat.com 

1.6 Masterbatches 

3.1 Sheets 

Customised Sheet Xtrusion 

James Wattstraat 5 

7442 DC Nijverdal 


+31 (548) 626 111 

info@csx-nijverdal.nl 

www.csx-nijverdal.nl 

4. Bioplastics products 

Bio4Pack GmbH 

Marie-Curie-Straße 5 

48529 Nordhorn, Germany 

Tel. +49 (0)5921 818 37 00 

info@bio4pack.com 

www.bio4pack.com 


Natureplast – Biopolynov 

11 rue François Arago 

14123 IFS 

Tel: +33 (0)2 31 83 50 87 

www.natureplast.eu 

TECNARO GmbH 

Bustadt 40 

D-74360 Ilsfeld. Germany 

Tel: +49 (0)7062/97687-0 

www.tecnaro.de 

P O L i M E R 

GEMA POLIMER A.S. 

Ege Serbest Bolgesi, Koru Sk., 

No.12, Gaziemir, Izmir 35410, 

Turkey 

+90 (232) 251 5041 

info@gemapolimer.com 

http://www.gemabio.com 

eli 

bio 

Elixance 

Tel +33 (0) 2 23 10 16 17 

Tel PA du +33 Gohélis, (0)2 56250 23 Elven, 10 16 France 17 - elixbio@elixbio.com 

elixbio@elixbio.com/www.elixbio.com 

www.elixance.com - www.elixbio.com 

1.3 PLA 

TotalEnergies Corbion bv 

Stadhuisplein 70 

4203 NS Gorinchem 


Tel.: +31 183 695 695 

www.totalenergies-corbion.com 

pla@total-corbion.com 

BIOTEC 

Biologische Naturverpackungen 

Werner-Heisenberg-Strasse 32 

46446 Emmerich/Germany 

Tel.: +49 (0) 2822 – 92510 

info@biotec.de 

www.biotec.de 

Plásticos Compuestos S.A. 

C/ Basters 15 

08184 Palau Solità i Plegamans 

Barcelona, Spain 

Tel. +34 93 863 96 70 

info@kompuestos.com 


Sunar NP Biopolymers 

Turhan Cemat Beriker Bulvarı 

Yolgecen Mah. No: 565 01355 

Seyhan /Adana,TÜRKIYE 

info@sunarnp.com 

burc.oker@sunarnp.com.tr 

www. sunarnp.com 

Tel: +90 (322) 441 01 65 

UNITED BIOPOLYMERS S.A. 

Parque Industrial e Empresarial 

da Figueira da Foz 

Praça das Oliveiras, Lote 126 

3090-451 Figueira da Foz – Portugal 

Phone: +351 233 403 420 

info@unitedbiopolymers.com 

www.unitedbiopolymers.com 

GRAFE-Group 



Tel. +49 36459 45 0 

www.grafe.com 

Albrecht Dinkelaker 

Polymer- and Product Development 

Talstrasse 83 

60437 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 

Tel.:+49 (0)69 76 89 39 10 

info@polyfea2.de 

www.caprowax-p.eu 

Treffert GmbH & Co. KG 

In der Weide 17 

55411 Bingen am Rhein; Germany 

+49 6721 403 0 

www.treffert.eu 

Treffert S.A.S. 

Rue de la Jontière 

57255 Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes, 

France 

+33 3 87 31 84 84 

www.treffert.fr 

www.granula.eu 

2. Additives/Secondary raw materials 

Plant-based and Compostable PLA Cups and Lids 

Great River Plastic Manufacturer 

Company Limited 

Tel.: +852 95880794 

sam@shprema.com 

https://eco-greatriver.com/ 

Minima Technology Co., Ltd. 

Esmy Huang, Vice president 

Yunlin, Taiwan(R.O.C) 

Mobile: (886) 0-982 829988 

Email: esmy@minima-tech.com 

Website: www.minima.com 

w OEM/ODM (B2B) 

w Direct Supply Branding (B2C) 

w Total Solution/Turnkey Project 

Naturabiomat 

AT: office@naturabiomat.at 

DE: office@naturabiomat.de 

NO: post@naturabiomat.no 

FI: info@naturabiomat.fi 

www.naturabiomat.com 

Natur-Tec ® - Northern Technologies 

4201 Woodland Road 

Circle Pines, MN 55014 USA 

Tel. +1 763.404.8700 

Fax +1 763.225.6645 

info@natur-tec.com 

www.natur-tec.com 

GRAFE-Group 



Tel. +49 36459 45 0 

www.grafe.com 


9. Services 

10. Institutions 

10.1 Associations 


NOVAMONT S.p.A. 

Via Fauser , 8 

28100 Novara - ITALIA 

Fax +39.0321.699.601 

Tel. +39.0321.699.611 

www.novamont.com6. Equipment 

6.1 Machinery & moulds 

Buss AG 

Hohenrainstrasse 10 

4133 Pratteln / Switzerland 

Tel.: +41 61 825 66 00 

Fax: +41 61 825 68 58 

info@busscorp.com 

www.busscorp.com 

6.2 Degradability Analyzer 

MODA: Biodegradability Analyzer 

SAIDA FDS INC. 

143-10 Isshiki, Yaizu, 

Shizuoka,Japan 

Tel:+81-54-624-6155 

Fax: +81-54-623-8623 

info_fds@saidagroup.jp 

www.saidagroup.jp/fds_en/ 

7. Plant engineering 

Osterfelder Str. 3 

46047 Oberhausen 

Tel.: +49 (0)208 8598 1227 

thomas.wodke@umsicht.fhg.de 

www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de 

Innovation Consulting Harald Kaeb 

narocon 

Dr. Harald Kaeb 

Tel.: +49 30-28096930 

kaeb@narocon.de 

www.narocon.de 

nova-Institut GmbH 

Chemiepark Knapsack 

Industriestrasse 300 

50354 Huerth, Germany 

Tel.: +49(0)2233-48-14 40 

E-Mail: contact@nova-institut.de 

www.biobased.eu 

Bioplastics Consulting 

Tel. +49 2161 664864 

info@polymediaconsult.com 

BPI - The Biodegradable 

Products Institute 

331 West 57th Street, Suite 415 

New York, NY 10019, USA 

Tel. +1-888-274-5646 

info@bpiworld.org 

European Bioplastics e.V. 

Marienstr. 19/20 

10117 Berlin, Germany 

Tel. +49 30 284 82 350 

Fax +49 30 284 84 359 

info@european-bioplastics.org 

www.european-bioplastics.org 

10.2 Universities 

Institut für Kunststofftechnik 

Universität Stuttgart 

Böblinger Straße 70 

70199 Stuttgart 

Tel +49 711/685-62831 

silvia.kliem@ikt.uni-stuttgart.de 

www.ikt.uni-stuttgart.de 

IfBB – Institute for Bioplastics 

and Biocomposites 

University of Applied Sciences 

and Arts Hanover 

Faculty II – Mechanical and 

Bioprocess Engineering 

Heisterbergallee 12 

30453 Hannover, Germany 

Tel.: +49 5 11 / 92 96 - 22 69 

Fax: +49 5 11 / 92 96 - 99 - 22 69 

lisa.mundzeck@hs-hannover.de 

www.ifbb-hannover.de/ 

10.3 Other institutions 

GO!PHA 

Rick Passenier 

Oudebrugsteeg 9 

1012JN Amsterdam 


info@gopha.org 

www.gopha.org 

Green Serendipity 

Caroli Buitenhuis 

IJburglaan 836 

1087 EM Amsterdam 


Tel.: +31 6-24216733 

www.greenseredipity.nl 

EREMA Engineering Recycling 

Maschinen und Anlagen GmbH 

Unterfeldstrasse 3 

4052 Ansfelden, AUSTRIA 

Phone: +43 (0) 732 / 3190-0 

Fax: +43 (0) 732 / 3190-23 

erema@erema.at 

www.erema.at 

Michigan State University 

Dept. of Chem. Eng & Mat. Sc. 

Professor Ramani Narayan 

East Lansing MI 48824, USA 

Tel. +1 517 719 7163 

narayan@msu.edu 

Our new 

frame 

colours 

Bioplastics related topics, i.e. 

all topics around biobased 

and biodegradable plastics, 

come in the familiar 

green frame. 

All topics related to 

Advanced Recycling, such 

as chemical recycling 

or enzymatic degradation 

of mixed waste into building 

blocks for new plastics have 

this turquoise coloured 

frame. 

When it comes to plastics 

made of any kind of carbon 

source associated with 

Carbon Capture & Utilisation 

we use this frame colour. 

The familiar blue 

frame stands for rather 

administrative sections, 

such as the table of 

contents or the “Dear 

readers” on page 3. 

If a topic belongs to more 

than one group, we use 

crosshatched frames. 

Ochre/green stands for 

Carbon Capture & 

Bioplastics, e. g. PHA made 

from methane. 

Articles covering Recycling 

and Bioplastics ... 

Recycling & Carbon Capture 

We’re sure, you got it! 

As you may have already noticed, we are expanding our scope of topics. With the main target in focus – getting away from fossil resources – we are strongly 

supporting the idea of Renewable Carbon. So, in addition to our traditional bioplastics topics, about biobased and biodegradable plastics, we also started covering 

topics from the fields of Carbon Capture and Utilisation as well as Advanced Recycling. 

To better differentiate the different overarching topics in the magazine, we modified our layout. 


24/01/20 10:26 

r1_01.2020 


Subscribe 

now at 

bioplasticsmagazine.com 

the next six issues for €179.– 1) 

Special offer 

for students and 

young professionals 

1,2) € 99.- 

2) aged 35 and below. 

Send a scan of your 

student card, your ID 

or similar proof. 

Event Calendar 

Rethinking Materials 

04.05. - 05.05.2022 - London, UK 

https://rethinkingmaterials.com/register 

The Renewable Materials Conference 

10.05. - 12.05.2022 - Cologne, Germany 

https://renewable-materials.eu/ 


by bioplastics MAGAZINE 

24.05. - 25.05.2022 -Munich, Germany 


2nd Annual Bioplastics Innovation Forum 

09.06. - 10.06.2022 - Praque, Czech Republic 

www.interfoam.cn/en 

Interfoam 2022 

15.06. - 17.06.2022 - Shanghai, China 

www.interfoam.cn/en 

Plastics for Cleaner Planet - Conference 

26.06. - 28.06.2022 - New York City Area, USA 

https://innoplastsolutions.com/conference 

You can meet us 

Events 

daily updated eventcalendar at 


Bioplastix India 

29.07. - 30.07.2022 - Bangalore, India 

https://bioplastex.com/ 

W.MATERBI.COM 




Basics 



Jan/Feb 01 / 2022 

Highlights 



ISSN 1862-5258 March/April 


Vol. 17 



bioplastics MAGAZINE 

2007 

Highlights 

Automotive | 18 

Foam | 36 

Basics 

Biodegradation | 50 

rancia_bioplasticmagazine_01_02.2020_210x297.indd 1 24/01/20 10:26 


. is read in 92 countries 

ISSN 1862-5258 

Subject to changes. 

For up to date event-info visit https://www.bioplasticsmagazine.com/en/event-calendar/ 

+ 

or 

Use the promotion code ‘watch‘ or ‘book‘ 

and you will get our watch or the book 3) 

Bioplastics Basics. Applications. Markets. for free 

(new subscribers only). 

1) Offer valid until 31 May 2022. 

3) Gratis-Buch in Deutschland leider nicht möglich (Buchpreisbindung). 

Watch as long as supply lasts. 


Companies in this issue 

Company Editorial Advert Company Editorial Advert Company Editorial Advert 

ADEME 17 

Gema Polimers 51 Oak Ridge National Lab 16 

adidas 14 

Genomatica 32 

Oerlikon Textile 14 

Adsale 5 25 Ghent University 13 

Organic Waste Systems (OWS) 12 

Agrana Starch Bioplastics 50 Gianeco 50 Pack4Food 13 

Amerplast 41 

Global Biopolymers 10 50 PARP 21 

Avantium 38 

GO!PHA 8 52 PepsiCo 22 

BASF 18 50 Grafe 50,51 Phelan and Collender 44 

Bemis Associates 19 

Granula 51 Pilot Corporation 38 

Bentley 43 

Great River Plastic Manuf. 51 plasticker 48 

Bio4Pack 10 51 Green Dot Bioplastics 50 Polish Academy of Science 20 

Bio-Fed Branch of Akro-Plastic 50 Green Serendipity 13 52 PolyFerm 5 

Biofibre 51 GREENFILL3D 20, 21 

polymediaconsult 52 

Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance 46 

Gucci 43 

Porsche 43 

bioplastics MAGAZINE 6, 10, 11, 13, 22 

Helian Polymers 50 PTT/MCC 50 

Biotec 10, 12, 45 51,55 Huntsman 5 

RMIT University 28 

BMBF 15 

Inst. F. Bioplastics & Biocomposites 52 Rodenburg Biopolymers 13 

Borealis 8 

Institut f. Kunststofftechnik, Stuttgart 52 Institute für Textiltechnik (RWTH) 14, 15 

BPI 52 JinHui ZhaoLong High Technology 50 Saida 52 

Buss 21,52 K fair 5 

Schill+Seilacher 14 

CABAMIX 30 

Kaneka 51 Scion 39 

CAPROWAX P 36 51 Keen 5 

Shenzhen Esun Industrial 10 

Carbios 17 

Kingfa 50 Sicomin Epoxy Systems 39 

Carbon Minds 14 

Kompuestos 10, 33 50,51 SOSV 19 

carbonauten 26,27 

Lamborghini 43 

Sphera 8 

Casio Computer 40 

LanzaTech 16 

St1’s HelmiSimpukka 40 

Centexbel 10 

Lingrove 38 

Sukano 31 23,51 

Chanel 13 

Lubella 21 

Sulapac 12 

CHINAPLAS 5 25 LVMH Group 38 

Sulzer 6 

Clariant 24 

MASPEX 20, 21 

TECNARO 42, 43 51 

Covestro 14, 32 

McDonald's 22 

TerraVerdae Bioworks 5 

Croda Smart Materials 34, 35 

medi 14 

TianAn Biopolymer 51 

Customized Sheet Extrusion 51 Meditec, 39 

Tic Toys 42 

Decathlon 39 

Mercedes Benz 22 

TIME Ventures 19 

Diamond Edge Ventures 38 

Michigan State University 52 TNO 12 

Dr. Heinz Gupta Verlag 15 Microtec 50 TotalEnergies Corbion 8, 10 51 

Dupont 44 

Minima Technology 51 Toulouse White Biotechnology 17 

Earth Renewable Technologies 50 Mistletoe 19 

Toyota Tsusho Corporation 6 

Ekornes 18 

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation 6, 38 

Treffert 51 

Elixance 37 51 Mixcycling 50 Trinseo 50 

Envisioning Partners 19 

NaKu 13, 41 

UBQ 22, 23 

Erema 52 Nanovia 37 

Uhde Inventa-Fischer 10 

European Bioplastics (EUBP) 6, 10, 31 52 narocon InnovationConsulting 52 United Biopolymers 51 

Filaticum 10 

Naturabiomat 51 Univ. Stuttgart (IKT) 52 

fischer group 48 

Natureplast-Biopolynov 51 Valo Ventures 19 

FKuR 10 2,5 NatureWorks 12, 44 

VARTDAL PLAST 18 

Floreon / Clariant 10 

Natur-Tec 51 W. Zimmermann 14 

Fraunhofer ICT 10, 42 

Neste 8 

WHO 5 

Fraunhofer IVV 10 

Northwestern University 16 

Woodly 41 

Fraunhofer UMSICHT 52 nova-institute 8 9,41,52 World Wildlife Fund 46 

freemee cosmetics 41 

Novamont 52,56 Xiamen Changsu Industries 50 

Galactic 10 

Novoloop 19 

Xinjiang Blue Ridge Tunhe Polyester 50 

Gehr 51 Nurel 50 Yangzhou Huitong Biological New Material 6 

Zeijiang Hisun Biomaterials 51 

Next issues 

Issue 

Month 

Publ. 

Date 

edit/ad/ 

Deadline 

Edit. Focus 1 Edit. Focus 2 Basics 

03/2022 May/Jun 07.06.2022 06.05.2022 Injection moulding Beauty & 

Healthcare 

04/2022 Jul/Aug 01.08.2022 01.07.2022 Blow Moulding Polyurethanes/ 

Elastomers/Rubber 

05/2022 Sep/Oct 04.10.2022 02.09.2022 Fiber / Textile / 

Nonwoven 

06/2022 Nov/Dec 05.12.2022 04.11.2022 Films/Flexibles/ 

Bags 

Building & 

Construction 

Consumer 

Electronics 

Biocompatability of PHA 

FDCA and PEF 

Feedstocks, different 

generations 

Chemical recycling 

Trade-Fair 

Specials 

Chinaplas Review 

K'2022 Preview 

K'2022 Review 

Subject to changes 


SMART 

SOLUTIONS 

FOR 

EVERYDAY 

PRODUCTS 

• Food contact grade 

• Odourless 

• Plasticizer free 

• Home and industrial 

compostable 

100% 

compostable 

(according to EN 13432)

WWW.MATERBI.COM 


EcoComunicazione.it 

r1_01.2020

issue 02/2022

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?