Issue 07/2022 Special Edition

ioplastics MAGAZINE Vol. 17
Bioplastics - CO 2 -based Plastics - Advanced Recycling
Special Edition
Carbon
Capture
Utilisation
Advanced
Recycling
Special Edition No. 1

Since starting the journey to opening up the range of topics
bioplastics MAGAZINE has historically covered, we have been considering
publishing a special edition issue focusing exclusively on the newly added
topics of Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU) and Advanced Recycling.
And oh boy did we underestimate how many articles we already had in the
last two years in these topical areas. We have classical categories, like
Automotive, Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens, or Blow Moulding – and newer
topics, like Feedstock or Technology. The latter of these two focuses on
new, and in some cases not-so-new, advanced recycling technologies.
The biggest category in this issue is From Science & Research, which
also shows how much is still being developed, optimised, and tinkered
with – but also how much interest these fields enjoy.
There is much to explore and read in this quite massive special edition
of bioplastics MAGAZINE, there are Reports and Opinion pieces, Basics
articles and even a bioplastics MAGAZINE classic, 10 Years Ago. The sheer
amount of content that CCU and Advanced Recycling have to offer may
lead to us making these special editions more often – but that is a
consideration for another time.
In any case, the timing for this special edition could not be better with
the K’2022 right around the corner and lots of (hopefully) innovative
solutions to tackle the plastics crises (feedstock and end-of-life) on
the horizon. Be it biobased or CO 2
-based, biodegradable or (advanced)
recycled, new solutions need to be pushed – the days of fossil-based
plastics are numbered.
dear
readers
bioplastics MAGAZINE Vol. 17
Bioplastics - CO 2-based Plastics - Advanced Recycling
Editorial
Highlights
Fibre / Textile / Nonwoven | 10
Building & Construction | 20
Basics
Feedstocks, different generations | 56
... is read in 92 countries
ISSN 1862-5258 Sep/Oct 05 / 2022
I hope you enjoy this special edition of bioplastics MAGAZINE just as much as
our regular issues, even if the focus this time is not on “bio” – or perhaps you
enjoy this change of pace even more than the “regular flavour”.
Sincerely yours
Follow us on twitter!
www.twitter.com/bioplasticsmag
Like us on Facebook!
www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine
3

Imprint
Content
34 Porsche launches cars with biocomposites
Automotive
10 Strategic Partnership
11 Luca
12 Car headliner from plastic waste and old tyres
From Science & Research
13 Clean-up ships fuelled by garbage
14 Closing the Circle
17 A change of tune for the chemical industry
18 The polymer of squares
20 Microalgae to PHB
22 Turning CO 2
emissions into bioplastics
25 Engineered bacteria
26 Print, recycle, repeat – biodegradable, printed
circuits
Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
28 From cotton rag to modern functional textiles
29 Enzymatic degradation of used textiles for
biological textile recycling
30 First fabric created using recycled carbon
emissions
31 Enzymatic recycling technology for textile
circularity
32 Upcycling process for PAN from textile waste
Feedstock
33 Biogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2
) for plastic
production
34 The future of Japan’s waste
Application
36 Zero Compromise? Beautiful.
37 Protective furniture packaging from pyrolysis oil
Blow Moulding
38 R-Cycle optimizes recycling
40 First PET bottles from enzymatically recycled
textile waste
41 The world’s first HDPE Milk Bottles from
advanced recycling
Polyurethanes
42 Climate-friendly polyols and polyurethanes from
CO 2
and clean hydrogen
44 Chemical recycling of polyurethane
45 Biobased or renewable carbon based coatings
46 Mattress recycling now a reality
48 Melt spinning of CO 2
-based thermoplastic
polyurethanes
50 Converting plastic waste into performance
products
3 Editorial
6 Shorts
10 Automotive
13 From Science & Research
28 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
33 Feedstock
36 Application
38 Blow Moulding
42 Polyurethanes
51 Report
59 Renewable Carbon
64 Technology
70 Basics
74 10 years ago
76 Opinion
78 Articles in this issue
Report
51 Patent situation
52 Advanced recycling technology
developing at a fast pace
54 Carbon dioxide utilization
56 Innovative recycling solutions for
thermoset plastics
Renewable Carbon
59 Bioeconomy is not alone
60 The Renewable Carbon Initiative
62 Renewable Materials Conference
Technology
64 Merging high-quality recycling with
lowered emissions
66 New world-scale plastic-to-plastic
molecular recycling facility
67 Not all plasics are recycled equally
68 Molecular recycling
Basics
70 CO 2
based plastics
72 Carbon Capture & Utilisation
Publisher / Editorial
Dr Michael Thielen (MT)
Alex Thielen (AT)
Samuel Brangenberg (SB)
Head Office
Polymedia Publisher GmbH
Hackesstr. 99
41066 Mönchengladbach, Germany
phone: +49 (0)2161 664864
fax: +49 (0)2161 631045
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 / Philipp Thielen
Print
WIRmachenDRUCK GmbH
bioplastics MAGAZINE is printed on
chlorine-free FSC certified paper.
bioplastics MAGAZINE
special Edition - 2022
bM is published 6 times a year.
This publication is sent to qualified subscribers
(179 Euro for 6 issues).
bioplastics MAGAZINE is read in
more than 100 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 trademarks is
not an indication that such names are not
registered trademarks.
bioplastics MAGAZINE tries to use British
spelling. However, in articles based on
information from the USA, American
spelling may also be used.
Cover
Iakov Kalinin (Shutterstock)
Follow us on twitter:
https://twitter.com/bioplasticsmag
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine

Shorts
MEG from
captured carbon
A consortium, including LanzaTech (Skokie, IL, USA)
and Danone (Paris, France), led to the discovery of a
new route to monoethylene glycol (MEG), which is a key
building block for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), resin,
fibres, and bottles.
The carbon capture technology uses a proprietary
engineered bacterium to convert carbon emissions, from
steel mills or gasified waste biomass, directly into MEG
through fermentation, bypassing the need for an ethanol
intermediate, and simplifying the MEG supply chain.
“We have made a breakthrough in the production
of sustainable PET that has vast potential to reduce
the overall environmental impact of the process”,
said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. “This is a
technological breakthrough which could have a significant
impact, with applications in multiple sectors, including
packaging and textiles!”
“We have been working with LanzaTech for years
and strongly believe in the long-term capacity of this
technology to become a game changer in the way to
manage sustainable packaging materials production.
This technological collaboration is a key enabler to
accelerate the development of this promising technology”,
said Pascal Chapon, Danone R&I Advanced Techno
Materials Director. AT
www.lanzatech.com | www.danone.com
Electrochemical
conversion of CO 2
Avantium (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), announced that it
has been awarded a EUR 3 million grant by the EU Horizon
Europe programme for its participation in the 4-year research
and development programme WaterProof.
This programme aims to demonstrate the value of
electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO 2
) into highvalue
chemicals and products.
Avantium is a frontrunner in developing and commercialising
innovative technologies for the production of chemicals and
materials based on sustainable carbon feedstocks, i.e. carbon
from plants or carbon from the air (CO 2
). One of Avantium’s
innovative technology platforms is called Volta Technology and
uses electrochemistry to convert CO 2
to high-value products
and chemical building blocks such as formic acid, oxalic acid,
and glycolic acid. The latter two are key building blocks for
polyesters and other materials, allowing the production of
CO 2
-negative plastics.
The WaterProof programme aims to demonstrate the full
value chain of a closed carbon cycle. Under this programme,
Avantium will convert CO 2
, from wastewater purification and
waste incineration into formic acid using its proprietary catalytic
electrochemistry platform. This formic acid can then be used to
make new consumer products. This project will demonstrate
that competitive and profitable business opportunities can be
created by turning CO 2
into value-added products. AT
www.avantium.com
Polyamide 6 from 92 % sustainable raw materials
LANXESS (Cologne, Germany) recently introduced its new
brand extension, called “Scopeblue”. The first product in
this new line is Durethan BLUEBKV60H2.0EF. 92 % of the
raw materials used in this easy-flowing PA 6 compound
have been replaced with sustainable alternatives – that’s
more than in any other prime quality glassfibre-reinforced
plastic.
The new brand label identifies products
that either consist of at least 50 % circular
(recycled or biobased) raw materials, or
whose carbon footprint is at least 50 % lower
than that of conventional products.
One of the raw materials used in the
production of this PA 6 based highperformance
plastic is cyclohexane from
sustainable sources – meaning cyclohexane
that is either biobased, recycled biobased,
or produced by means of chemical recycling.
The material is also strengthened with 60 %
by weight of glass fibres comprising industrial glass waste
instead of mineral raw materials. The alternative raw
materials that Lanxessuses in the precursors for polyamide
6 are chemically identical to their equivalents of fossil origin
(drop-in solutions), so Durethan BLUEBKV60H2.0EF exhibits
the same characteristics as the virgin material and can be
processed just as easily using exactly the same production
tools and facilities with no conversion work needed.
But developers are setting their sights on more than 92
% sustainable raw materials. “We’re
currently working on increasing the
content of sustainable raw materials in
this compound to 100 %”, says Günter
Margraf, Head of Global Management at
Lanxess’ High-performance Materials
division (HPM). This requires ammonia
synthesized with carbon-neutral
hydrogen. Over the medium term, the
specialty chemicals company is also
planning to replace the additives used in
its plastics with sustainable equivalents.
In mid-November, Lanxess announced
it will transfer its HPM business unit to
an independent legal corporate structure. MT
www.lanxess.com
6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17

Twelve and LanzaTech to produce
polypropylene from CO 2
emissions
Shorts
Twelve’s carbon transformation technology converts CO 2
into materials that have up until now, mainly been made from fossil
fuels. The company (Berkeley, California, USA) helps brands eliminate emissions by replacing the petrochemicals in their products
and supply chains with CO 2
-made carbon-negative chemicals and materials, as well as carbon-neutral fuels.
LanzaTech’s (Skokie, Illinois, USA) carbon recycling Pollution To Products technology uses nature-based solutions to produce
ethanol and other materials from waste carbon sources. The partnership will bring together the two platform technologies
to enable additional product development from CO 2
streams, representing just one of many pathways to scale carbon
transformation solutions.
“Polypropylene is a key material for essential medical supplies and for many products we rely on in our daily lives. Today, 100 %
of new polypropylene in use worldwide is made from petrochemicals. We now have a way to produce this critical material from
CO 2
and water instead of from fossil fuels, with no tradeoffs in quality, efficacy, or performance. Replacing all of the world’s fossil
polypropylene production with CO 2
-made polypropylene would reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 700 million tonnes per
year or more”, said Twelve Chief Science Officer, Etosha Cave.
“By harnessing biology, we can leverage the power of nature to solve a very modern problem. The overabundance of CO 2
in our
atmosphere has pushed our planet into a state of emergency. We need all carbon transformation solutions to turn this liability into
an opportunity, keeping fossil resources in the ground, and our climate safe for everyone”, said LanzaTech CEO, Jennifer Holmgren.
To pursue the partnership, Twelve and LanzaTech have been awarded a USD 200,000 grant from Impact Squared,
a USD 1.1 million fund that was designed and launched by British universal bank Barclays and Unreasonable, a catalytic platform
for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. With the Impact Squared grant, Twelve and LanzaTech
are taking a collaborative approach to reduce the fossil fuel impact of essential products”. MT
PHA containers made from carbon emissions
Teal bioWorks (Los Angeles, California, USA), the sustainable
goods company best known for combining its leading material
innovation with high-tech manufacturing, aims to further
eliminate unnecessary harm to the environment with its first
fully biodegradable and carbon-negative packaging solutions
developed for beauty and hotel industries.
“The packaging industry has been producing plastic
containers for decades, it's shocking how little sustainability
efforts have been made in manufacturing”, says Kelly
Nagasawa, biochemist and founder of Teal.
Teal operates on science-backed discoveries that
capture and transform methane + CO 2
gas emissions, that
otherwise would be released in the atmosphere, into PHA.
For the time being, however, Nagasawa cannot disclose
their partner/supplier.
Through strategic
partnerships, Teal is set
to see their premium,
and cost-effective jars and bottles come to market soon.
Making the switch from plastic to biodegradable seamless
with their injection mould capabilities and signature tealcoloured
caps, also made of PHA.
Teal hopes to generate awareness of
this breakthrough material and ensure
consumers that they are helping the
environment with no fine print.
Teal is dedicated to changing not only the
way industries manufacture and capture
carbon but bring sustainable opportunities
to future scientists and the community.
“Working together is critical in our
current environmental state, replacing
plastic as soon as possible is important.
The renewable and circular packaging
revolution is here, and we think that's
exciting”. says Nagasawa. MT
www.tealpkg.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17
7

Shorts
Cooperation on
chemical recycling of plastic waste
BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Quantafuel (Oslo, Norway), and REMONDIS (Lünen, Germany) have signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) to jointly evaluate a cooperation in chemical recycling including a joint investment into a pyrolysis plant
for plastic waste. It is intended that Remondis, one of the world’s leading waste and water management companies, supplies
suitable plastic waste to the plant and BASF uses the resulting pyrolysis oil as feedstock in its production Verbund as part of its
ChemCycling TM project. Quantafuel intends to provide the technology and operate the plant. The company is a specialist for the
pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste and the purification of the resulting pyrolysis oil; the technology is jointly developed and being
held with BASF. The location of the pyrolysis plant will be evaluated together.
Each year, almost 20 million tonnes of plastic waste in Europe go unrecycled. By establishing chemical recycling as a
complementary solution to mechanical recycling it is possible to bring back more plastic waste into the materials cycle, which
would otherwise be incinerated. The pyrolysis technology can be used to process plastic waste streams that are not recycled
mechanically, e.g. for technological or economic reasons.
To maximize a circular economy for plastics, the parties will identify which of the waste plastics provided by Remondis could
undergo chemical recycling in the future.
“BASF has set itself the goal to process 250,000 tonnes of recycled feedstock annually from 2025 onwards. In this regard, it is
important to use feedstock derived from plastic waste that would otherwise not have undergone recycling”, said Lars Kissau,
Senior Vice President Global Strategic Business Development at BASF’s Petrochemicals division.
Legislation on EU and national level will create the framework for chemical recycling and therefore shape the ability how it
can contribute to a more circular economy for plastics. This includes acknowledging that products based on chemically recycled
feedstock are counted towards achieving recycled content targets.
Pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste is fed into BASF’s Verbund production, thereby saving the same amount of fossil
resources. Since the pyrolysis oil is inserted directly at the beginning of the chemical value chain, the final sales products have
the exact same properties as products made from fossil feedstock. The share of recycled material is allocated to the end products
according to a third-party certified mass balance approach which allows BASF to offer its customers certified products carrying
the name affix Ccycled TM . MT
www.basf.com
WWF released new position:
Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles
On January 26, as part of the No Plastic in Nature vision, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Gland, Switzerland, released "Chemical
Recycling Implementation Principles" (see link below). These principles aim to help decision-makers determine if and how
chemical recycling – an emerging technology with unknown environmental and social outcomes – should be pursued as a plastic
waste mitigation tactic. Alix Grabowski, director of plastic and material science at WWF said:
“Even as technologies advance, we can’t recycle our way out of the growing plastic waste crisis. Instead of just focusing on
recycling, we should prioritize strategies like reducing our overall single-use plastic consumption and scaling up reuse, which
offer the best opportunity to achieve the widescale change we need.
“For a technology like chemical recycling to be part of a sustainable material management system, we must carefully look at
how it is designed and implemented and whether or not it offers environmental benefits over the status quo, adheres to strong
social safeguards, and truly contributes to advancing our circular economy. These principles are designed to do exactly that”.
The paper lays out considerations for plastic-to-plastic recycling, not plastic-to-fuel applications. Plastic-to-fuel activities should
not be considered recycling, nor a part of the circular economy.
The paper also states that, "based on currently available
evidence, there are significant concerns that these technologies
are energy-intensive, pose risks to human health, and/or will not
be able to practically recycle plastic beyond what mechanical
recycling already achieves".
Info:
1: The Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles can be
downloaded form https://tinyurl.com/WWF-Principles
bioplastics MAGAZINE strongly encourages its readers, especially
those involved in chemical recycling, to read and comment
on the WWF paper. MT
tinyurl.com/WWF-Principles
8 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17

Chemically recycled
PLA now available
Shorts
Total Corbion PLA (Gorinchem, the Netherlands) has
launched the world’s first commercially available chemically
recycled bioplastics product. The Luminy ® recycled PLA
grades boast the same properties, characteristics and
regulatory approvals as virgin Luminy PLA, but are partially
made from post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste.
Total Corbion PLA is already receiving and depolymerizing
reprocessed PLA waste, which is then purified and
polymerized back into commercially available Luminy rPLA.
The commercial availability of recycled PLA (rPLA) offers
brand owners the opportunity to make products from rPLA,
with the luxury of having original food contact and other
certifications in place. Using rPLA can contribute to meeting
the recycled content targets of brand owners.
Thomas Philipon, CEO at Total Corbion PLA, sees this as a
logical step towards an even more sustainable offering: “Our
company’s vision is to create a better world for today and
generations to come. This ability to now efficiently receive,
repurpose and resupply PLA is a further demonstration of
the sustainability of our product and the demonstration of
our commitment to enable the circular economy through
value chain partnership”.
François de Bie, Senior Marketing Director at Total Corbion
PLA is proud to launch this new product line of Luminy PLA
and encourages interested parties to get in touch: “The ability
to chemically recycle post-industrial and post-consumer PLA
waste allows us to not only reduce waste but also keep valuable
resources in use and truly ‘close the loop’. For our customers,
the new, additional end-of-life avenue this provides could be
the missing piece in their own sustainability puzzle, and we
look forward to solving these challenges together”.
As an initial offering, grades will be supplied with 20 %
recycled content using the widely accepted principles of mass
balance. “As we are currently ramping up this initiative, the
initial volumes are limited but we are confident that rPLA will
grow to be a significant part of our overall sales revenues”,
states de Bie. Currently, Looplife in Belgium and Sansu in
Korea are among the first active partners that support
collecting, sorting and cleaning of post-industrial and postconsumer
PLA waste. The resulting PLA feedstock is then
used by Total Corbion PLA to make new Luminy PLA polymers
via the chemical recycling process. Total Corbion PLA is
actively looking for additional partners from around the world
that will help to close the loop. We invite interested parties to
contact their local sales representative.
Total Corbion PLA expects that the growing demand for
rPLA will also boost the collecting, sorting and reprocessing
of post-use PLA for both mechanical and chemical recycling,
as de Bie explains further: “At Total Corbion PLA, we are
actively seeking to purchase more post-industrial and
post-consumer PLA waste, creating value for the recycle
industry as a whole”. MT
www.totalenergies-corbion.com
How plastic bottles end up in tyres
Tyres can’t last forever. However, the life cycle of the
materials used in one tyre can be much longer than that
of the tyre itself. Continental just got one step closer to
the goal of tyres made from 100 % recycled or sustainable
materials. “We are at the vanguard of a more eco-friendly
automotive industry and are already committed to using
new technologies that utilize recycled
materials. From 2022, we will be
able to use reprocessed polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) in the construction
of Continental tyre carcasses, completely
replacing the use of conventional virgin
PET“, as a press release stated.
To reuse recycled PET bottles in tyres,
Continental teamed up with OTIZ, a fibre
specialist and textile manufacturer, to
develop a specialized technology that
produces high-quality polyester yarn from
recycled PET without the chemical steps
previously required in the recycling process. Polyester may
not be the first material you think of when you see a car tyre,
PET yarn is actually an essential ingredient that makes up
the tyre carcass in the form of textile cords that run from
bead to bead (the inner circle of the tyre). The horseshoeshaped
layer sits just above the inner liner, affecting tyre
durability, load carriage, and comfort.
It’s the backbone of the tyre, sustains
loads, and absorbs shock. It maintains
its shape even at very high temperatures,
so thermal stability is crucial. MT
Picture: Continental
www.continental-tires.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17
9

Automotive
Strategic partnership leverages
sustainable solutions for
automotive sector
The global pandemic that defined 2020 triggered a reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions due to lockdowns and stayat-home
measures which dramatically, albeit temporarily,
decreased the use of automobiles. This is noteworthy because
2020 was also the year that the Paris Agreement went into effect.
Adopted in 2015 in accord with the United Nations Framework
on Climate Change (UNFCC), the Paris Agreement addresses
the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in response to
global climate change.
China and India – the countries with the most and third most
CO 2
emissions, respectively – are among UNFCC members
that have ratified or acceded to the agreement. China is the
largest producer of automobiles, followed by Japan, Germany,
India, and South Korea. In a year when everyone’s focus
was on surviving a health crisis, the world’s most sweeping
regulations on climate change quietly took effect. Governments,
NGOs, and corporations released their own goals, pledges
and targets to drive down emissions on the road to midcentury
carbon neutrality.
Crisis creates opportunity
Against this backdrop of sustainability aspirations and
COVID-related chaos, global materials provider Eastman
(Kingsport, Tennessee, USA) and Gruppo Maip (Turin, Italy),
a leading international plastics formulator and compound
producer, announced a strategic partnership to positively
impact the environment. Together, the venerable industry
leaders are creating new sustainable polymer solutions
for automotive interior applications. These new polymers
will enable automotive OEMs to meet aggressive targets for
sustainable content and replace petroleum-based materials.
It’s a win-win at a time when the COVID-19 crisis has led to
cost-cutting measures which don’t allow for investments in new
products and technology.
Technological breakthroughs lead
to innovative products
Fortunately for OEMs, in 2019, Eastman became the first
company to begin commercial-scale molecular recycling for
a broad set of mixed-waste plastics that would otherwise be
landfilled or, worse, wind up in the environment. Eastman
Advanced Circular Recycling technologies offer a range of
both biobased and molecular-recycled content solutions,
including Tritan Renew copolyester and Trēva Renew
engineering bioplastic.
Tritan Renew is powered by Eastman’s polyester renewal
technology and delivers up to 50 % certified recycled content
diverted from post-consumer and post-industrial waste
streams. Tritan Renew is enabled through Eastman’s carbon
renewal technology, a unique process that breaks down waste
plastic back into its basic chemical building blocks. Unlike
traditionally recycled plastics, Tritan Renew offers the same
high performance as virgin plastics. Trēva Renew is a mix
of cellulose esters, the cellulose of which is derived from
sustainably harvested trees. Trēva Renew offers up to 48 %
biobased content which is certified by the USDA’s BioPreferred ®
program. In addition, Trēva Renew benefits from carbon
renewal technology that uses mixed waste plastic, providing
an additional 23 % certified recycled content as an alternative to
polycarbonate, ABS and PC-ABS and other materials typically
used for interior and exterior applications. Via its Advanced
Circular Recycling technologies, Eastman produces circular
products that are certified by the International Sustainability
and Carbon Certification (ISCC) by mass balance allocation. For
more details about Trēva Renew and Eastman’s carbon renewal
technology in automotive applications see bM 01/2020)
Gruppo Maip develops a wide range of high-tech engineered
thermoplastic materials with a focus on specialty colours and
technical solutions that require filled and reinforced custom
formulation development.
In partnership with Eastman, MAIP is now developing
specialty compounds using Tritan Renew and Trēva Renew to
create new sustainable formulations for a variety of interior
applications, including accent trim, both moulded in colour
and decorated, speaker grills, centre console trim, door
handles, knobs, pillars, overhead consoles and lighting, both
ambient and diffusive.
Through Eastman’s circular recycling technologies and
Gruppo Maip’s formulations, OEMs will now be able to specify
content and recycled-content plastics in critical interior Class A
components, such as moulded-in-colour interior trim, bringing
a new level of sustainability to the automotive industry.
The road to net zero calls for collaboration
The automotive industry is at a watershed moment.
Electrification, autonomous technologies and shared mobility
are just a few of the challenges facing automotive OEMs and
suppliers. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, the
top 20 OEMs in the global auto sector saw profits plummet by
USD100 billion in 2020 due to repercussions of the COVID-19
crisis. This is generational disruption. How it all plays out is still
to be determined. However, one thing is certain: transformation
is essential to survival. Government regulation, consumer
preferences and investor demands are forcing companies in
carbon-intensive sectors to align with the sustainability goals
of the Paris Agreement. Automotive industry players must work
together to reduce fossil carbon in transportation.
www.eastman.com | www.maipsrl.com
By:
Chris Scarazzo
Automotive Segment Market Manager
Eastman, Kingsport, Tennessee, USA
10 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16

Luca, the world’s first
Zero-Waste Car
Automotive
Every year, Netherland-based student company TU/
ecomotive produces an electric car with a team of 21 BA
students from the Eindhoven University of Technology,
with the aim of showing the world that the hypothetical,
sustainable car of the future, can be a reality today.
The design of the sixth TU/ecomotive car, Luca, was
revealed October 8, 2020. With this zero-waste car, the team
wants to show that waste can be a valuable material with a
multitude of applications.
The car reaches a top speed of 90 km/h and a range of
220 kilometres. A great deal of Luca’s efficiency comes
from its lightweight construction: the car only weighs
360 kg without and around 420 kg with batteries.
Luca is made of materials that are normally thrown away.
The chassis of Luca consists of a unique sandwich panel that
the students have developed in collaboration with several
companies. The sandwich panel consists of three layers:
the two outer layers which are made from a combination of
flax fibres and PP taken from the ocean, and a middle layer,
namely a PET honeycomb core. The front and rear parts
of the chassis are made out of a tube frame from recycled
aluminium. The seat cushions are made of coconut fibre and
horsehair, and the fabric surrounding the cushions is made
out of recycled PET but looks and feels like suede.
Luca’s body was manufactured by TU/ecomotive out of
UBQ material. UBQ is a patented novel climate-positive
material created by Israeli start-up UBQ Materials, based
in Tel Aviv, that can substitute conventional plastic, wood,
and concrete in the manufacturing of everyday products.
UBQ is a proprietary composite, the world’s first biobased
material made of unsorted organic, paper, and plastic waste –
everything from banana peels to dirty diapers to used yoghurt
containers and cardboard.
The central value proposition of using UBQ is its
sustainability metrics, significantly reducing and even
neutralizing the carbon footprint of final applications. By
diverting household waste from reaching landfills, UBQ
prevents the emission of methane, groundwater leakage,
and other toxins. A new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study
conducted by Switzerland-based sustainability consulting
firm Quantis, meeting ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards,
demonstrates the climate-positive environmental footprint
of transforming unrecyclable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
destined for landfilling into UBQ. The LCA shows that
UBQ’s environmental impact at a Global Warming Potential
(GWP) of 20 years is – 11.69 kg CO 2
–eq per kg UBQ. This
means that for every 1 kg of UBQ created, almost 12 kg of
CO 2
-eq are prevented from polluting the environment over
a 20-year period. Quantis concluded that “to the best of our
knowledge, UBQ is the most climate-positive thermoplastic
material in the market today”.
This isn’t the first time UBQ is used in automotive
manufacturing. In early 2020, UBQ Materials announced its
collaboration with Daimler, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz,
for the implementation of UBQ in car parts and throughout
Daimler’s supply chain.
Luca is designed to be highly energy efficient. The car’s
in-wheel motors mitigate losses in the drivetrain, and
the two electric motors have a combined power of 15 kW,
powered by six modular battery packs. The packs are easily
replaceable so that when new technology is available in the
future they can be seamlessly substituted by full packs and
more modern batteries.
The next step for TU/ecomotive is to obtain a license plate
for Luca. By ensuring that the car is road legal, the team
wants to prove that sustainable innovation is readily available
to implement across the automotive industry. AT
www.tue.nl/en | www.ubqmaterials.com
Luca (Photo: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie)
Luca interieur (Photo: TU/ecomitive)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16 11

Automotive
Car headliner from
plastic waste and old tyres
Grupo Antolin, (Burgos, Spain), a global supplier of
technological solutions for car interiors, presents the
first headliner substrate produced by thermoforming a
PU foam with materials made from urban & post-consumer
plastic waste and end-of-life tyres. Working with recycled
materials is a natural step in the company’s commitment
to developing a sustainable business. The aim is to reduce
waste and energy consumption during manufacturing and
to meet the demand for eco-friendly interiors, something
increasingly valued by car buyers.
The headliner part looks like a standard headliner and
performs exactly the same (sustainability surge comes
without any reduction in the physical properties of the
headliner). This accomplishment has been possible thanks to
a material’s manufacturing process developed by the partner
BASF (using chemical recycling) that Antolin has validated
and introduced in a fully electric European premium car that
has just been launched to the market. Approximately 50 %
of the headliner weight is recycled. In this particular project,
100 % of the textile, 70 % of the core foam, and 70 % of the
plastic sunroof reinforcement frame have been obtained from
residues that couldn’t be recycled in any other way and would
have been, ultimately, disposed of in landfills or incinerated.
“This project is a step towards a more sustainable car
interior trim and a huge leap for the Wet PU technology. A
technology that has demonstrated to be the most competitive
in terms of cost and quality, fulfilling at the same time the
most demanding specifications from our clients”, says
Enrique Fernandez, Advanced Engineering Director,
Overhead Systems BU.
“We are going one step further by deploying the strategy
among our clients worldwide. Our next project featuring
recycled core PU foam will be unveiled in 2022 and it will be
manufactured using renewable electricity. Our commitment
is to reduce the generation of waste and emissions in all
our production processes”, highlights Javier Blanco, Grupo
Antolin’s Sustainability Director. These types of solutions are
an example of the company’s technological commitment to
helping its customers to develop more sustainable vehicles
by reducing waste, weight, and emissions.
This action is part of the Sustainability Master Plan that
has been designed with the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals’ 2030 Agenda as a roadmap.
Mechanical recycling
As the leading overhead systems supplier, Grupo Antolin
focuses on different methods and technologies to recycle
interior trim parts as part of its objective to make a positive
contribution to society and reduce its carbon footprint. In
this sense, mechanical recycling is another well-known
procedure that helps to reintegrate plastic products into
the production cycle. This is a mature technology that has
found many applications and it’s well integrated in industrial
processes. This type of recycling is currently being used
with thermoplastic structures. With thermoset materials,
mechanical recycling is not possible in many cases, though.
Antolin has developed technologies that allow to process
a wider quality range of recycled plastic sources that are
transformed into automotive parts using a process called
Novaform. On the other hand, it has
also introduced in serial production
in Europe a method to recycle the
thermoset run-offs and technical
scrap from headliners and
transform them into construction
boards. These boards are currently
being used in Europe, Africa, and
South America. The product,
branded Coretech, is capable
of transforming a composite
thermoset product (that couldn’t
be recycled in other ways) into a
board with outstanding insulation
and endurance properties. MT
www.grupoantolin.com
12 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16

Clean-up ships fuelled
by garbage
Millions of tonnes of synthetic plastics are released into
the environment each year. Of this, a fraction ends
up in one of several oceanic gyres, natural locations
where the currents tend to accumulate floating debris –
including plastics. The largest and best known of these is the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), which is estimated to
cover an area roughly the size of the state of Texas (or France),
and which seems to be increasing in size over time.
Removing this plastic from the oceanic gyres has promise
to return the ocean to a more pristine state and alleviate
the associated burden on wildlife and the food chain.
Current methods to remove this plastic use a boom system
to concentrate the plastic and a ship to harvest it and return
to port to unload the plastic cargo and refuel [1].
Plastic is a natural energy carrier, which suggests the
question: is there enough energy embodied in the plastic to
power the ship and eliminate or reduce the need to return to
port? If so, then can a process be devised to convert plastic
into a form of fuel appropriate for modern diesel engines that
are used to power ships?
Thermodynamic analysis of
the energy available in plastics
answered the first question – yes,
there is enough energy in the ocean
plastics, provided that they are first
concentrated using booms and that
the ship is small and efficient enough
to minimize its fuel consumption.
The next question was answered
by designing a process to
convert plastics into a liquid fuel
precursor. The most important
step of the process is a hightemperature
reaction called
hydrothermal liquefaction or HTL.
HTL depolymerizes plastics at
high temperatures (300–550 °C)
and high pressure (250–300 bar),
thereby converting them into a
liquid form. Oil yields from HTL are
typically >90 % even in the absence
of catalysts and, unlike pyrolysis,
yields of solid by-products – which
would need to be stored or burned
in a special combustor – are less
than 5, thus conferring certain
comparative advantages to HTL.
Current data on the GPGP
indicates that it contains mainly
polyethylene and polypropylene,
a mixture that is especially
A
Great Pacific
Garbage Patch
C
~ 1900 km
San Francisco Port
Current with Plastic
Boom 600 m
appropriate for HTL. By-products include a gas that might be
used as a cooking fuel; a solid that could be burned on board
or stored; and process water that is cleaned prior to release.
Further analysis indicated that the use of plastic-derived
fuels could reduce fuel consumption, and effectively eliminate
fossil fuel use. The HTL-derived fuel could be termed blue
diesel, to reference its marine origin and in contrast with
both traditional marine diesel and green diesel, derived from
land-based renewable resources. The full feasibility study
is available for free online (link below [1]). Future work will
construct the process and test it at pilot-scale for realistic
feeds, to ultimately transition to shipboard use. AT
[1] Belden, E.R.; Kazantzis, N.K.; Reddy,C.M.; Kite-Powell, H; Timko,M.T.;
Italiani, E.; Herschbach D.R.: Thermodynamic feasibility of shipboard
conversion of marine plastics to blue diesel for self-powered ocean
cleanup; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107250118
www.wpi.edu
California
0.5 knots
B
D
Current 14 cm s -1
Boom Array System
Reactor
15 knots
Overview of the process for plastic removal out of the GPGP showing (A) the total system overview,
(B) part of the system of collection booms, (C) a single collection boom, and (D) the HTL reactor.
From Science & Research
San Francisco Port
Current 14 cm s -1
California
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16 13

From Science & Research
Closing the circle
A 100 % plant-based non-isocyanate polyurethane
foam capable of chemical recycling
The quest for lightweight packaging foams that have
a circular lifecycle is a challenging one. Packaging
materials and foams account for a large majority of
the estimated 400 million tonnes of plastic waste that enters
the environment every year [1]. Polyurethanes (PUs) are
the sixth most produced plastic and are highly desired for
their foaming capabilities as well as their ability to produce
materials with properties ranging from elastic to rigid.
The problem that many have recognized is that the
precursors to PUs, isocyanates, are highly toxic and
classified as CMR agents (Cancer-causing, Mutagenic,
Reproductive toxins) [2].
Biobased solutions to polyurethanes have largely focused
on replacing the polyol portion of the reaction mixture with
successes such as the 30 % soy-based PU foam developed
by Ford for seat cushions. Replacing the isocyanate portion is
much harder since tried-and-true reagents such as toluene
diisocyanate and poly(methylenediphenyl) diisocyante are
very reactive and allow for the foaming and curing reaction
of PUs to occur on industrial timescales.
In addition to the issue of toxicity, PUs are also some
of the least recycled plastics produced. The crosslinked
nature of many PUs precludes the ability to reprocess the
material at its end-of-life. While there are some examples
of physical recycling where PUs are shredded and rebound
in other products, the large-scale conversion of waste PUs
to high-value products has not been met with commercial
success [3]. Research at the Clemson Composites Centre
aimed to address the overarching issues related to the lifecycle
of PUs by enabling a non-toxic, biobased, and recyclable PU
that could be marketed for high-value applications.
To address these needs, the Clemson research team first
began by synthesizing a biobased reactive precursor that
could be cured and foamed on a timescale used by typical
manufacturing practices (~3–5 min).
Instead of resorting to biobased vegetable oils that have
been used in the past, Kraft lignin was identified as a highly
abundant, cheap, and non-edible biobased source for
polymer production. Kraft lignin is a by-product of the wood
pulping industry and is produced in excess of 70 million
tonnes a year [4]. Pulping plants typically use lignin as a
fuel source by burning the extracted material in recovery
boilers. While many have researched lignin as a feedstock
for valuable chemicals and products, it has earned the saying
that “you can make anything from lignin, but money” due
to its highly crosslinked and heterogeneous structure. Yet,
the molecular structure of lignin does contain an abundance
of hydroxyl groups that can be utilized to create a more
uniform chemical precursor.
While propylene or ethylene oxide has been used in the past
to create extended etherified chains off the lignin backbone,
the harmfulness of these chemicals diminishes the green
nature of using lignin as a precursor. Instead, the team
found that organic carbonates such as glycerol and dimethyl
carbonate could be used to extend hydroxyl groups and
create reactive precursors to polyurethane synthesis [5, 6].
The use of glycerol-based chemicals also introduces another
biobased source to the synthetic protocol while making use
of non-toxic and benign reagents.
The use of organic carbonates introduces a functional
group (i.e. the cyclocarbonate) that can be cured with aminebased
curing agents to create the PU structure. The reaction
Tensile Strength of Different Curing Ratios
Shape Memory Capacity of Dual-Phase Structure
20
NIPU 1:2
NIPU 1:1.5
1. Increase temp. to
105°C and induce shape
2.Cool to
room temp.
NIPU 1:1
Stress (MPa)
10
Polymer
reverts back
to original
shape upon
re-heating
Polymer
retains
shape set
at Temp.
> T g
3.Reheat to 105°C under
stross-free conditions
0
0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5
Strain (mm/mm)
14 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16

By:
James Sternberg and Srikanth Pilla
Department of Automotive Engineering, Clemson University
Clemson, SC, USA
Foam
of amines and cyclocarbonates creates the urethane bond
with no other chemical by-products, another advantageous
property of this particular synthetic scheme. However,
creating the cyclocarbonated lignin derivative is no easy task.
Lignin undergoes radical initiated condensation reactions
at elevated temperatures lowering its functionality while
creating high molecular weight and insoluble precursors
[7]. To use lignin for polymer synthesis, it was found that
precise time, temperature, catalyst-loading, and reagent
concentrations were necessary.
However, finding these conditions allowed for a predictable
reaction at nearly quantitative yields. Curing with diamines
may not sound like the most environmentally favourable
solution, yet a fatty-acid-based dimer diamine with 100 %
renewable carbon was sourced, that had an LD50 value above
5000 mg/kg, essentially placing it in the category of nontoxicity.
While some risk is always associated with diamines,
this solution is a great step beyond the use of isocyanates.
NIPU /
Foam %
Density
(kg/m 3)
Compressive
Strength
(10 %, kPa)
Compressive
Modulus (MPa)
1:1 / 3 % 241 ± 34 131,8 ± 37,9 1,42 ± 0,22
1:1 / 1,5 % 337 ± 57 170,0 ± 18,6 1,64 ± 0,32
1:2 / 3 % 241 ± 45 79,2 ± 18,5 1,34 ± 0,25
1:2 / 1,5 % 331 ± 39 111,9 ± 28 1,19 ± 0,30
The reactivity of the novel formulation was tested by
monitoring the gel time between lignin precursors and the
diamine curing agent. While visual evidence showed a clear
gelation of the mixture around 5 minutes, rheological analysis
was able to show more precisely that the reaction mixture
began to take on solid-like characteristics at around 3 minutes
with a curing temperature of 80°C. This allowed the addition
of a chemical foaming agent, poly(methylhydrosiloxane) to
create the cellular structure of the foams.
A curing study showed that a temperature of 150°C
was necessary to create fully cured resins showing the
highest mechanical properties. However, curing at lower
temperatures does enable a more flexible material by
lowering the crosslinking density of the non-isocyanate
polyurethane (NIPU). The biobased dimer diamine was
successful at adding soft segments throughout the NIPU
structure, tempering the brittle nature of the lignin backbone.
It was found that along with curing temperature, increasing
the ratio of diamine also created samples with higher
ultimate strain values.
The lignin-derived NIPU recorded the highest tensile
strength of any reported NIPU in its class, demonstrating
ultimate stress values above 20 MPa. With the foamed
samples, a benchmark for rigid foams set at 100 kPa for 10 %
deflection was targeted, a mark the foams easily surpassed.
In terms of thermal stability, the NIPU recorded 5 % weight
loss temperatures at 300°C, an improvement above many
commercial polyurethanes [8].
Mechanical Properties of Foams
SEM of Lowest Density Foam
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16 15

From Science & Research
The demonstration of these favourable properties and
biobased origins still lacks an explanation for circularity.
A solution for a polymer’s end-of-life that enables the recycled
material to re-enter the values stream is the holy grail of a
circular lifecycle. To recover valuable recyclates from the
NIPU foam, chemical recycling was used by targeting the
molecular design incorporating organic carbonates. The
initial reaction of lignin with organic carbonates creates
etherified and carboxylated chains extending from the
lignin structure that can be used as molecular handles to
unravel the polymeric structure. In addition, the urethane
bond has been shown to be capable of depolymerization in
alkaline conditions [3].
Alkaline hydrolysis proved to be an efficient method of
depolymerization allowing for the recovery of lignin and
diamine through precipitation and solvent extraction. Most
importantly, the researchers have been able to show that
the original hydroxyl content of lignin is partially restored
during chemical recycling, an important step in confirming
that the recycled precursors have similar properties
to virgin materials.
Indeed, the biggest hurdles in using chemical recycling
are the side reactions associated with lignin’s own reactivity
described earlier. To mitigate against the tendency of lignin
to condensate into insoluble material of lower value, additives
can be used during chemical recycling that protect the
lignin structure and render it more valuable in its recycled
form. Using this unique recycling process, it was possible to
resynthesize the NIPU with 100 % recycled content.
The study aimed at synthesizing 100 % biobased, non-toxic,
and recyclable PUs has taught the scientists many lessons.
The first is an old one: when given lemons, make lemonade!
Instead of seeing lignin’s own reactivity as a roadblock,
why not harness its reactive nature to produce reactive
precursors? Finding a path to lignin functionalization was
the key to producing PUs that can compete with commercial
materials. Secondly, when designing a circular lifecycle
look towards nature’s own path for degradation. The rich
amount of carbon-oxygen bonds inserted during lignin
functionalization mimic the natural decomposition pathways
of typical biomass. While an enzymatic route was not taken
in this approach (typical of composting mechanisms) it was
still possible to use a benign hydrolysis technique to revert
waste foams back to usable precursors. These innovative
techniques do not have to be reserved only for PUs. The goal
and philosophy of the Clemson team is to incorporate this
design for recyclability and non-toxicity into other types of
polymers to enable a circular lifecycle for some of the most
highly used commodity plastics.
References:
[1] Geyer, R.; Jambeck, J. R.; Law, K. L. Production, Use, and Fate of All
Plastics Ever Made. Sci. Adv. 2017, 3 (7).
[2] Lithner, D.; Larsson, Å.; Dave, G. Environmental and Health Hazard
Ranking and Assessment of Plastic Polymers Based on Chemical
Composition. Sci. Total Environ. 2011, 409 (18), 3309–3324.
[3] Simón, D.; Borreguero, A. M.; de Lucas, A.; Rodríguez, J. F. Recycling
of Polyurethanes from Laboratory to Industry, a Journey towards the
Sustainability. Waste Manag. 2018, 76, 147–171.
[4] Sternberg, J.; Sequerth, O.; Pilla, S. Green Chemistry Design in
Polymers Derived from Lignin: Review and Perspective. Progress in
Polymer Science. Elsevier Ltd February 1, 2021, p 101344.
[5] Sternberg, J.; Pilla, S. Materials for the Biorefinery: High Bio-Content,
Shape Memory Kraft Lignin-Derived Non-Isocyanate Polyurethane
Foams Using a Non-Toxic Protocol. Green Chem. 2020.
[6] Pilla, Srikanth; Sternberg, J. Non-Isocyanate Polyurethanes from
Biobased Polyols. 63/034,584, 2020.
[7] Schutyser, W.; Renders, T.; Van den Bosch, S.; Koelewijn, S.-F.;
Beckham, G. T.; Sels, B. F. Chemicals from Lignin: An Interplay of
Lignocellulose Fractionation, Depolymerisation, and Upgrading. Chem.
Soc. Rev. 2018, 47 (3), 852–908.
[8] Zhang, K.; Nelson, A. M.; Talley, S. J.; Chen, M.; Margaretta, E.;
Hudson, A. G.; Moore, R. B.; Long, T. E. Non-Isocyanate Poly(Amide-
Hydroxyurethane)s from Sustainable Resources. Green Chem. 2016, 18
(17), 4667–4681.
www.clemson.edu
High Pressure
Hydrolysis
Precipitation /
washing
Waste NIPU Foram
Solubilized Foam
Lignin Recovery
16 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16

VIVALDI
A change of tune for the chemical industry:
The European Union has awarded EUR 7 million
to the VIVALDI project to transform the biobased
industry into a new, more environmentally friendly
and competitive sector.
To reach climate targets, industries need to accelerate
the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient, and
circular economy. The chemical sector is one of the most
challenging, but also a very promising one, in that context. At
the forefront of waste reutilization, biobased industries (BIs)
have the potential to lead the way and create a new and more
sustainable sector based on the principle of carbon capture
and utilization (CCU) also called CO 2
recycling. Based on
this circular concept, BIs’ will reduce their greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions, their dependency on fossil carbon import
and the exploitation of key resources such as energy, raw
materials, land, and water.
Starting in June 2021, the EU Horizon 2020 project VIVALDI
(innoVative bIo-based chains for CO 2
VALorisation as aDdedvalue
organIc acids) will develop a set of breakthrough
biotechnologies to transform real off-gases from key
BI sectors (Food & Drinks, Pulp & Paper, Bioethanol,
and Biochemicals) into novel feedstock for the chemical
industry. The core of VIVALDI solution is to capture, enrich,
and transform in a two-step process (electrochemical and
biological) the CO 2
captured into four platform organic acids.
These resulting compounds have various applications: they
can be used in the same site, enhancing the sustainability
and circularity of BIs processes and products, or open
new business opportunities as building blocks for novel
biomaterial (e.g. bioplastics and animal feed). By integrating
this concept, industries will “kill two birds with one stone”: not
only BIs’ carbon emissions will be reduced, but the production
of organic compounds that today is very energy-intensive will
become cheaper and more sustainable. Replicability will be a
key aspect of VIVALDI solutions, allowing other biorefineries
and other industrial sectors to become more circular and
reduce their environmental impact.
The success of the project will be ensured by a
multidisciplinary and international consortium led by the
GENOCOV research group of Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (Spain). The 16 partners range from BIs (SunPine,
Damm, and Bioagra) and technology developers (VITO,
UFZ, LEITAT, Processium, Avantium, Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona, University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences (Vienna), Luleå University of Technology) to enduser
(Nutrition Sciences). Novamont will research how to
use CO 2
along its entire value chain: from the capture of its
CO 2
emissions to the conversion of it into new biochemicals.
The team is complemented by three knowledge hubs: the
sustainability and circularity expert group (BETA from
Universitat de Vic, Barcelona, Spain), the technology and
innovation consultancy (ISLE Utilities – London, UK),
and the European Association representing the Carbon
Capture and Utilisation community in Europe (CO 2
Value
Europe, Brussels, Belgium).
The consortium is ready to transform biorefineries,
envisioning a new CO 2
-based industrial sector that
contributes to largely decreasing the carbon footprint of
the industry and boosting the EU’s economy. The VIVALDI
project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 101000441. AT
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101000441
From Science & Research
Drivers for regulation changes
CO 2
Negative GHG emissions
Purification
& conversion
Formic Acid
Ground-breaking technologies
Policy makers
3-Hydroxypropionic
Acid (3-HP)
Nutrient
Recovery
Methanol
Ammonium,
salts
Bioproduction
of organicacids
Industrial
validation
Lactic Acid (LA)
Succinic Acid (SA)
Society
Raise awareness
Less pollutedwastewater
New business models
More sustainable products
New biopolymers
Easy replicability
Itaconic Acid (IA)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/21] Vol. 16 17

From Science & Research
The polymer of squares
Iron-catalyzed [2+2] oligomerization of butadiene
produces (1,n’-divinyl)oligocyclobutane, a new
polymer that can be chemically recycled.
Figure by Jon Darmon
As the planet’s burden of
rubber and plastic rises
unabated, scientists
look to the promise of closedloop
recycling to reduce
trash. Researchers in the
Chirik Lab, Department of
Chemistry at Princeton
University (Princeton, NJ,
USA), have discovered a
potentially game-changing new
molecule, with vast implications
for fulfiling that promise through
depolymerization. It was found in a
material called polybutadiene, which has
been known for over 100 years and is used to
make rubber and plastic products. Butadiene, its
monomer, is an abundant organic compound and a major
byproduct of fossil fuel development.
The Chirik lab explores sustainable chemistry by
investigating the use of iron – another abundant natural
material – as a catalyst to synthesize new molecules. In this
particular research, the iron catalyst clicks the monomers
together to make oligocyclobutane. Normally, enchainment
occurs with an S-shaped structure that is often described as
looking like spaghetti. The lab reports in Nature Chemistry
(Jan 2021) that during polymerization the molecule, more
specifically named (1,n’-divinyl)oligocyclobutane enchains
in a repeating sequence of squares, a previously unrealized
microstructure that enables the process to go backwards, or
depolymerize, under certain conditions. In other words, it can
be zipped up to make a new polymer; that polymer can then
be unzipped back to a pristine monomer to be used again. To
bring about depolymerization, oligocyclobutane is exposed to
a vacuum in the presence of the iron catalyst, which reverses
the process and recovers the monomer. The lab identifies this
as a rare example of closed-loop chemical recycling.
The chemical industry uses a small number of building
blocks to make most commodity plastic and rubber. Three
such examples are ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. A
major challenge of recycling these materials is that they
often need to be compounded with additives to make plastics
and rubbers. These additives all have to be separated again
in the recycling process.
But the chemical steps involved in that separation and the
input of energy required to bring this about make recycling
prohibitively expensive in many cases, particularly for
common consumer products.
Plastic is cheap, lightweight, and
convenient, but it was not designed
with disposal in mind. Chemists
liken the process of producing
a product from a raw material
to rolling a boulder up a hill,
with the peak of the hill as the
transition state. From that
state, you roll the boulder
down the other side and end
up with a product. But with
most plastics, the energy and
cost to roll that boulder back up
the hill to recover its raw monomer
are staggering, and thus unrealistic.
So, still too many plastic or rubber
products end up in incineration or landfills.
The Chirik research demonstrates this
butadiene polymer as a possible alternative, as it’s
almost energetically equal to the monomer, which makes it
a candidate for closed-loop chemical recycling. In the past,
depolymerization has been accomplished with expensive,
specialized polymers and only after a multitude of steps, but
never from a raw material as common as this one.
“The interesting thing about this reaction of hooking one
unit of butadiene onto the next is that the destination is only
very slightly lower in energy than the starting material”,
said C. Rose Kennedy Assistant Professor of Chemistry
at the University of Rochester, (and former postdoc in the
Chirik lab). “That’s what makes it possible to go back in
the other direction”.
In the next stage of research, Paul Chirik, the Edwards S.
Sanford Professor of Chemistry, said his lab will focus on
the enchainment, which at this point chemists have only
achieved on average up to 17 units. At that chain length, the
material becomes crystalline and so insoluble that it falls out
of the reaction mixture.
“We have to learn what to do with that”, said Chirik.
“We’re limited by its own strength. I would like to see a
higher molecular weight”.
The material also has intriguing properties as characterized
by Megan Mohadjer Beromi, a postdoctoral fellow in the
Chirik lab, together with chemists at ExxonMobil’s polymer
research centre. For instance, it is telechelic, meaning
the chain is functionalized on both ends. This property
could enable it to be used as a building block in its own
right, serving as a bridge between other molecules in a
polymeric chain. In addition, it is thermally stable, meaning
it can be heated to above 250 °C without rapid decomposition.
18 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16

Finally, it exhibits high crystallinity, even at a low molecular
weight of 1,000 g / mol. This could indicate that desirable
physical properties – like crystallinity and material strength
– can be achieved at lower weights than generally assumed.
The polyethylene used in the average plastic shopping bag,
for example, has a molecular weight of 500,000 g / mol.
“One of the things we demonstrate in the paper is that you
can make really tough materials out of this monomer”, said
Chirik. “The energy between polymer and monomer can be
close, and you can go back and forth, but that doesn’t mean
the polymer has to be weak. The polymer itself is strong.
“What people tend to assume is that when you have
a chemically recyclable polymer, it has to be somehow
inherently weak or not durable. We’ve made something that’s
really, really tough but is also chemically recyclable. We can
get pure monomer back out of it. And that surprised me.
That’s not optimized. But it’s there. The chemistry’s clean”.
The research is still at an early stage and the material’s
performance attributes have yet to be thoroughly explored.
But under Chirik, the lab has provided a conceptual precedent
for a chemical transformation not generally thought practical
for certain commodity materials.
Still, researchers are excited about the prospects for
oligocyclobutane, and many investigations are planned
in this continuing collaboration towards chemically
recyclable materials.
“The current set of materials that we have nowadays doesn’t
allow us to have adequate solutions to all the problems
we’re trying to solve”, said Alex Carpenter, a collaborator
on the research and a former staff chemist with ExxonMobil
Chemical. “The belief is that, if you do good science and you
publish in peer-reviewed journals and you work with worldclass
scientists like Paul, then that’s going to enable our
company to solve important problems in a constructive way.
“This is about understanding really cool chemistry”, he
added, “and trying to do something good with it”. AT
Read the full paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-
00614-w
Based on an article by Wendy Plump.
https://chemistry.princeton.edu/news/chirik-lab-discovers-transformativeroute-chemically-recyclable-plastics
From Science & Research
The only conference dealing exclusively with
cellulose fibres – Solutions instead of pollution
Cellulose fibres are bio-based and biodegradable, even in marine-environments,
where their degrading does not cause any microplastic.
300 participants and 30 exhibitors are expected in Cologne to discuss the following topics:
CELLULOSE
FIBRE
INNOVATION
OF THE YEAR
2023
I N N O V AT
B Y N O V A -
I N S T I T U T E
I O N
A W A R D
• Strategies, Policy
Framework of Textiles
and Market Trends
• New Opportunities
for Cellulose Fibres in
Replacing Plastics
• Sustainability and
Environmental Impacts
• Circular Economy and
Recyclability of Fibres
• Alternative Feedstocks
and Supply Chains
• New Technologies for
Pulps, Fibres and Yarns
• New Technologies and
Applications beyond
Textiles
Call for Innovation
Apply for the “Cellulose
Fibre Innovation of the
Year 2023”
Organiser
Contact
Dr Asta Partanen
Program
asta.partanen@nova-institut.de
Dominik Vogt
Conference Manager
dominik.vogt@nova-institut.de
cellulose-fibres.eu
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16 19

From Science & Research
Microalgae to PHB
How cyanobacteria could transform our industry
PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) offers a promising substitute
to comparable fossil-based plastics, which shows similar
material properties as polypropylene, while at the same
time being biobased and biodegradable. Currently, PHB is
mostly produced in heterotrophic bacteria, which require
sugar as a carbon source for growth. Those sugars are often
produced in large monocultures, such as cornfields, which
themselves have negative consequences on the environment.
Furthermore, the usage of crops like corn, which could
also be used as a food source, raises ethical questions.
The research group of Karl Forchhammer in Tübingen has
now developed a sustainable alternative, which can convert
atmospheric CO 2
to high-quality PHB.
The secret lies in so-called cyanobacteria, which are
often referred to as microalgae (Figure 1, 2). Just like algae,
cyanobacteria are capable of using photosynthesis. This is a
process, where sunlight is used as an energy source, to fix
atmospheric CO 2
for the cells. The CO 2
can then be further
converted by the cyanobacteria into valuable products, such
as PHB (cf. bM 03/14, bM 01-05-06/17, 04-05/20)
Besides CO 2
and sunlight, cyanobacteria require only a
low-cost salt medium. Alternatively, sewage water can be
used, allowing cyanobacteria to grow, while at the same time
cleaning the water. Additionally, their ability to sequester
CO 2
from the atmosphere enables them to clean CO 2
-rich
exhausts, for example from coal power plants. This makes
cyanobacteria an ideal production system for sustainable
products. Unfortunately, cyanobacteria naturally produce
only small amounts of PHB, making the production
economically unfeasible. Instead, cyanobacteria are currently
produced as food supplements (for example the superfood
Spirulina) or used for the production of high-value fine
chemicals, such as pigments.
However, those products are only produced in small
quantities, hence the positive impact on the environment is
limited. To unleash the full potential of cyanobacteria, they
have to be produced in large amounts of bulk products, with
bioplastics, such as PHB, for example.
The working group at the University of Tübingen (Germany)
focuses on the analysis of cyanobacterial metabolism.
Moritz Koch, who did his PhD in this group, has specifically
focused on metabolic engineering strategies, enabling
him to rationally reprogram the cells for the production of
PHB (Figure 3). This allowed him to unleash the natural
potential of the small microbes, resulting in unprecedented
amounts of accumulated PHB. Under optimized conditions,
the amounts per cell-dry-weight were increased from
the naturally produced 10 % to more than 80 %. These
are not only the highest amounts ever achieved in any
photoautotrophic organism but are also in a comparable
range with heterotrophic bacteria, which are currently used
for the production of PHB.
Understanding the science
In order to improve the cyanobacterial PHB production, the
researchers first had to deepen their understanding of the
intracellular metabolism. This is essentially the mechanism
of how CO 2
, once it’s taken up, travels through the cells and
gets converted into the different molecules a cell contains.
After years of intensively studying proteins and molecular
regulators, that are involved in the PHB biosynthesis, the
research group of Forchhammer came to a breakthrough:
they discovered a new molecular regulator, which serves
as a metabolic switch, channelling large fractions of the
intracellular carbon towards PHB. Based on this discovery
Moritz Koch created a cyanobacterial chassis for further
development. Additionally, he overexpressed the biosynthesis
genes required for the PHB production, which further boosted
the PHB accumulation. Finally, after systematically testing
and optimizing the cultivation conditions, Koch discovered
ideal conditions which favour cyanobacterial growth and
carbon flux going towards PHB.
Although many researchers worldwide have already tried
to improve cyanobacteria for the production of bioplastics,
most of them had only limited success. Based on the recent
results, the group from Tübingen was able to demonstrate for
the first time, which metabolic potential cyanobacteria have,
and that they can compete with currently used, heterotrophic
bacteria, which still rely on sugars as a carbon source.
This brings cyanobacteria, for the first time, in the range of
an economically feasible PHB production (Figure 4).
20 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16

What’s next
So far, most of the work on cyanobacteria relies on
laboratory-scale experiments. In the next stage, the research
group plans to collaborate with companies, which will test the
technology in pilot plants. This will provide further insights
into how their sustainable production system can be upscaled.
However, until cyanobacteria are established for the mass
production of products like bioplastics, it will take years,
maybe even decades. Still, the long-term benefits are clear
and it is expected to see many more products which are based
on cyanobacteria. In the future, where more strict carbon
taxes are expected, carbon-neutral production systems, like
microalgae, become more economically feasible.
The company Photanol (Amsterdam, the Netherlands),
recently introduced in bioplastic MAGAZINE, is a great example
of how cyanobacteria can be produced on a larger scale for
the production of industrially relevant products. It is expected
that more companies like them will emerge in the future and
provide with their products a substantial contribution to the
way how we produce our everyday products.
Nevertheless, until this is the case, the pollution of our
environment continues, may it be in form of plastic trash in
the seas, or as CO 2
in the atmosphere. “Recent meta-studies
have shown very clearly that it requires our society to come up
with a more holistic solution to prevent the worst outcomes
of our most pressing ecological crises”, says Koch. “It will
not be sufficient, nor quick enough, to rely completely on
technological innovations”, he continues. “Instead, societal
as well as political changes, are required”, he says. “We
should hence advocate for a more sustainable society, which
can live within our planetary boundaries”. AT
Figure 1: Cyanobacterial culture
Figure 3: Moritz Koch, the leading researcher
From Science & Research
https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/
Figure 4: Cyanobacteria with PHB granules, before and after
optimization
Figure 2: Microscopic picture of the individual cells
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 21

From Science & Research
Turning CO 2
emissions
into bioplastics:
The cases of succinic and lactic in VIVALDI
European research project VIVALDI has put together a
multidisciplinary consortium to embrace the circularity
by converting CO 2
emissions into bioplastics. Taking
advantage of an innovative biobased value chain, biogenic
CO 2
emissions are turned into industrially relevant
organic acids, which can re-enter the production process
flowchart of biorefineries.
The yearly increasing industrial CO 2
emissions should not
only be reduced or mitigated but should also be adopted as
a novel feedstock. The need for CO 2
valorisation creates a
demand for a novel industrial sector: CO 2
-based chemicals.
This encourages industries to abandon the conventional
linear structure (i.e. fossil-based reagents are transformed
into products and wastes to be disposed of or treated) and
switch to a circular concept where the wastes (gaseous or
liquid) are transformed into novel sustainable compounds
to be reused in the plant flowchart or to be sold externally.
In the frame of a circular economy, the production of CO 2
-
based bioplastics is a promising niche for novel business
models and the market share of bioplastics is foreseen to
increase rapidly [1]. The main factors driving the development
of CO 2
-based bioplastics are:
• the distinction from the current fluctuations
of fossil fuel prices,
• reduction of the carbon footprint,
• decrease of the production costs and
• reuse of the local materials and wastes.
However, nowadays a direct production of bioplastics from
CO 2
is not techno-economically feasible and the process
requires multiple steps. The most sustainable and economic
alternative is to first reduce CO 2
electrochemically to C1-
building blocks (C1BBs) which will then serve as feedstock
for their posterior microbial conversion into larger molecules
with higher added-value [2]. Biobased products are shown
to provide significant GHG savings (15–66 %) if we assume
that they will replace 20 % of their fossil counterparts in the
mid-term future [3]. Hermann et al. [4] predict a range of
GHG savings of 1.5 to 3 tonnes of CO 2
per tonne of selected
biobased products, assuming full substitution of the
petrochemical equivalents and based on world production
capacities in the years 1999/2000.
VIVALDI aligns with this new CO 2
-based industry sector
in the view of making it environmentally and economically
competitive with its current twin, chemical production. The
main objective of VIVALDI is the development, validation,
and assessment of an innovative biobased value chain for
the conversion of CO 2
emissions coming from biobased
industries into added-value organic acids with different
market shares: 3-hydroxypropionic, succinic, itaconic, and
lactic acid. All of these selected organic acids have a variety
of opportunities either as final products (i.e. replacement of
current fossil-based chemical products) or as monomers
(building blocks for novel biodegradable polymers).
Succinic acid
Succinic acid has been described as one of the top 12
building block chemicals and one of the 10 top chemicals
to be produced from renewable resources [5,6]. Currently,
more than 30 commercially valuable products can be
synthetised from succinic acid in sectors varying from
food (acidulant, flavour, and antimicrobial agent) and
pharmaceuticals (excipient) to personal care (soaps) and
chemicals (pesticides, dyes, and lacquers). Succinic acid
could also replace other chemicals such as maleic anhydride
in the production of various chemicals (e.g. 1,4-butanediol,
γ-butyrolactone, tetrahydrofuran, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone,
2-pyrrolidone, succinimide, or succinicesters). Succinic
acid consumption increased from 28,500 tonnes in 2013
to 50,300 tonnes in 2017 and it is expected to reach 97,000
tonnes by 2024. The succinic acid market is expected to
grow with an annual growth rate of 6.69 % from 2021 to
2027 [7]. Succinic acid is produced chemically by catalytic
hydrogenation of fossil-based maleic acid or maleic
anhydride. However, the chemical production possesses
several environmental drawbacks and high economic costs:
hydrogenation is energy-intensive due to the need to produce
hydrogen and maleic acid is derived by hydrolysis of maleic
anhydride (which is being produced by oxidation of benzene
or butane) [8]. These issues can be mitigated by switching
to bioproduction based on the bacterial fermentation of
carbohydrates. Until recently, petrochemical-based succinic
acid dominated the market and up to 2011 biobased succinic
acid production was reported to be less than 5 % of the total
production. However, these trends are changing fast and
the market for biobased succinic acid is growing rapidly. In
the case of companies producing biobased succinic acid,
Succinity (Düsseldorf, Germany) reported a reduction of more
than 60 % in GHG emissions and Roquette (Lestrem, France)
reported a reduction of 52 % in CO 2
emissions as compared
to petroleum-based succinic acid production.
Lactic acid
Lactic acid has a wide range of applications not only in the
food production sector (preservative and pH adjusting agent)
but also in personal care (moisturising and pH regulating)
and packaging (precursor of propylene glycol). The global
lactic acid market required was 1.220 million tonnes in 2016
and the demand is rising with prospections of it reaching
2 million tonnes in 2025 with annual growth of 16.2 % [9].
From 2021–2028, the lactic acid market is forecast to grow at
22 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17

a compound annual growth rate of 8 % [10]. The main driver
of the predicted large growth rate is the biobased production
of polylactic acid (PLA), which is widely utilised e.g. in food
packaging, mulch films, and rubbish bags. Lactic acid can be
chemically synthesized e.g. by lactonitrile hydrolysis, basecatalysed
degradation of sugars, and oxidation of propylene
glycol [11]. Chemical production of lactic acid, however,
leads to racemic mixtures, which restricts the use of the
products in industries that require high enantiomeric purity.
Fermentation enables stereoselective production of lactic
acid and allows the use of cheap renewables as substrates,
a lower amount of energy consumption and operation at
milder temperatures. Fermentation processes account for
around 80–90 % of the global lactic acid market [9]. Adom
and Dunn (2016) reported lower GHG emissions (23–90 %)
of bio-based ethyl lactate and PLA than with their respective
fossil-derived compounds [12]. Lactic acid producer Corbion
(Amsterdam, the Netherlands) states that their biobased
LA production process has negative CO 2
emissions (–0.224
tonnes of CO 2
per tonne of LA).
VIVALDI’s approach for the bioproduction of the organic
acids is a yeast-based platform utilising methanol
as the carbon source. Methanol will be produced via
electrochemical reduction of CO 2
that has been captured
By:
By Albert Guisasola (Project coordinator), Mira Sulonen
Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona
Diethard Mattanovich
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Geert Bruggeman, Nutrition Sciences
Roberto Vallero, Maria Teresa Riolo, Pieter Ravaglia, Novamont
from emissions from biobased industries. The process thus
integrates the CO 2
emissions in the production of addedvalue
compounds that can then re-enter the production
process of biomaterials. Methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris
(Komagataella phaffii) is capable of oxidising methanol for
energy production and assimilating it as the sole carbon
source for growth and product formation. Selected gene
sequences will be introduced to the genome of this naturally
C1-utilizing yeast to direct its metabolism towards an optimal
production of the desired organic acids. Synthetic biology
technologies are applied to add the missing enzymes to
convert metabolic intermediates into the target chemicals,
as well as transport proteins that enable the release of the
products from the yeast cells. Taking the bioconversion a
step further, VIVALDI will also apply a synthetic autotrophic
yeast strain that directly assimilates CO 2
and converts it into
metabolites and biomass [13].
VIVALDI aims at a fast industrial adoption of its
technologies and with this perspective the industrial partners
have a crucial role in valorising the CO 2
-based products in
the plant flowchart. CO 2
streams coming from biobased
industries, such as the fermentation processes in Novamont
(Novara, Italy) – a worldwide leader in the development
and production of biomaterials from renewable sources
From Science & Research
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17 23

From Science & Research
biogenic CO 2
streams – are converted into biosuccinic
acid. This will translate into the opportunity to close the
carbon loop of the process and to obtain a valuable building
block that Novamont can integrate into its production of
biodegradable and compostable biomaterials for application
in different sectors (e.g. packaging, biowaste collection,
agriculture) to further enhance the renewable content of
the final biobased products. In this way, the biogenic CO 2
becomes a valuable feedstock, allowing additional reduction
of GHG emissions of the process and boosting Novamont
implementation to become a nearly zero-waste biorefinery.
Nutrition Science is a private company that supplies
sustainable and economically viable solutions for the
efficient production of animal feed and feed ingredients
within the food value chain. Their participation in VIVALDI
provides the project with an excellent opportunity to evaluate
the potential of CO 2
-based bio-lactic acid in the animal feed
industry while at the same time giving Nutrition Science a
platform to explore the conversion of farm-generated gases
to value-added compounds that can be utilised at the site.
Lactic acid is added to the feed for two reasons:
to improve the taste and as a result also the organoleptic
perception and the feed intake and
to inhibit the growth of pathogens in the gut.
The downstream processing is designed to ensure that
the produced lactic acid fulfils the requirements of specific
legislation and does not contain any critical contaminants.
Overall, the CO 2
-based industry aiming at the production
of bioplastics provides an exciting opportunity in the view of
a more sustainable chemical industry. The main sources of
reduction of GHG emissions reduction are:
• preventing CO 2
release,
• decreasing the use of fossil-based resources for their
chemical synthesis and
• designing efficient fermentation and
downstream processing.
For example, for most acids, recovery should be carried
out at low pH (below the product pKa) and yeasts, such
as P. pastoris, can tolerate such low pH conditions, which
was found to have a significantly lower impact on energy
utilisation (38–51 %) and climate change (67–92 %) in the
posterior downstream processing when compared to the
petrochemical counterparts [8].
www.vivaldi-h2020.eu
References
[1] European Commission, A European Strategy for Plastics, Eur. Com.
(2018) 24. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368.
[2] P. Izadi & F. Harnisch. “Microbial| electrochemical CO 2
reduction:
To integrate or not to integrate?”. Joule (2022) In press. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.04.005
[3] COWI A/S, Utrecht University, Environmental impact assessment of
innovative bio-based products – Summary of methodology and conclusions,
2018. https://doi.org/10.2777/83590.
[4] B.G. Hermann, K. Blok, M.K. Patel, Producing bio-based bulk chemicals
using industrial biotechnology saves energy and combats climate change,
Environ. Sci. Technol. 41 (2007) 7915–7921. https://doi.org/10.1021/
es062559q.
[5] E. Mancini, S.S. Mansouri, K. V Gernaey, J. Luo, M. Pinelo, From second
generation feed-stocks to innovative fermentation and downstream
techniques for succinic acid production, Crit. Rev. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50
(2020) 1829–1873. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2019.1670530.
[6] J. Becker, A. Lange, J. Fabarius, C. Wittmann, Top value platform
chemicals: bio-based production of organic acids, Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 36
(2015) 168–175. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2015.08.022.
[7] 2021 Global Forecast for Succinic Acid Market (2022-2027 Outlook) –
High Tech & Emerging Markets Report, Barnes reports.
[8] B. Cok, I. Tsiropoulos, A.L. Roes, M.K. Patel, Succinic acid production
derived from carbohydrates: An energy and greenhouse gas assessment
of a platform chemical toward a bio-based economy, Biofuels, Bioprod.
Biorefining. 8 (2014) 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.1427.
[9] R.A. de Oliveira, A. Komesu, C.E.V. Rossell, and R. Maciel Filho,
Challenges and opportunities in lactic acid bioprocess design—From
economic to production aspects. Biochemical Engineering Journal 133
(2018) 219–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bej.2018.03.003
[10] Grand View Research (GVR). (2021). Lactic acid market size, share
& trends analysis report by raw material (sugarcane, corn, cassava), by
application (PLA, food, & beverages), by region, and segment forecasts,
2021–2028.
[11] A. Djukić-Vuković, D. Mladenović, J. Ivanović, J. Pejin, & L. Mojović,
Towards sustainability of lactic acid and poly-lactic acid polymers
production. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 108 (2019) 238–252.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.03.050
[12] F. K. Adom, & J. B. Dunn, Life cycle analysis of corn-stover-derived
polymer-grade l-lactic acid and ethyl lactate: greenhouse gas emissions
and fossil energy consumption. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining 11(2)
(2017) 258–268. https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.1734
[13] T. Gassler, M. Sauer, B. Gasser, M. Egermeier, C. Troyer, T. Causon, S.
Hann, D. Mattanovich& M.G. Steiger, The industrial yeast Pichia pastoris is
converted from a heterotroph into an autotroph capable of growth on CO2.
Nature Biotechnology 38(2) (2020) 210–216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-
019-0363-0.
24 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17

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, IL, USA),
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA), and Oak Ridge
National Lab (Oak Ridge, TN, 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 carbon-negative platform could reduce GHG by over
160 %, playing a critical role in helping the USA reach a netzero
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 ethanolproducing
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 of Chemical and Biological Engineering at
Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and
director of the Centre 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
modelling, 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
were 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.
Genome
Mining
www.lanzatech.com | www.northwestern.edu | www.ornl.gov
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
From Science & Research
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 25

From Science & Research
Print, recycle, repeat –
biodegradable printed circuits
A
Berkeley Lab-led research team has developed a
fully recyclable and biodegradable printed circuit.
The advance could divert wearable devices and other
flexible electronics from landfill, and mitigate the health and
environmental hazards posed by heavy metal waste.
According to the United Nations, less than a quarter of all
U.S. electronic waste gets recycled [1]. In 2021 alone, global
e-waste surged to 57.4 million tonnes, and only 17.4 % of
that was recycled [2].
Some experts predict that our e-waste problem will only
get worse over time because most electronics on the market
today are designed for portability, not recyclability. Tablets
and readers, for example, are assembled by glueing circuits,
chips, and hard drives to thin layers of plastic, which must
be melted to extract precious metals like copper and gold.
Burning plastic releases toxic gases into the atmosphere,
and electronics waste away in landfill often contain harmful
materials like mercury, lead, and beryllium.
learned that BC-lipase is a finicky eater. Before a lipase can
convert a polymer chain into monomers, it must first catch
the end of a polymer chain. By controlling when the lipase
finds the chain end, it is possible to ensure the materials
don’t degrade until the water reaches a certain temperature.
For the current study, Xu and her team simplified the
process even further. Instead of expensive purified enzymes,
the biodegradable printed circuits rely on cheaper, shelfready
BC lipase “cocktails”. This significantly reduces
costs, facilitating the printed circuit’s entry into mass
manufacturing, Xu said.
By doing so, the researchers advanced the technology,
enabling them to develop a printable conductive ink composed
of biodegradable polyester binders (polycaprolactone),
conductive fillers such as silver flakes or carbon black,
and commercially available enzyme cocktails. The ink gets
its electrical conductivity from the silver or carbon black
particles, and the biodegradable polyester binders act as glue.
But now, a team of researchers from the Department of
Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) and UC Berkeley (Berkeley, CA, USA) have developed
a potential solution: a fully recyclable and biodegradable
printed circuit. The researchers, who reported the new device
in the journal Advanced Materials, say that the advance could
divert wearable devices and other flexible electronics from
landfill, and mitigate the health and environmental hazards
posed by heavy metal waste.
The researchers supplied a commercial 3D printer with the
conductive ink to print circuit patterns onto various surfaces
such as hard biodegradable plastic, flexible biodegradable
plastic, and cloth. This proved that the ink adheres to a variety
of materials and forms an integrated device once the ink
dries. Circuits were printed with flexibility (breaking strain
≈80 %) and conductivity (≈2.1 × 10 4 S m −1 ).
“When it comes to plastic e-waste, it’s easy to say it’s
impossible to solve and walk away”, said senior author Ting
Xu, a faculty senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials
Sciences Division, and professor of chemistry and materials
science and engineering at UC Berkeley. “But scientists
are finding more evidence of significant health and
environmental concerns caused by e-waste leaching into
the soil and groundwater. With this study, we’re showing that
even though you can’t solve the whole problem yet, you can at
least tackle the problem of recovering heavy metals without
polluting the environment”.
Putting enzymes to work
In a previous study, Xu and her team demonstrated a
biodegradable plastic material embedded with purified
enzymes such as Burkholderia cepacian lipase (BC-lipase)
[3]. Through that work, they discovered that hot water
activates BC-lipase, prompting the enzyme to degrade
polymer chains into monomer building blocks. They also
Junpyo Kwon, a Ph.D. student researcher from the Xu Group
at UC Berkeley, is shown holding a recyclable, biodegradable
printed circuit. The advance could divert wearable devices and
other flexible electronics from landfill and mitigate the health
and environmental hazards posed by heavy metal waste. (Credit:
Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab)
26 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17

To test its shelf life and durability, the researchers
stored a printed circuit in a laboratory drawer without
controlled humidity or temperature for seven months. After
pulling the circuit from storage, the researchers applied
continuous electrical voltage to the device for a month and
found that the circuit conducted electricity just as well as
it did before storage.
From Science & Research
Next, the researchers put the device’s recyclability to test
by immersing it in warm water. Within 72 hours, the circuit
materials degraded into their constituent parts – the silver
particles completely separated from the polymer binders,
and the polymers broke down into reusable monomers,
allowing the researchers to easily recover the metals without
additional processing. By the end of this experiment, they
determined that approximately 94 % of the silver particles
can be recycled and reused with similar device performance.
Xu attributes the working enzymes’ longevity to the
biodegradable plastic’s molecular structure. In their previous
study, the researchers learned that adding an enzyme
protectant called random heteropolymer, or RHP, helps to
disperse the enzymes within the mixture in clusters a few
nanometres (billionths of a metre) in size. This creates a
safe place in the plastic for enzymes to lie dormant until
they’re called to action.
The circuit also shows promise as a sustainable alternative
to single-use plastics used in transient electronics – devices
such as biomedical implants or environmental sensors
that disintegrate over a period of time, said lead author
Junpyo Kwon, a PhD student researcher from the Xu
Group at UC Berkeley.
Now that they’ve demonstrated a biodegradable and
recyclable printed circuit, Xu wants to demonstrate a
printable, recyclable, and biodegradable microchip.
That the circuit’s degradability continued after 30 days
of operation surprised the researchers, suggesting that
the enzymes were still active. “We were surprised that the
enzymes ‘lived’ for so long. Enzymes aren’t designed to work
in an electric field”, Xu said.
For more in-depth information:
https://bit.ly/print-recycle-repeat
[1] https://time.com/5594380/world-electronic-waste-problem/
[2] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/international-e-waste-day-2021/
[3] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/04/21/compostable-plastic-nature/
“Given how sophisticated chips are nowadays, this
certainly won’t be easy. But we have to try and give our
level best”, she said.
This work was supported by the United States Department
of Energy, Office of Science. Additional funding was
provided by the United States Department of Defense,
Army Research Office.
The technology is available for licensing through UC
Berkeley’s Office of Technology Licensing. AT
https://www.lbl.gov/
Images copyright by The Regents of the University of California, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory.
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17
27

Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
From cotton rag to
modern functional textiles
Every year, an estimated 25 million tonnes of cotton
textiles are discarded around the world. In total, 100
million tonnes of textiles are thrown out. In Sweden
barely 5 % is recycled, most of the material goes straight
into an incinerator and becomes district heating. In other
places, it is even worse, as clothes usually end up in landfills.
“Considering that cotton is a renewable resource, this is not
particularly energy-efficient”, says Edvin Ruuth, a researcher
in chemical engineering at Lund University. “Some fabrics
still have such strong fibres that they can be reused. This is
done today and could be done even more in future. But a lot
of the fabric that is discarded has fibres that are too short for
reuse, and sooner or later all cotton fibres become too short
for the process known as fibre regeneration”.
Now the researchers succeeded in breaking down the plant
fibre in cotton – the cellulose – into smaller components.
The process involves soaking the fabrics in sulphuric acid.
The result is a clear, dark, amber-coloured sugar solution.
“The secret is to find the right combination of temperature
and sulphuric acid concentration”, explains Ruuth, who
fine-tuned the recipe together with doctoral student Miguel
Sanchis-Sebastiá and Professor Ola Wallberg.
Glucose is a very flexible molecule and has many
potential uses, according to Ruuth. “Our plan is to produce
chemicals which in turn can become various types of textiles,
including spandex and nylon. An alternative use could be
to produce ethanol”.
One advantage of this step would be to keep the value of the
original biobased material, cotton, within the textile industry
value chain. This would reduce the waste produced by the
industry, while at the same time reducing the amount of raw
material needed for textile production.
One of the challenges is overcoming the complex structure
of cotton cellulose. “What makes cotton unique is that its
cellulose has high crystallinity. This makes it difficult to break
down the chemicals and reuse their components. In addition,
there are a lot of surface treatment substances, dyes, and
other pollutants which must be removed. And structurally,
a terrycloth towel and an old pair of jeans are very
different”, says Ruuth.
The concept of hydrolyzing pure cotton is nothing new per
se, the difficulty has been to make the process effective,
economically viable, and attractive. When Ruuth started
making glucose out of fabrics a year ago, the return was a
paltry 3–4 %. Now he and his colleagues have reached as much
as 90 %. Once the recipe formulation is complete, it will be
both relatively simple and cheap to use.
However, for the process to become a reality, the logistics
must work. There is currently no established way of
managing and sorting various textiles that are not sent to
ordinary clothing donation points. Fortunately, a recycling
centre unlike any other in the world is currently under
construction in Malmö, where clothing is sorted automatically
using a sensor. The aim is to use recycled textiles to make
padding, insulation, and cloth for industrial cleaning, slowly
increasing the amount of textiles recycled from 3,000 to
16,000 tonnes over five years. The project marks the third
phase of the Swedish Innovation Platform for Textile Sorting
(Siptex), coordinated by IVL Swedish Environmental Research
Institute, and comes after a successful pilot project in Avesta.
Once the technology from Lund is in place, it may be possible
to not only reduce the proportion of fabrics going to district
heating but also increase the quality of the recycled fabrics,
avoiding down-cycling as much as possible. The research
was recently awarded EUR 590,000 (SEK 6 million) in funding
by the Swedish Energy Agency. AT
Reference:
Miguel Sanchis-Sebastiá, Edvin Ruuth, Lars Stigsson, Mats Galbe, Ola
Wallberg. Novel sustainable alternatives for the fashion industry: A
method of chemically recycling waste textiles via acid hydrolysis. Waste
Management, 2021; 121: 248 DOI:10.1016/j.wasman.2020.12.024
https://www.ivl.se/ | https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/
Edvin Ruuth of Lund University (screenshot from the video clip
© Lund University)
Cotton waste (left), clear, dark, amber-coloured sugar solution
(right) (screenshot from the video clip © Lund University)
Info
See a video-clip at:
https://youtu.be/B1V-
-prLs08
28 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16

Enzymatic degradation of used textiles
for biological textile recycling
The competence centre Bio4MatPro is part of the
Bioeconomy Model Region initiative in the Rhenish
Mining Area and funded by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The ambition of
Bio4MatPro is the biological conversion of different industries
such as chemicals, consumer goods, and textiles to become
an essential part of a circular (bio)economy. The project
EnzyDegTex focuses on the biological transformation of
textile recycling using enzymatic degradation and microbial
synthesis of chemical base materials and (bio)polymers.
Safeguarding economic resources and capacities in the
Rhenish Mining Area, Germany, and Europe, the development
and expansion of circular economies will be an important
aspect in the future. Textile waste is currently disposed of in a
linear rather than circular manner. Thus, there is a very high,
almost entirely untapped potential for establishing circular
economic processes for textiles. More than 1.5 million tonnes
of post-consumer textile waste are generated annually from
private households in Germany [1]. Recycling textiles poses
challenges due to the complexity of textile constructions
with diverse, often unknown manufacturer-dependent
mixes of different fibre materials, extensive use of additives
and dyes, and multi-layer constructions with mechanically
inseparable layers. Therefore, recyclin widely used textiles
such as polyester-cotton blends is challenging with the
recycling approaches available today. Instead, the majority
of textile waste is currently downcycled once into low-quality
products like painting fleeces or insulation materials, which
are disposed of later at the end of their second use phase.
The aim of project EnzyDegTex is to close the loop of textile
recycling and to provide renewed raw materials from textile
waste for the chemical, plastics, and textile industries. The
use of enzymes enables selective degradation of materials
present in textiles, e.g. polyesters in polyester-cotton blends.
Thus, custom-fit recycling processes can be designed using
the enzymatic approach, so that complex textile constructions
can be treated and respective raw materials returned.
For the development of the EnzyDegTex recycling
process, process chains with the following sub-steps
are being investigated:
• Selection and preparation of the textile waste
• Development and implementation of the
enzymatic degradation
• Enrichment and purification of suitable
degradation products
• Microbial synthesis of chemical
base materials and polymers
• Development and validation of
suitable spinning processes
• Development of textile products
The development of enzymatic degradation processes
includes the screening and engineering of promising
enzymes that can specifically degrade synthetic polymers or
typical additives and dyes from textile material blends. The
degradation products are subsequently used as feedstock
for the microbial synthesis of textile raw materials. Target
raw materials are, for example, mono – and oligomers
for the synthesis of melt – or solvent-spinnable polymers.
The spinnability of the purified polymers is first evaluated
through polymer characterisation measurements and
spinning trials on lab-scale spinning plants. Subsequently,
melt and solvent spinning processes at a pilot scale are
developed for suitable polymers. The resulting yarns are
further processed into textile demonstrators as nonwovens,
weaves, or knits using classic textile surface manufacturing
processes. In addition, the yarn and textile properties are
characterised and compared to benchmark products from
clothing applications. After three successful project years,
the feasibility of biological textile recycling into new chemical
base materials and textile products is demonstrated.
The implementation of developed products and processes
in the Rhenish Mining Area has great potential to play a key
role in transforming the linear textile disposal into a circular
(bio)economy. With the high availability of textile waste and
the local biochemical industry, the region has excellent
conditions for creating valuable products from textile
waste and new jobs. Moreover, in terms of sustainability,
a contribution towards resource efficiency will be made
and the amount of incinerated or exported and landfilled
textiles will be reduced.
www.ita.rwth-aachen.de
Project partners from RWTH Aachen University:
Institute of Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
Institute of Applied Microbiology (iAMB)
Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA)
By:
Ricarda Wissel, Stefan Schonauer,
Henning Löcken, Thomas Gries
ITA Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen
University, Aachen, Germany
Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
Enzyme for polyester
degradation from textile waste
[1] bvse e.V: Bedarf, Konsum, Wiederverwendung und Verwertung von
Bekleidung und Textilien in Deutschland, 2020, URL: https://bit.ly/
bvse-studie2020
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16 29

Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
First fabric created using
recycled carbon emissions
Biotechnology company LanzaTech (Skokie, IL, USA)
today announced it has partnered with lululemon
athletica inc. (Vancouver, Canada), an athletic apparel
company, to create the world’s first yarn and fabric using
recycled carbon emissions that would otherwise be emitted to
the atmosphere as pollution. LanzaTech uses nature-based
solutions to produce ethanol from waste carbon sources and
is working with partners India Glycols Limited (IGL) (Noida,
India) and Far Eastern New Century (FENC) (Taipei, Taiwan)
to convert ethanol to polyester.
Recycling carbon is a fundamental element of the circular
economy, which will keep fossil carbon in the ground,
reducing pollution and fossil fuel usage when used to make
polyester. With a lower carbon footprint, this innovation could
transform lululemon’s products and the apparel industry.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech said, “We must
radically change how we source, utilize, and dispose of
carbon. Carbon recycling enables companies like lululemon
to continue to move away from virgin fossil resources, bring
circularity to their products, and achieve their climate
change goals around carbon reduction. We call this
being ‘CarbonSmart.’”
Ted Dagnese, Chief Supply Chain Officer, lululemon said,
“Lululemon is committed to making products that are better
in every way – building a healthier future for ourselves, for
our communities, and for our planet. We know sustainable
innovation will play a key role in the future of retail and apparel,
and we are excited to be at the forefront of an innovative
technology. Our partnership with LanzaTech will help
lululemon deliver on our Impact Agenda goals to make 100 %
of our products with sustainable materials and end-of-use
solutions, moving us toward a circular ecosystem by 2030”.
In October, lululemon released its first Impact Agenda,
outlining its multi-year strategies to address critical
social and environmental issues with 12 goals to drive
progress. The partnership with LanzaTech is one of
the many ways lululemon is focused on bringing new
technologies to the business.
Polyester fibre is one of the most popular synthetic fibres
which commonly uses petroleum-based feedstock. Using
FENC ® TOPGREEN ® Bio3-PET fibre made from LanzaTech’s
ethanol shows FENC’s and lululemon’s commitments to
sustainable innovation. This waste-gas-based polyester
possesses not only the same appearance but also the same
properties and functionality of virgin polyester.
Industrial emissions, such as those from a steel mill,
would otherwise be combusted and emitted as GHGs and
particulate emissions harmful to the health of our planet and
our communities. By capturing these and reusing the carbon
to make yarn, the finished garments not only have a lower
carbon footprint but ensure community pollution levels are
reduced. If these chemicals are made into new products such
as textiles, once these products reach the end of their useful
life and become waste, they can be gasified and fermented
by LanzaTech’s process. In this sense, the pathway promotes
circularity, keeping the carbon in the material cycle.
“Partnering with technology leaders and other reputed
companies is a great way to create the much needed
sustainable business models which are so important to
help us deal with the major challenges like climate change
that we face,” commented US Bhartia, Chairman of IGL.
Rupark Sarswat, CEO, IGL said, “We take pride in being part
of this exciting collaboration for a better planet and what
better way than to capture emissions and use innovative
green technologies to create useful CarbonSmart products”.
Fanny Liao, EVP of RD & BD, FENC said, “Since initially
connecting LanzaTech’s Taiwanese joint-venture setup
with a pilot plant in Taiwan, I believed this waste-gas-based
polyester formation would be a sustainable solution for the
polyester industry. We are happy to team up with IGL and
lululemon to complete the supply chain for this historical
project and continue working with LanzaTech towards our
common goal for a better Earth”. AT
https://www.lanzatech.com/ | https://www.lululemon.de/ |
https://www.fenc.com | https://www.indiaglycols.com/
LanzaTech’s process sources carbon from different types
of feedstocks, from industrial emissions to syngas from
gasified agricultural or household waste (including textile
waste) and atmospheric CO 2
. The gas stream is fermented
by LanzaTech’s special microorganisms into ethanol or other
chemicals. The process is like traditional fermentation,
except instead of sugars and yeast, it uses the carbon
contained in waste gases and the microorganisms.
The process of capturing and recycling carbon before
it is released in the atmosphere is an innovation that
LanzaTech has brought to airlines, home care companies,
and now textile production.
30 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/21] Vol. 16

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
Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/21] Vol. 16 31

Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens
Upcycling
process for
PAN from
textile waste
Most synthetic fibres are made from fossil material
sources. Since these are only available in finite
quantities and their use is not always compatible
with today’s environmental goals, it is necessary to develop
an innovative recycling process and close material cycles.
Currently, polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-containing waste
from production and end-of-use waste is sent for thermal
waste treatment, used as a filler, or processed into lowvalue
blended yarns. Although energy recovery is possible,
incineration also releases harmful emissions, and the
material can no longer be fed into a cycle [1]. At the ITA of
the RWTH Aachen University, approaches to the chemical
recycling of PAN fibres are being pursued under the project
name industrial RePAN, as a step towards a closed-loop
economy. The technical feasibility along the entire process
chain from polymer recovery and fibre production up until the
finished product (blankets) is being mapped.
By:
S. Schonauer & T. Gries
Institute of Textile Technology,
RWTH Aachen University
Aachen, Germany
Figure 2: Small scarf containing 50 % recycled PAN
Assuming that newly acquired products replace old
textiles, around 24,500 tonnes of end-of-use waste is
annually generated in the house and home textiles sector
in Germany. Even if only half of this waste could be recycled,
it would offer 12,250 tonnes of new resources. During the
production of PAN staple fibres, about 1 % by weight, and
additionally during processing up to 10 % by weight, of fibre
materials are generated as production waste [2, 3]. This type
of waste served as a secondary raw material source for
these research trials.
The individual stages of the process are presented in
Figure 1, starting with the collection of textile waste from
the blanket production. The waste is dissolved in DMSO
(dimethyl sulphoxide) and chemically precipitated to
produce RePAN-pellets.
During the preparation of the spinning solution, RePANpellets
are mixed with new PAN-powder to equal parts,
resulting in a 50 % – RePAN solution. These fibres with 50 %
recycled material could be spun into yarns that could meet
the same requirements as virgin material.
These characteristics of the produced RePAN fibres,
therefore, lead to the assumption that an industrial feasibility
of recycled fibres is possible. The scientists are now proofing
the processability of the yarns and upscaling to semiindustrial
scale. Figure 2 shows a product using RePAN fibres.
[1] Gries, T.: Fibre-tables based on P.-A. Koch, Polyacrylic fibres, 6. Issue,
2002
[2] Herbert, C. (Research and development at Dralon GmbH): Interview,
25.05.2016
[3] Rensmann, R. (managing director of Hermann Biederlack GmbH + Co
KG): Interview, 25.05.2016
www.ita.rwth-aachen.de
Figure 1:
Recycling
process from
waste to new
yarn
Textile waste
RePAN-pellets
Spinning solution
Staple fibres
32 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17

Biogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2
)
for plastic production
Materials manufacturer Covestro (Leverkusen,
Germany) and SOL Kohlensäure (Burgbrohl,
Germany) have concluded a framework agreement
for a supply partnership for biogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2
).
With immediate effect, SOL, as one of the most important
European suppliers of gases and gas services, will supply
the liquefied gas to Covestro sites in North Rhine-Westphalia,
where it will be used to produce plastics such as MDI
(methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) and polycarbonate. Under
the terms of the framework agreement, SOL Kohlensäure
will already supply up to 1,000 tonnes of biogenic CO 2
this
year. From 2023, the supply volume is to be further increased
substantially, enabling Covestro to save the same amount of
CO 2
from fossil sources at its NRW sites.
“We have set ourselves the goal to become fully circular.
To this end, we want to convert our raw material base to
100 % renewable sources. We are very pleased to have found
a partner in SOL Kohlensäure who will support us in this
transformation with a pioneering spirit”, explains Daniel
Koch, Head of NRW Plants at Covestro.
“We at SOL Kohlensäure are advancing the shift to more
sustainable CO 2
sources. In this way, we are increasing
security of supply, becoming independent of fossil raw
materials, and reducing our environmental footprint
at the same time”, emphasizes Falko Probst, Sales
Manager at SOL Kohlensäure.
From waste product to raw material
The CO 2
used is obtained by SOL Kohlensäure from
various sources, such as bioethanol and biogas plants. In
these plants, CO 2
is produced as a by-product during the
treatment of various biomasses, such as plant residues. This
is separated by SOL Kohlensäure, purified and then made
available to Covestro production as a raw material.
In this way, the supply partnership supports the circular
concept and contributes to reducing emissions.
Covestro’s Lower Rhine sites in Leverkusen, Dormagen,
and Krefeld-Uerdingen are ISCC PLUS certified and can
supply their customers with more sustainable products made
from renewable raw materials.
Goal of climate neutrality by 2035
Covestro has set itself the goal of becoming fully circular.
This also includes using alternative raw materials. Biomass,
CO 2
, as well as end-of-life materials and waste replace fossil
raw materials such as crude oil or natural gas. Carbon is
managed in a circular way. In realizing these ambitions, both
companies are relying on long-term supply partnerships.
In addition to biogenic CO 2
, Covestro is investigating the
use of other technical gases from renewable sources. The
materials manufacturer is already offering its customers
its first sustainable products, such as climate-neutral MDI.
With the expansion of its alternative raw material base, this
portfolio is set to grow further in the coming years.
ISCC (“International Sustainability and Carbon
Certification”) is an internationally recognized system for the
sustainability certification of biomass and bioenergy, among
others. The standard applies to all stages of the value chain
and is recognized worldwide. ISCC Plus also encompasses
other certification options for instance for technical-chemical
applications, such as plastics from biomass (see pp. 52). AT
https://www.covestro.com/
Biogenic gas being delivered, Luis Da Poca (SOL) connects the tank
Delivery of biogenic CO 2
to Covestro site in NRW
Inspection and acceptance of the delivery, from left to right:
Katharina Rudel, Chemical Technician Covestro; Marcus Ney, Plant
Manager Covestro; René Theisejans, Production Expert Covestro
CCU / Feedstock
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17
33

Feedstock
The future of Japan’s waste
Global warming and plastic pollution are among the
biggest challenges of our time. One strategy that
tries to tackle both problems simultaneously falls
into the areas of chemical recycling and renewable carbon
– using waste streams as a renewable feedstock for plastic
production. On the one hand, this idea would cut down on
the reliance on fossil resources, which would reduce global
warming by turning from a linear to a circular economy.
And on the other hand, it would fight plastic pollution as waste
would become a valuable resource, which puts a monetary
incentive on proper waste management.
One example of promising development on this front is
Japan. According to their Paris Climate commitments Japan
plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 % below
2013 levels by 2030 by utilizing a triple R strategy of reducing,
reusing, and recycling resources. And waste management is
going to play a crucial role in this.
Japan’s current waste situation
According to Sekisui Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan) around
60 million tonnes of combustible waste is generated in
Japan each year (based on a report by Japan’s Ministry of
the Environment), which equates to approx. 835 billion
MJ. To put this in perspective, the annual amount of fossil
resources used to produce plastic materials in Japan equates
to 630 billion MJ of energy (which is approx. 30 million tonnes)
(based on “Plastic Products, Plastic Waste and Resource
Recovery” issued by the Plastic Waste Management
Institute (PWMI) Japan). Currently, waste is usually either
incinerated for energy recovery, or worse ends up in a landfill.
The reason for that is simple, recycling these waste streams
is often difficult due to the composition and quality of the
waste, which can vary widely. While sorting technology for
plastic waste is theoretically available, often there is not
enough critical mass to make mechanical recycling a viable
economic option for the different materials. However, there
have been developments in recent years that could change
that current status quo.
Waste to chemicals – the urban oil fields
In 2017 a collaboration between Sekisui Chemical and
LanzaTech, (Skokie, Illinois, USA) was announced which was
arguable the first step toward the future of Japanese waste
management. The collaboration builds on fermentation
technology that uses bacteria to transform gases into ethanol,
and a variety of other chemicals, which LanzaTech developed
in 2013. These engineered microbes, with a reaction speed
10 times that of native microorganisms, have the advantage
of being able to achieve high-speed production adequately
meeting industrial levels. Furthermore, the technology does
not require any additional energy input, potentially making it
a cost-competitive alternative to fossil resources.
In 2014 Sekisui Chemical started to bring the technology
to industrial scale with a pilot plant in cooperation with
ORIX Environmental Resources Management Corporation
(Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan) within the premises of its waste
disposal facility in Yorii-machi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
It took three years of continuous development to apply the
technology at the sites gasification system, but the result
was the successful production of ethanol from waste with
extremely high production efficiency.
The implementation of this technology had to overcome
many hurdles as gas obtained from unsorted waste contains
a lot of impurities and is not easily compatible with living
microbial catalysts. Additional technologies were developed
to identify and purify the approx. 400 kinds of contaminants
contained in the gas, which can be monitored and
regulated in real time.
Ethanol has an annual market of approx. 750 million
litres, but it can also be transformed into ethylene which
makes up roughly 60 % of petrochemical products. By using
existing chemical processes to convert ethanol into ethylene
monomers and butadiene monomers, it is possible to derive
organic chemical materials such as well-known commodity
plastics. This means that this technology does not only
function as an alternative to fossil resources but can further
be a major part of a circular plastic economy. For Japan, it
would also lead to increased self-sufficiency in the energy
sector as ethanol fuel is currently almost entirely imported.
“We must focus on using carbon for products, not power,
giving carbon a second chance of life”, said LanzaTech CEO,
Jennifer Holmgren. “Imagine being able to look at your trash
can and know that you can lock all that waste carbon into a
circular system, avoiding CO 2
emissions and maximising our
precious carbon resources. That is a carbon smart future!”
Expanding the scope
With the foundation technology developed with LanzaTech
at its back, Sekisui Chemical made the next steps in 2020.
On the one hand, Sekisui Chemical established a joint
venture with INCJ (Tokyo, Japan) intending to verify and
commercialize said foundation technology, and on the other
hand, Sekisui Chemical formed a strategic alliance with
Sumitomo Chemical Company (Tokyo, Japan), to develop
technology for manufacturing polyolefins from waste.
Joint Venture
The joint venture of Sekisui Chemical and INCJ, called
Sekisui Bio Refinery, plans to start operation of their
verification plant (Kuji City, Iwate, Japan) by the end of 2021.
The plant will have around 10 % capacity of a standardscale
waste disposal facility, which is a volume of approx.
20 tonnes/day of municipal solid waste. The produced ethanol
will be made available to companies in various industries
that use ethanol and are interested in assessing its quality
in a variety of products and businesses. The goal of these
initiatives is the full-scale commercialisation of the wasteto-ethanol
technology by 2025.
Strategic Alliance
As mentioned above, Sekisui Chemical and Sumitomo
Chemical formed a strategic alliance in 2020 with the goal of
manufacturing polyolefins from waste. The first step of this
technology has been already discussed at length in this article
– the production of ethanol from waste by Sekisui Chemical.
34 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16

By:
Alex Thielen
Sumitomo Chemical brings the other part of the equation
to the table, the manufacturing of polyolefins from ethanol.
Sumitomo Chemical has many years of experience in the
field of petrochemicals, with its own proprietary technologies
and know-how. This chemical recycling production pilot is
planned to begin in 2022, with Sekisui Chemical turning waste
into ethanol and Sumitomo Chemical using this ethanol as
raw material for polyolefin. A full-scale market launch of this
production method is expected in 2025.
Sumitomo Chemical aims to create a new value chain
contributing to a circular economy, by providing its customers
with chemically recycled polyolefin. For this effort, Sumitomo
Chemical signed a license agreement with Axens (Rueil-
Malmaison, France) for their ethanol-to-ethylene technology
Atol ® earlier this year. Axens’ Atol technology forms the most
recent step of this circular economy project in Japan. Atol is
the result of a partnership between Axens, Total (Courbevoie,
France), and IFPEN (Rueil-Malmaison, France). The ethylene
produced this way can replace fossil-based ethylene partially
or fully in various downstream polymerization installations
without requiring modifications and is therefore perfectly
suited for such a large-scale project.
How well these aspirations work out in practice remains
to be seen, but the groundwork for a systematic change in
waste management has been laid. The necessary technology
to turn waste into ethanol has been developed, scaled up,
and is in the process of commercialisation. The next step
of upcycling has been established in the strategic alliance,
which will at full roll-out enable the production of wastebased
polyolefin at an industrial scale. This will not only
accelerate the deployment of Japan’s circular economy,
it would also represent a leapfrog towards a sustainable
economy based on renewable carbon in general.
www.sekisuichemical.com | www.lanzatech.com |
www.orix.co.jp/grp/en | www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english |
www.incj.co.jp/english/ | www.axens.net
Feedstock
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/21] Vol. 16 35

Application
Zero Compromise? Beautiful.
In the beauty industry, consumers treat packaging as an
extension of the product itself. Bottles, jars, tubes, and
compacts must look and feel as luxurious as the products
they hold. A growing number of consumers search for beauty
that runs more than skin deep – in the form of products that
are made and packaged with sustainability in mind.
The consumer perspective
As of 2019, more than half (54 %) of sustainablyminded
U.S. consumers said they were much more
likely to purchase colour cosmetics from brands
offering recyclable or recycled content packaging [1].
This desire for sustainably packaged cosmetics has
not abated with the global pandemic. Findings from a
2021 Eastman (Kingsport, TN, USA) global consumer
survey suggest that it has grown even stronger, with
67 % of global skincare consumers indicating they
would purchase products more often from brands
that use recyclable or recycled content packaging [2].
There’s a catch, though. Eastman’s research also indicates
that compromising on design, clarity and quality of packaging
can reduce consumers’ likelihood to purchase skincare
products with recyclable packaging by half [2]. So consumers
want recycled content and recyclability, but that desire does
not detract from their high expectations for aesthetics.
These technologies create value from waste by using hardto-recycle
waste plastic, instead of fossil fuels, as feedstock.
Molecular recycling breaks down this waste plastic into its
molecular building blocks, and these basic components are
then used to produce new materials which are identical in
structure to those traditionally manufactured from fossil
fuels. The resulting products look and feel just like the
traditional materials that beauty brands use, with no decrease
in aesthetics or performance. Best of all, they generate
significant sustainability benefits – not only diverting plastic
waste from landfills and reducing reliance on fossil fuels
but also, in the case of Eastman’s technologies, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing
new plastic material when compared with traditional
manufacturing processes.
Switching to new materials often results in disruptive and
expensive manufacturing changes, such as retooling and
requalification. However, products made with molecular
recycling – since they are structurally identical to their virgin
counterparts – offer drop-in solutions which are compatible
with existing moulds. They can therefore be adopted quickly
and inexpensively, allowing brands to make rapid progress
towards their sustainability goals.
Brand impact
No more compromise
Exceptional clarity, brilliant colour and lustre, and
worry-free durability are marks of luxury in beauty
packaging. Molecularly recycled materials can meet
these high standards while providing the luxury
experience consumers expect. Traditionally recycled
plastics often suffer from challenges in aesthetics such
as poor colour or transparency. They look cloudy or
limit brands to thin, flimsy, or simply shaped packaging.
“At Eastman, we believe sustainability shouldn’t require a
compromise. This is a primary reason we have embraced
material-to-material molecular recycling technologies”,
said Tara Cary, segment market manager for cosmetic
packaging at Eastman.
Beauty industry leaders are already introducing molecular
recycled content into their packaging. Amorepacific (Seoul,
South Korea), Clio Cosmetics Seoul (South Korea), and LVMH
Perfumes & Cosmetics (Paris, France) are just a few examples
of the companies now using materials like Cristal Renew to
advance their packaging sustainability without compromising
performance. As more players in the beauty industry embrace
materials made with molecular recycled content, we can all
create a greater positive impact on our planet. AT
[1] Eastman U.S. Sustainable Leader Consumer Community, 2019, Color
Cosmetic Survey
[2] Eastman 2021 Global Skincare Study
www.eastman.com
36 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

Protective furniture packaging
from pyrolysis oil
Application
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
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 37

Blow Moulding
R-Cycle optimizes recycling
How is extrusion blow moulding driving the future circular economy?
Together with raw material manufacturer Braskem
(São Paulo, Brazil), plastic packaging manufacturer
KautexTextron (Bonn, Germany) and Dutch recycling
specialist Morssinkhoff Plastics (Zeewolde), Kautex
Maschinenbau (Bonn, Germany) has launched a second
R-Cycle pilot project “Smart digital watermark packaging in
Blow Molding”. The aim of the project is to make a further
contribution to the future functional circular economy.
extrusion blow moulding and feature a single-layer wall
made of PE. The bottle caps are also made of polyethylene
or polypropylene. The mono-design and the use of the same
material for the packaging components significantly improve
the recyclability of the packaging.
Document packaging properties with
digital product passport
Improving the recyclability of plastic packaging
in extrusion blow moulding
The project aims to cover as many consumer packaging
application areas as possible. The target products are
250ml beverage bottles, 1-litre cans for solid detergents,
3-litre handle bottles for household chemicals and 20-litre
canisters for chemicals. All bottles were produced by
R-Cycle provides an open and
globally applicable traceability
standard for an automated data
transfer process. All recyclingrelevant
information: the
manufacturer, the types
of plastic contained,
the proportion of
recycled and biobased
material, and details
of the packaging’s
application in the
food or non-food
sector are recorded
by the Kautex blow
moulding machine
during production
in the form of a digital
product
passport and stored on the R-Cycle server in the GS1 Global
Tracing Standard. A mark is placed on the containers to
identify and read this information in further processes up
to the waste sorting system. R-Cycle is open to a number
of different marking technologies, such as a QR code or
a digital watermark.
Info
You can scan
this image with
the Digimarc
Discover app
38 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17

In the pilot project presented here, a digital product
passport is generated for each bottle in the form of a digital
watermark. These codes, which are invisible to the human
eye and extend over the entire surface of the packaging
label, can be linked to the data in the R-Cycle database.
All the relevant information mentioned above is then located
here. In this way, waste sorting systems with the appropriate
recognition technologies are able to identify recyclable
packaging. This creates the basis for obtaining high-quality
materials for a truly effective recycling system. Moreover,
these codes can be read on any smartphone using the
Digimarc app, for example.
R-Cycle system ensures packaging traceability
along the entire value chain
As part of the pilot project, the recycling-relevant data was
recorded on machines of the participating customers and
partners and stored on the R-Cycle server in accordance with
the global GS1 standard. This transmission process makes
the data immediately available along the entire value chain.
The most important know-how of Kautex Maschinenbau
within the pilot project is the development of a data acquisition
system R-Connector as an interface between the extrusion
blow moulding production and the cloud-based R-Cycle
platform. The necessary data along the entire value chain can
therefore be transmitted to the common R-Cycle database
and is immediately accessible to the entire value chain.
By using the R-Connector in machine control systems
from Kautex Maschinenbau, production data is collected,
analysed, and uploaded directly to the R-Cycle server,
which significantly increases production efficiency and
transparency. As a result, waste sorting systems supported
by standard detection technologies can more efficiently
identify recyclable packaging by type. This open and globally
applicable traceability standard is the key to obtaining highquality
recyclates for true recycling in the future. MT
www.kautex-group.com
Blow Moulding
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17 39

Blow Moulding
First PET bottles from
enzymatically recycled
textile waste
In late November last year Carbios (Clermont-Ferrand,
France), announced it has successfully produced the first
bottles containing 100 % recycled Purified Terephthalic Acid
(rPTA) from textile waste that contains a high PET content. This
result confirms the capacity of Carbios’ technology to recycle
textile waste and opens up access to an additional waste stream
of up to 42 million tonnes per year, worth over USD 40 billion.
In more recent news Carbios announced that a non-exclusive
and non-binding Expression Of Intent (EOI) agreement was
signed with a significant PET producer. It would have been
the second EOI, however, a previous EOI with Equipolymer
announced in early April had already been terminated again.
Nevertheless, Carbios confirmed its plan to build a first-of-akind
100 % PET recycling production unit using its enzymatic
technology. The company will carry out ongoing studies to
select the most suitable site, technically and economically, to
build this first industrial and commercial unit.
Within this agreement, Carbios and the PET producer are
considering the opportunity to build the unit on one of the
PET producer’s sites.
Carbios’ first industrial unit is expected to allow for an annual
production of approximately 40,000 tonnes of recycled PET,
with the first revenues to be generated in 2025. The unit will
be financed by the EUR 114 million capital increase Carbios
gained earlier in May.
Enzymatic recycling could form an important link for
future circular economy concepts, as mechanical recycling
technologies, which are currently the most common, have
limitation. For one mechanical recycling of e.g., PET bottle can
only be done a certain number of times before the material
quality deteriorates too much for the application and it is no
viable solution for textile waste. The few textiles that can
be reused, are incorporated into lower-quality applications
such as padding, insulators or rags. For a truly circular
economy, such downcycling should be one of the last
solutions, not the first.
In contrast, the breakthrough developed by Carbios enables
polyester textile fibres to be upcycled into a high-quality
grade of PET suitable for the production of clear bottles.
“I am very proud that we successfully transformed
polyester textile waste into clear bottles, which have
identical properties as those made from virgin PET. This
major innovation allows us to expand our sources of supply
which, until now, consisted primarily of PET plastic waste,”
said Alain Marty, Chief Scientific Officer of Carbios.
Carbios has also succeeded in producing PET fibres for
textile applications with 100 % rPTA, from enzymatically
recycled PET plastic waste. “This result demonstrates the
extent of our technology’s possibilities: We can now produce
transparent bottles from polyester textile waste or from
post-consumer coloured bottles. This works both ways –
so we can also make a T-shirt from bottles or disposable
food trays,” said Marty.
Carbios’ process enables low-value waste to be recovered
and to have a new life in more challenging applications – in
short, it facilitates infinite recycling of PET-based plastics
and textiles. In a recent interview Martin Stephan, the Deputy
CEO of Carbios, commented on the current environmental
challenges the world is facing, saying that the problem is
not plastics per se, it’s plastic waste. Carbios strategy to
battle that is by making plastic waste a valuable commodity.
Or how Stephan phrased it, “waste is the new oil”. AT
See article on p. 9
https://carbios.fr/en
Generic photographs, just for illustration
40 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16

The world’s first HDPE Milk Bottles
from advanced recycling
INEOS O&P EUROPE (headquartered in Knightsbridge, London, UK) is making a significant investment
to develop a comprehensive portfolio of circular solutions for the packaging industry. The collaboration
with LACTEL (Choisy-le-Roi, France) is yet another major milestone in this direction.
Advanced recycling technology converts plastic waste back to its basic molecules which
are then used in Ineos production sites to include recycled content and replace traditional
fossil-based raw materials.
Lactel is the first dairy brand, in collaboration with INEOS, to explore a solution for UHT milk
bottles produced with circular polyethylene, derived from post-consumer recycled material.
“This trial production of 140,000 milk bottles, based on HDPE from advanced recycling technology,
is a world first and a major step forward for Lactel, towards a circular economy”.
“This new innovative product will be used in the Montauban production plant for an initial
production run. At Lactel we are extremely excited to bring this new environmental innovation to
our iconic milk bottles,” explains Anne Charles-Pinault - Lactel France General Manager.
“Ineos is very pleased to (advance) this partnership with Lactel. Both companies are committed to
sustainability and, via advanced recycling, we are able to supply virgin quality polymer from recycled
plastic that is ideal for even the most demanding food contact applications like milk. Another big
step in the right direction.” – said Xavi Cros – CEO Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe/South.
After an independent certification process, initiated several months ago, Lactel’s Montauban plant
has been successfully RSB (The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials) certified this April. The
milk bottles produced in this way are compliant with food safety regulations and are fully recyclable. MT
generic picture
www.ineos.com
www.lactalis-international.com
Blow Moulding
Leading Event on Carbon
Capture & Utilisation
Learn about the entire CCU value chain:
• Carbon Capture Technologies
and Direct Air Capture
• CO2 for Chemicals, Proteins
and Gases
• Advanced CCU Technologies,
Artificial Photosynthesis
• Fuels for Transport and Aviation
• Green Hydrogen Production
• Mineralisation
• Power-to-X
1
Best CO2
Utilisation
2023
O R G A N I S E R N OVA -I N S TIT U T E
I N N OVAT I O N
AWA R D
Call for Innovation
Apply for the Innovation
Award “Best CO2
Utilisation 2023”
Organiser
Contact
Dominik Vogt
Conference Manager
dominik.vogt@nova-institut.de
co2-chemistry.eu
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 41

Polyurethanes
Climate-friendly
polyols and polyurethanes
from
CO 2
and clean
By:
hydrogen
Introduction
Miia Nevander,
Janne Kärki,
Juha Lehtonen,
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Espoo, Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, together with
several Finnish companies and organizations are developing
a proof-of-concept for a new value chain from carbon dioxide
emissions and clean hydrogen to sustainable chemicals and
materials. The work is carried out in an ongoing Business
Finland cooperative project called BECCU. The partners
involved include Valmet, Kiilto, CarbonReUse Finland,
Helen, Neste, Mirka, Metener, Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto,
Top Analytica, Finnfoam, Kemianteollisuus, Kleener Power
Solutions, and Brightplus.
CO 2
-based polycarbonate – and polyether polyols as well as
polyurethanes have been chosen as the main target products
of the project for their great market potential. Prior interest is
towards polycarbonate polyols, which are specialty chemicals
that can be used as coatings, adhesives, or building blocks
for polyurethanes. So far, the industrial production of polyols
has relied on the use of fossil raw materials, whereas the
BECCU concept presents a sustainable route based entirely
on carbon originating from CO 2
.
A novel process route to fully
CO 2
-based specialty chemicals
VTT studies a process where up to 100 % of carbon in polyol
is originating from carbon dioxide, when it has been at most
50 % in other proposed polyol production concepts based on
CO 2
utilization. The studied concept applies CO 2
captured
from biomass utilization, such as biomass combustion
or biogas production. Hydrogen can originate from water
electrolysis or from industrial side-streams. First, reverse
water-gas shift (rWGS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction
steps produce olefins from CO 2
and H 2
. The formed light
C2-C4 olefins are oxidized with peroxides to epoxides, which
are then co-polymerized to polycarbonate polyols using CO 2
.
The process is illustrated in Figure 1.
Promising profitability indicated by technoeconomic
assessment (TEA)
The Polycarbonate polyol production process was simulated
with the Aspen Plus software tool. The process was sized
based on a 100-megawatt alkaline electrolyser producing
16 kilotonnes of hydrogen per year. Corresponding annual
carbon dioxide demand is 100,000 tonnes, and annual
production of polycarbonate polyols is 38 kt. The price
for electricity and other key parameters were estimated
for the year 2030. Key assumptions used in calculations
are listed in Table 1.
Techno-economic assessment of the process and
sensitivity analyses were carried out to evaluate the economic
performance and profitability of the concept. The main
results can be seen in Figure 2. The calculated production
cost of polycarbonate polyols was 2,180 EUR/tonne. If all byproducts
of the process, excess oxygen and heat produced by
the electrolyser and cyclic carbonates, were assumed to be
valorised, the production cost decreased to 1,980 EUR/tonne.
Most of the production cost originated from the electricity
needed for electrolysis.
According to market information, the price of polycarbonate
polyols could be over 4,500 EUR/tonne. Some estimates
Figure 2. Results of techno-economic assessment and sensitivity analysis.
42 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/21] Vol. 16

Figure 1. Process route
from captured carbon
dioxide and green
hydrogen to
polycarbonate
polyols.
Polyurethanes
predict a product price as high as 6,000 EUR/tonne. As
the production costs identified in the techno-economic
assessment are low compared to the expected selling price,
the production appears very attractive. The BECCU production
route presents a promising option to turn carbon dioxide
emissions into specialty chemicals profitably. However, the
market size of polycarbonate polyols is quite limited which
was identified as a challenge for the commercialization of the
process. On the other hand, polycarbonate polyols may have
significant growth potential as a green polyol source, e.g., for
polyurethane applications.
Polyol applications: polyurethanes
Polyurethanes are an important application of polyols.
They are typically used as adhesives, coatings, or elastomers.
Polycarbonate polyols are suitable as building blocks for
high -performance applications of polyurethanes, especially
when high thermal, hydrolytic, and UV stability are required.
So far, polycarbonate polyols from C3 and C4 epoxides
with different molecular weights have been synthesized.
The next steps will be to produce larger quantities of
polyols with appropriate molecular weight for the targeted
polyurethane applications and to optimize the product yields.
The application tests of the polyols will be performed together
with the industrial project partners.
Next steps
The BECCU project continues until the end of 2021. The
BECCU concept and the techno-economic assessment
will be updated based on the additional findings from the
ongoing experiments. The recognized improvements will be
carried out together with a heat integration for the process.
The assessment will be complemented by analysing different
CO 2
capture options and electrolyser comparisons. Based on
the techno-economic feasibility and life cycle assessments
(LCA) of the value chain, business opportunities, future
demonstrations, and impact of policy framework will be
evaluated together with the project partners from the industry.
https://www.beccu.fi/
Inputs Price Outputs Price
Electricity
(total)
Hydrogen
peroxide
CO 2
supply
45 EUR/
MWh
550 EUR/
tonne
50 EUR/
tonne
Cyclic
900 EUR/
carbonates
tonne
(by-product)
By-product
heat
By-product
oxygen
20 EUR/
MWh
40 EUR/
tonne
Other
parameters
Electrolyser
electricity
input
100
MWe
Annual plant
8,000
operation
hours
time
Total
investment
cost
estimate
(20 years
and 8 %
WACC for
annuity)
124
MEUR
Table 1. Main assumptions used in techno-economic calculations.
Figure 2. Results of technoeconomic
assessment and
sensitivity analysis.
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/21] Vol. 16 43

Polyurethanes
Chemical recycling of
polyurethane
Combining ecological and economic advantages
RAMPF Eco Solutions (Pirmasens, Germany) has been
developing chemical processes for the recycling
of polyurethane and PET wastes for more than
thirty years. Using solvolysis (glycolysis, acidolysis, and
aminolysis), recycled polyols are manufactured from postconsumer
residues such as used mattresses, furniture,
car and motorcycle seats, fitness and leisure items, and
production waste. Industrial residues such as scrap or entire
products at the end of their life cycle are also processed.
The resulting recycled polyols are at the very least
comparable with polyols otherwise obtained from fossil raw
materials, both in terms of quality and technical properties.
They can therefore be used directly in the production process
for new polyurethane-based products, including in the
automotive, aerospace, construction, electrical/electronics,
energy technology, filter, household appliance, medical
technology, rail, ship, and wood/furniture industries.
The economic viability of Rampf Eco Solutions’ recycled
polyols is further enhanced by the fact that they are precisely
tailored to the respective applications of customers. For
example, producers of polyurethane tooling boards or
moulded parts can improve the compressive strength
of insulating foams, the chemical stability of casting
compounds, or the compatibility of polyurethane systems by
adding recycling polyols.
Rampf Eco Solutions also developed a process for the
chemical recycling of PET back in 1999 together with the
German Society for Circular Economy and Raw Materials
(DKR). The recycling polyols generated here are particularly
suitable for the production of rigid foams. Polyesters such as
polylactides, polycarbonate, and polyhydroxyalkanoates are
also used as raw material sources, as well as renewable or
biobased raw materials, amongst others rapeseed oil.
Companies that have a high volume of PU residues can
produce customized recycled polyols on site with their own
recycling plant. The polyols can then be fed directly back
into the production process, saving costs and protecting
the environment. These multi-functional plants developed
and constructed Rampf Eco Solutions also allow for the
production of polyols using PET/PSA, polyesters such
as PLA and PHB, as well as biomonomers. Leading
plastics producers from Germany, France, Russia, Spain,
and the United Arab Emirates are currently using these
multifunctional recycling plants. MT
www.rampf-group.com
RAMPF Eco Solutions uses solvolysis to extract high-quality
recycled polyols form polyurethane and PET waste.
Multifunctional recycling plants enable customers with high
residual volumes to produce their own recycled polyols
44 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17

Biobased or renewable
carbon based coatings
O
ne way for fashion, footwear, and upholstery
manufacturers to improve their environmental
footprint is to replace fossil fuel-based chemistry
with renewable carbon-based materials. Stahl’s NuVera®
range of renewable carbon polyurethanes can help you do
exactly that.
The NuVera product range can help manufacturers increase
their sustainability without compromising on quality and
performance. The introduction of this portfolio is in line with
Stahl’s Responsible Chemistry Initiative, with which they commit
to speed up the transition from fossil carbon to renewable
carbon for all organic chemicals and materials. The efforts
are focused on aligning Stahl’s product portfolio to the future
needs of their customers and the markets they serve while
offering solutions that improve their environmental footprint.
The company from Waalwijk, the Netherlands does this by using
low-impact manufacturing chemicals, contributing to a more
circular economy and, in the case of Stahl NuVera, replacing
petrochemicals with renewable resources.
The Stahl NuVera Range
Stahl NuVera modern carbon based products are derived
from plant-based biomass (typically vegetable oils or sugars),
alternatively, they can also be made from captured carbon,
where CO 2
released from industrial processes is captured
and used as a feedstock for producing polymeric building
blocks. The NuVera range of sustainable polyurethanes has
been tested and certified using the ASTM 6866 radio-carbon
(C 12 /C 14 ) method for biobased carbon content. The NuVera D
range of polyurethane dispersions consists of four products:
RU-94-226, RU-94-227, RU-94-225 and RU-94-414.
The company is currently developing additional solutions as
part of its commitment to responsible chemistry.
The first two solutions – NuVera D RU-94-226 and RU-94-227
– are the two harder resins in the portfolio. They are ideal for
use as a pre-skin component in transfer coating processes or
as a top-coat component in finishing or lacquering of flexible
synthetic articles, which may be used in consumer articles such
as shoes, garment or fashion bags, and accessories.
NuVera D RU-94-225 is a softer PUD that can be used as
adhesive or alternatively as a mix component to make a
chosen pre-skin formulation more flexible. It is a soft PUD
that can also be used in a transfer-coating process as a skin
layer or as a soft resin component in finishing or lacquering
formulations that use a combination of biobased and captured
carbon-based raw materials.
NuVera D RU-94-414 is a soft polyester dispersion. It can be
used in adhesive formulations or alternatively serve as a soft
component in basecoat finishing or lacquering.
Introducing new Stahl NuVera Q HS-94-490 high
solids resin
An important factor for creating high renewable carbon
content in any synthetic article will also depend on the
availability of a flexible high solids resin that offers biobased
content. In many transfer coated articles, the middle layer (skin)
is the thickest layer, which typically determines mostly the
handle and flexibility. In some cases, this can be selected from
WB PUD offering, but in most synthetic articles it needs the use
of a bigger quantity or thicker layer to be applied, due to boost
performance. The use of a high solids resin is often bringing the
solution. With the introduction of NuVera Q HS-94-490, Stahl
can now offer a product that can be used for applying thick
layers in one pass. HS-94-490 is available as an approximately
100 % solids resin with very soft film characteristics, ideally
suited for creating flexible articles like upholstery or shoe
upper. This new NuVera product addition is currently in the preindustrialization
phase, available for small scale prototyping.
ZDHC MRSL Compliancy
It goes without saying that all NuVera renewable carbon-based
products comply with the latest standards and regulations,
including the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)
Version 2.0 Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL).
In addition to these four water-based polyurethane
dispersions, R&D engineers at Stahl are also looking at
expanding their portfolio of products in other directions.
They soon hope to announce the introduction of a 100 % solids
pre-polymer resin. MT
www.stahl.com
Polyurethanes
Type of use Product code Type Status Solids 100 % (Mpa)
Pre-skin or Top
Coat resin
General PUD
resin or Mix
component
Adhesive or
Base Coat
Skin High
solids resin
E @ break
(%)
VOC %1
Bio-based
content
Total
renewable
content
Sustainable
source
NuVeraTM D RU-
94-226 TM PE/PC Launch 40 12 475 0.5 % 46 % 2 46 % Sugar Crop
NuVeraTM D RU-
94-227
NuVeraTM D RU-
94-225
NuVeraTM D RU-
94-414
NuVeraTM Q HS-
94-490
PE Launch 35 4 730 0.8 % 66 % 2 66 % Sugarcrop
PE Launch 35 1.5 > 1,000 0.3 % 53 % 2 54 %
Sugar crop,
CO 2
PES Launch 45 1.1 840 0.8 % 48 % 2 48 % Oil crop
PE/PES
Pre-
Launch
1: VOC content is according to the definition of EU directive 2004/42/EC
2: Measured ASTM6866 Method B
3: Calculated based on mass balance
100 1.6 860 < 0.1 % 45 % 3 45 % Sugarcrop
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17 45

Polyurethanes
Mattress recycling now a reality
Dow Polyurethanes, a business division of Dow (Midland,
Michigan, USA), and Orrion Chemicals Orgaform
(Semoy, France) together with Eco-mobilier (Paris,
France), H&S Anlagentechnik (Sulingen, Germany), and The
Vita Group (Manchester, UK) have inaugurated a pioneering
mattress recycling plant as part of the RENUVA program.
Old mattresses made of polyurethane foam will now be
recovered, dismantled, and chemically recycled to create
a new polyol, which is a key starting material to produce
polyurethane. This Renuva polyol is designed for various
applications including mattresses. The recent unveiling
is a major step forward for the recovery and recycling of
polyurethane foam and a significant advance for closing the
loop for end-of-life mattresses. At full capacity, the plant
will process up to 200,000 mattresses per year to tackle the
growing mattress waste problem.
“We are immensely proud to have unveiled this plant.
By doing so we are answering the question of what can be
done with recycled polyurethane foam. It is part of Dow’s
strong commitment to delivering solutions that help close
the loop and protect our environment,” commented Marie
Buy, Sustainability Leader EMEAI, Dow Polyurethanes, “As
Renuva now shifts focus to the production phase and the
first foam made with the new polyol, our Dow Polyurethane
sustainability journey continues. We are actively exploring
future possibilities for recycled material and potential
applications. It is really a new beginning”.
The Renuva mattress recycling plant is the result of
strong collaboration between Dow and key players from
across the mattress lifecycle: chemical innovator Orrion
Chemicals Orgaform, expert mattress collector Eco-mobilier,
turnkey solutions provider H&S Anlagentechnik, and foam
manufacturer The Vita Group.
“This really is a first for our company and for France.
We have a longstanding commitment to creating more
sustainable solutions and have long recognized the need for
the industry to be part of the solution,” commented Christian
Siest, President, Orrion Chemicals Orgaform, “Our plant uses
a chemical recycling process in which the polyurethane foam
is decomposed and converted into a novel single product.
The great thing about this is versatility; we can process foam
from any mattress and the Renuva polyol recipe itself can be
tailored for different applications”.
“Our ambition is to ensure the quality of the materials
collected and delivery to Renuva so that we keep to the
promise of a closed loop”, stated Dominique Mignon,
President of Eco-mobilier.
As previously announced, flexible polyurethane foam
solutions provider, The Vita Group will use the Renuva polyol
to create its award-winning Orbis flexible foam, providing a
more sustainable offering to the bedding market.
“Consumer attitudes have changed significantly, and
people are becoming a lot more focused on making
sustainable choices. We have already seen strong interest
from customers across Europe for Orbis foam and interest
in the Renuva technology, providing exciting opportunities for
our product lines,” commented Mark Lewis, Operations and
Projects Director at The Vita Group.
Last year in late September, Dow and Renuva partners
hosted a special virtual event “Closing the Loop for
Mattresses: A New Beginning with Renuva” to reflect on the
future of the program and share a closer look at what this
plant means for the bedding industry (see video link).
Eco-mobilier is also collaborating with materials
manufacturer Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany), aspiring
to generate enhanced value aiming at mattresses and
upholsteries. Both parties want to further develop waste
markets for foam used in such applications, to enable its
use in chemical recycling processes with high efficiency at
an industrial level. Furthermore, the parties underline their
commitment through an agreement, which sets out a common
understanding of strategic goals, projects, and activities,
forming the basis for a long-term cooperation between them.
Covestro and Eco-mobilier want to keep mattrasses out
of landfill and minimize incineration, thus reducing their
environmental impact, and giving the material a new life.
For this purpose, they want to combine their expertise and
jointly develop a new solution and a business model for
the chemical recycling of polyurethane foam from postconsumer
mattresses and upholsteries.
Eco-mobilier has extensive experience in the collection,
logistics and processing of used furniture, such as
mattresses and upholsteries. This mainly concerns the
dismantling of used furniture and pre-sorting materials in
order to obtain pure foam parts as raw materials for recycling.
Dismantling of old matresses
Chemical recycling step
46 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17

A key topic of the collaboration is to further develop the
decentralized dismantling process of mattresses to avoid
ecologically unfavourable transport of the foam parts
to the chemical recycling plant. At a later stage, the
partners also plan to evaluate possibilities and develop
a corresponding process for recycling upholstered
furniture with polyurethane foams.
“For ten years, Eco-mobilier has been acting to set
up and improve a specific scheme for End-of-Life PU
foam collecting and recycling. The partnership between
Eco-mobilier and Covestro will allow to increase and to
diversify the existing solutions for the chemical recycling
of PU foam and to extend the perspectives for a material
which had been considered, yet recently, as nonrecyclable.
Especially, by experiencing padded furniture
recycling with Covestro, Eco-mobilier is delighted to start
a new stage of development of its strategy targeting ´zero
landfilling´ for furniture,” said Dominique Mignon.
As part of its new collaboration with Eco-mobilier,
Covestro intends to make use of a novel process
compared to other chemical recycling approaches, which
it has developed for recycling the foam chemically. The
technology has competitive advantages as it allows the
recovery of both core raw materials originally used. To
this end, the company also operates a pilot plant for
flexible foam recycling at its site in Leverkusen, Germany,
which is used for test purposes.
“We are thrilled to complement Eco-mobilier´s
unique expertise in furniture recycling with our chemical
recycling technology in this powerful partnership,” says
Christine Mendoza-Frohn, Executive Vice President
& Head of Sales EMLA for Performance Materials at
Covestro. “The strategic intent of our collaboration is to
design and validate a joint pilot model to encourage and
Info
See a video-clip at:
tinyurl.com/
mattress-recycling
Brand
owner
Retail
Manufacturing
SeekTogether
End customer
Recycling
End-of-life
products
Collection
Dismantling
Collaborating across the value chain
(Source: www.corporate.dow.com)
make real an accelerated adoption of recycling and reusing
polyurethane foams from used furniture in Europe and beyond”.
Both these collaborations aim at changing part of our
linear consumer system towards a more circular one, such
undertakings are difficult to implement as Mila Skokova, Sales
and Product manager at H&S Anlagentechnik, points out,
“Renuva has created an echo system that brings together all
the players in mattress recycling, otherwise it would never be
possible to implement innovative recycling solutions of this
magnitude. There are many hurdles to overcome in building
a new industrial echo system – a changed process can only
succeed if all players involved pull in the same direction. It
requires determination to make the shared vision a reality
– every partner must have the unconditional will to take on
the role of gamechanger. This way, barriers such as legal
frameworks or antiquated ways of thinking can be overcome”.
Hopefully, in the future more key players, not just in the fields
of mattress recycling and polyurethane, will work together to
change the system and as Mila astutely states, “this requires a
shared value system of trust, reliability, and fairness”. AT
www.dow.com
www.oc-orgaform.com
www.eco-mobilier.fr
www.hs-anlagentechnik.de
www.thevitagroup.com
www.covestro.com
Polyurethanes
Production of new matresses (all photos from the video (see link)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17 47

Polyurethanes
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 CO 2
Tex.
The Research Project CO 2
Tex
RWTH Aachen Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) (Aachen,
Germany) is currently conducting the publicly funded research
project CO 2
Tex 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
yarns is possible, the process chain for the production of
48 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17

By
Jan Thiel, Henning Löcken, Lukasz Debicki, and Thomas Gries
RWTH Aachen Institut für Textiltechnik
Aachen, Germany
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 CO 2
Tex 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).
Bibliography
[1] Fabricius, M.; Gries, T, Wulfhrost, B.: Fibre Tables: Elastane Fibres
(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 fibre market by type of production
method and application – global opportunity analysis and industry forecast,
2014-2022. Pune, India, 2016: URL www.alliedmarketresearch.com/spandexfibre-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
Polyurethanes
www.ita.rwth-aachen.de
23–25 May • Siegburg/Cologne
23–25 May • Siegburg/Cologne (Germany)
renewable-materials.eu
The brightest stars of Renewable Materials
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.
ORGANISED BY
NOVA-INSTITUTE
SPONSORED BY
COVESTRO1
RENEWABLE
MATERIAL
OF THE
YEAR 2023
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
• Innovation Award
• Fine Chemicals
(Parallel Session)
Third day
• Latest nova Research
• The Policy & Brands
View on Renewable
Materials
• Biodegradation
• Renewable Plastics
and Composites
INNOVATION AWARD
Call for Innovation
Submit your
Application for the
“Renewable Material
of the Year 2023”
Organiser
Award
Sponsor
Contact
Dominik Vogt
Conference Manager
dominik.vogt@nova-institut.de
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17 49

Polyurethanes
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 durometre
grades of Oistre TPU will be introduced soon. AT
www.novoloop.com
All photos courtesy Novoloop Inc.
50 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/22] Vol. 17

Patent situation
Europe and USA are leading innovation in plastic recycling
and alternative plastics globally, patent data shows
Report
From a global perspective, Europe and the USA are
leading innovation in plastic recycling and alternative
plastics technologies, i.e. renewable carbon plastics,
a new study published in October by the European Patent
Office (EPO, headquartered in Munich, Germany) shows.
Europe and the USA each accounted for 30 % of patenting
activity worldwide in these sectors between 2010 and 2019, or
60 % combined. Within Europe, Germany posted the highest
share of patent activity in both plastic recycling and bioplastic
technologies (8 % of global total), while France, the UK, Italy,
the Netherlands and Belgium stand out for their higher
specialisation in these fields.
Titled Patents for tomorrow’s plastics: Global innovation
trends in recycling, circular design and alternative sources
[1], the study presents a comprehensive analysis of the
innovation trends for the period 2010 to 2019 that are driving
the transition to a circular economy for plastics. The report
looks at the number of international patent families (IPFs),
each of which represents an invention for which patent
applications have been filed at two or more patent offices
worldwide (so-called high-value inventions). It aims to
provide a guide for business leaders and policymakers to
direct resources towards promising technologies, to assess
their comparative advantage at different stages of the value
chain, and to highlight innovative companies and institutions
that could contribute to long-term sustainable growth.
Chemical and biological recycling methods with
the highest number of patents
The study highlights that of all recycling technologies,
the fields of chemical and biological recycling methods
generated the highest level of patenting activity in the period
under review. These methods accounted for 9,000 IPFs in
2010–19, double the number filed for mechanical recycling
(4,500 IPFs). While the patenting of standard chemical
methods (such as cracking and pyrolysis) reached a peak
in 2014, emerging technologies such as biological methods
using living organisms (1,500 IPFs) or plastic-to-monomer
recycling (2,300 IPFs) now offer new possibilities to degrade
polymers and produce virgin-like plastics.
Healthcare and cosmetics & detergent
industries lead in bioplastic innovation
In the area of bioplastic inventions, the study finds that the
healthcare sector has by far the most patenting activity in
total (more than 19,000 IPFs in 2010–19), despite accounting
for less than 3 % of the total demand for plastics in Europe.
However, the cosmetics and detergents sector has the
largest share of its patenting activity in bioplastics, with the
ratio of bioplastics IPFs to conventional plastics IPFs being
1:3, compared to 1:5 in the healthcare sector. Packaging,
electronics and textiles are also significant contributors to
innovation in bioplastics.
CO 2
based plastics
Finally, with regard to alternative plastics technologies, the
report also looks at the role of plastics production from CO 2
,
which has been launched by a small number of companies,
mainly from Europe – such as Covestro in Germany – and
South Korea and can play an important role on the road to
the circular economy. MT
[1] Patents for tomorrow’s plastics: Global innovation trends in recycling,
circular design and alternative sources;
Download from www.bioplasticsmagazine.de/202106/PATENTS.pdf
www.epo.org
Source: European Patent Office
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17 51

Recycling
Advanced recycling technologies
developing at a fast pace
A
dvanced A closer look into the
technologies and their providers
recycling technologies are developing at a
fast pace, with new players constantly appearing on
the market, from start-ups to giants and everything
in between – new plants are being built, new capacities are
being achieved, and new partnerships are established. Due to
these developments, it is difficult to keep track of everything.
The report “Mapping of advanced recycling technologies for
plastics waste” aims to clear up this jungle of information
providing a structured, in-depth overview and insight. It has
an exclusive focus on profiling available technologies and
providers of advanced recycling including the addition of new
technologies and updated/revised profiles.
Advanced recycling technologies to complement
mechanical recycling
Besides conventional mechanical recycling and in the
context of discussions on the improvement of recycling
rates, a wide spectrum of advanced recycling technologies
is moving into focus.
Mechanical recycling has clear limits, its further
development will therefore continue to increase in importance
in parallel with new advanced technologies. Contaminations
are not removed in the process, which is why mechanically
recycled plastics are often not approved for food contact.
Concerns about contaminants and health issues in recycled
products are justified, especially in cases where the human
body is exposed to the material. These concerns can therefore
not be solved with mechanical recycling alone. The usable
raw materials represent an even greater limitation. In the
cases of mixed plastic waste or even mixed waste of various
plastics and organic waste, mechanical recycling is not
possible, or only partially with considerable effort of pretreatment.
These waste streams, therefore, mainly end up
in landfill or incineration instead of further processing them
into a feedstock for other products. This is why advanced
recycling technologies will play a crucial role.
Overall, 103 advanced recycling technologies were
identified that are available on the market today or will soon
be. The majority of identified technologies are located in
Europe including first and foremost the Netherlands and
Germany, followed by North America, Asia, and Australia.
This report also features the first identified post-processing
and upgrading technology providers which will also play a
key role in the conversion of secondary valuable materials
into chemicals, materials, and fuels. Different technologies
in various scales are covered including pyrolysis, solvolysis,
gasification, dissolution, and enzymolysis. All technologies
and corresponding companies which include start-ups,
SMEs, and large enterprises are presented comprehensively.
The technical details, the suitability of available technologies
for specific polymers and waste fractions, as well as the
implementation of already existing pilot, demonstration
or even (semi) commercial plants are described.
Furthermore, all developments including partnerships and
joint ventures of the last years have been systematically
classified and described.
Depending on the technology various products can
be obtained which can be reintroduced into the cycle at
various positions in the value chain of plastics (Figure 1).
Different capacities can be reached whereby the largest
capacities are currently achieved only via thermochemical
methods using gasification or pyrolysis (Figure 2).
With pyrolysis, a thermochemical recycling process is
available that converts or depolymerises mixed plastic wastes
(mainly polyolefins) and biomass into liquids, solids, and gases
in presence of heat and absence of oxygen. Obtained products
can be for instance different fractions of liquids including oils,
diesel, naphtha, and monomers as well as syngas, char, and
waxes. Depending on the obtained products new polymers can
be produced from these renewable feedstocks. The majority
of the 62 identified technology providers are located in Europe
followed by North America, Asia, and Australia. With 25
companies most providers are small enterprises followed
by micro/start-up-, medium – and large enterprises such as
Blue Alp (Eindhoven, the Netherlands), Demont (Millesimo,
Italy), INEOS Styrolution (Frankfurt, Germany), Neste (Espoo,
Finland), Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung (OMV)
(Vienna, Austria), Repsol (Madrid, Spain), Unipetrol (Prague,
Czech Republic), VTT (Espoo, Finland), and Chevron Phillips
(The Woodlands, TX, USA). With 40,000 tonnes per annum,
the second-largest capacity can be reached with pyrolysis.
The solvent-based solvolysis is a chemical process based
on depolymerisation which can be realised with different
solvents. The process breaks down polymers (mainly PET)
into their building units (e.g. monomers, dimers, oligomers).
After breakdown, the building units need to be cleaned from
the other plastic components (e.g. additives, pigments,
fillers, non-targeted polymers). After cleaning, the building
units need to be polymerised to synthesise new polymers. In
contrast to pyrolysis, fewer solvolysis technology providers
are on the market also offering smaller capacities of up
to 10,800 tonnes per annum. Of 22 identified solvolysis
technology providers the majority are located in Europe
followed by North America and Asia. With eight companies
the majority of providers are mainly small enterprises
followed by large-, medium-, and micro/start-up enterprises.
Among the large enterprises, there are Aquafil (Arco,
Trentino, Italy), Eastman Chemical Company (Kingsport, TN,
USA), IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) (Rueil-Malmaison,
France), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
(Armonk, NY, USA), DuPont Teijin Films (Tokyo, Japan), and
Dow (Midland, MI, USA).
Gasification represents another thermochemical process
that is capable of converting mixed plastics wastes and
biomass in presence of heat and oxygen into syngas and
CO 2
. Currently, the largest capacities of up to 100,000 tonnes
per annum are achieved. The majority of the ten identified
gasification technology providers are located in North
America followed by Europe. With four companies each, the
52 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

By Lars Krause & Michael Carus
nova-institute
Hürth, Germany
Recycling
majority of providers are mainly small –
and medium – enterprises. Eastman was
the only identified large enterprise.
Dissolution is a solvent-based
technology that is based on physical
processes. Targeted polymers from
mixed plastic wastes can be dissolved
in a suitable solvent while the chemical
structure of the polymer remains intact.
Other plastic components (e.g. additives,
pigments, fillers, non-targeted polymers)
are not dissolved and can be cleaned
from the dissolved target polymer.
After cleaning an anti-solvent is added
to initiate the precipitation of the target
polymer. After the process the polymer
can directly be obtained, in contrast to
solvolysis, no polymerisation step is
needed. Currently, a maximum capacity of
8,000 tonnes per annum can be reached.
The majority of the eight identified
dissolution technology providers are
located in Europe followed by Asia and
North America. With four companies the
majority of providers are mainly small
enterprises followed by micro/start-up-,
medium-, and a large enterprise which
was represented by Shuye Environmental
Technology (Shantou, China).
Enzymolysis represents a technology
based on biochemical processes
utilising different kinds of biocatalysts to
depolymerise a polymer into its building
units. Being in early development the
technology is available only at labscale.
Currently, only one enzymolysis
technology provider was identified which
is a small enterprise located in Europe.
The market study “Mapping of
advanced recycling technologies
for plastics waste” provides an indepth
insight into advanced recycling
technologies and their providers. More
than 100 technologies and their status
are presented in detail which also lists
the companies, their strategies, and
investment and cooperation partners.
The study will be available soon in June
2022 for EUR 2,500 at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
Identified companies [#]
Plastics
Composites
Plastics/
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Polymers
Mechanical
Recycling
Extrusion
Physical-Chemical
Recycling
8
Dissolution
Physical
Recycling
Monomers
Enzymolysis
Biochemical
Recycling
Identified providers and capacity
22
Plastic Product
End of Life
Plastic Waste
Collection
Separation
Qualities
Solvolysis
Chemical
Recycling
Monomers
62
Dissolution Solvolysis Pyrolysis Gasification Enzymolysis
Idenfied companies
Depolymerisation
10
Max. capacity
Themochemical
Recycling
Figure 1: Full spectrum of available recycling technologies
divided by their basic working principles. (Source: nova
Institute, available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/graphics)
Monomers
Figure 2: Overview of identified providers (blue bars) and
maximum capacity (orange lines) depending on the technology.
(Source: nova Institute)
Mapping of advanced recycling
technologies for plastics waste
Authors:
Providers, technologies, and partnerships
Lars Krause, Michael Carus, Achim Raschka & Nico Plum (all nova-Institute)
Diversity of
Advanced Recycling
Pyrolysis
Themochemical
Recycling
Incineration
CO Utilisation
(CCU)
Gasification
Thermochemical
Recycling
1
Naphtha
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
CO
Syngas
Max. capacity [t a -1 ]
June 2022
This and other reports on the bio-and CO2-based economy are available at
www.renewable -carbon.eu/publications
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 53

Report
Carbon dioxide utilization –
an opportunity for plastics
Carbon dioxide utilization (CO 2
U) technologies are a
sub-set of carbon capture utilization and storage
(CCUS) technologies and refer to the productive use
of anthropogenic CO 2
to make value-added products such as
building materials, synthetic fuels, chemicals, and plastics.
CCUS have been deployed around the world at large-scale
and are seen as a crucial tool to decarbonize the world’s
economy. As well as storing CO 2
in the subsurface, there has
been increasing interest in its utilization. CO 2
U can promote
not only a more circular economy but also, in some cases,
result in products with enhanced properties or processes
with lower feedstock costs.
The CO 2
U industry has gained momentum as a solution
to achieve the world’s ambitious climate goals. Many precommercial
projects are currently operating or under
construction, mostly concentrated in Europe and North
America, with more in the pipeline supported by public and
private investments. Although still in its infancy, the market
pull is coming from the users – businesses and individuals
are reportedly creating demand for low-carbon products.
The options are diverse
Despite its potential to create a market for waste CO 2
, not
all CO 2
U technologies are created equal. These systems face
a range of economic, technical, and regulatory challenges
which need to be carefully considered so that the technologies
that actually provide climate benefits – and are economically
viable – can be prioritized and pursued. For instance, for
many CO 2
U routes, the CO 2
sequestration is only temporary
with the CO 2
utilized being released to the atmosphere once
the product is consumed (e.g. CO 2
-derived fuels or proteins),
Emerging applications of CO 2
utilization: inputs, manufacturing
pathways, and products made from CO 2
. Source: IDTechEx.
whilst for others, the CO 2
can be stored permanently (e.g.
CO 2
-derived building materials). On the economic side,
many CO 2
U pathways can be considerably more expensive
than their fossil-based counterparts due to high energy
requirements, low yields, or the need for other expensive
feedstock (e.g. green hydrogen, catalysts).
The highest potential areas
Successful deployment for CO 2
-based polymers saw
considerable growth in recent years, especially in Europe
and Asia, with more than 250.000 tonnes of CO 2
already used
in polymer manufacturing annually worldwide (based on
currently operating plants). This sector is expected to continue
to expand, even though its climate mitigation potential is
limited, mainly due to its intrinsic low CO 2
utilization ratio
(volume of CO 2
per volume of CO 2
-derived product).
Construction materials, fuels, and commodity chemicals
(e.g. methanol, ethanol, olefins) offer vast potential for
CO 2
utilization, but this will not be realized without the
development of an extensive CO 2
network linking capture
sites to usage sites, widespread deployment of clean energy,
or regulatory support (e.g. sustainable fuel mandates).
CO 2
-derived construction products in particular – such as
concrete and aggregates – are set to gain considerable
market share due to their helpful thermodynamics and ability
to sequester CO 2
permanently.
How to make polymers from CO 2
?
There are at least three major pathways to convert CO 2
into polymers: electrochemistry, biological conversion, and
thermocatalysis. The latter is the most mature CO 2
-utilization
technology, where CO 2
can either be utilized directly to yield
CO 2
-based polymers, most notably biodegradable linearchain
polycarbonates (LPCs), or indirectly, through the
production of chemical precursors (building blocks such as
methanol, ethanol, acrylate derivatives, or mono-ethylene
glycol [MEG]) for polymerization reactions.
LPCs made from CO 2
include polypropylene carbonate
(PPC), polyethylene carbonate (PEC), and polyurethanes
(PUR), PUR being a major market for CO 2
-based polymers,
with applications in electronics, mulch films, foams, and in
the biomedical and healthcare sectors. CO 2
can comprise up
to 50 % (in weight) of a polyol, one of the main components in
PUR. CO 2
-derived polyols (alcohols with two or more reactive
hydroxyl groups per molecule) are made by combining CO 2
with cyclic ethers (oxygen-containing, ring-like molecules
called epoxides). The polyol is then combined with an
isocyanate component to make PUR.
Companies such as Econic (Amsterdam, the Netherlands),
Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany, see p. 10), and Aramco
Performance Materials (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) (with
intellectual property acquired from Novomer – Rochester, NY,
USA) have developed novel catalysts to facilitate CO 2
-based
polyol manufacturing. Fossil inputs are still necessary
54 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17

Report
Pathways to polymers from CO 2
.
through this thermochemical pathway, but manufacturers
can replace part of it with waste CO 2
, potentially saving
on raw material costs.
In the realm of emerging technologies, chemical
precursors for CO 2
-based polymers can be obtained
through electrochemistry or microbial synthesis. Although
electrochemical conversion of CO 2
into chemicals is at
an earlier stage of development, biological pathways are
more mature, having reached the early-commercialization
stage. Recent advances in genetic engineering and process
optimization have led to the use of chemoautotrophic
microorganisms in synthetic biological routes to convert CO 2
into chemicals, fuels, and even proteins.
Unlike thermochemical synthesis, these biological
pathways generally use conditions approaching ambient
temperature and pressure, with the potential to be
less energy-intensive and costly at scale. Notably, the
California-based start-up Newlight (Huntington Beach,
USA) is bringing into market a direct biological route
to polymers, where its microbe turns captured CO 2
,
air, and methane into polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), an
enzymatically degradable polymer.
Currently, the scale of CO 2
-based polymer manufacturing is
still minor compared to the incumbent petrochemical industry,
but there are already successful commercial examples. One
of the largest volumes available is aromatic polycarbonates
(PC) made from CO 2
, being developed by Asahi Kasei (Tokyo,
Japan) in Taiwan since 2012. More recently, the US-based
company LanzaTech (Skokie, IL) has successfully established
partnerships with major brands such as Unilever (London,
UK), L’Oréal (Clichy, France), On (Zurich, Switzerland),
Danone (Paris, France), Zara (Arteixo, Spain, see. p. 41) and
Lulumelon (Vancouver, Canada) to use microbes to convert
captured carbon emissions from industrial processes into
polymer precursors – ethanol and MEG – for manufacturing
of packaging items, shoes, and textiles.
The niche areas
The solid carbon (e.g. carbon nanotubes, carbon fibre,
diamonds) and protein sectors will remain niche applications
of CO 2
utilization, despite their high market value, due to,
respectively, the small size of the market (in volumes) and
fierce competition from incumbents. Waste CO 2
utilization
in algae cultivation is still in the early stages, and many
hurdles need to be addressed before commodity-scale
applications become a reality.
Questions remain
Although the idea of reusing waste greenhouse gases as
raw material seems like a win-win proposition, many viability
questions arise for each CO 2
utilization pathway. Will it truly
lead to emission reductions? What are the financial and
practical barriers to its commercialization? Can it scale to
address climate change meaningfully? These are some of
the tough questions IDTechEx addressed in the latest report
Carbon Dioxide (CO 2
) Utilization 2022–2042: Technologies,
Market Forecasts, and Players.
The report provides a comprehensive outlook of the global
CO 2
utilization industry, with an in-depth analysis of the
technological, economic, and environmental aspects that
are set to shape this emerging market over the next twenty
years. IDTechEx considers CO 2
use cases in enhanced oil
recovery, building materials, liquid and gaseous fuels,
polymers, chemicals, and biological yield-boosting (crop
greenhouses, algae, and fermentation), exploring the
technology innovations and opportunities within each area.
The report also includes a twenty-year granular forecast for
the deployment of eleven CO 2
U product categories, alongside
20+ interview-based company profiles.
The bottom line
Not all CO 2
-utilization pathways are equally beneficial to
climate goals and not all will be economically scalable. Scarce
resources that have alternative uses must be allocated where
they are most likely to generate economic value and climate
change mitigation. As the world’s thirst for plastics does not
seem to fade, a circular carbon economy may help maintain
people’s lifestyles by fostering a petrochemical industry that
sees waste CO 2
as a viable feedstock. AT
The complete report can be purchased at
www.idtechex.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17 55

Report
Innovative Recycling Solutions
for Thermoset Plastics
PreScouter, a Chicago-based (USA) research intelligence
company, has compiled a new Intelligence Brief that
looks at the potential impact of recycling thermosets
on reducing fossil-based plastic waste and highlights some
examples of current options for recycling these materials
along with some that are close to being fully developed.
Currently, only 10–18 % of all plastics are recycled, in
part because not all types of plastic are easy to process.
As explained in the brief, plastic materials are generally
classified according to their chemical compositions as either
thermoplastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET),
or thermosets, which consist of the major resin classes of
isocyanates, unsaturated polyesters, formaldehydes, epoxies,
and alkyds. These resins are widely used as strong, lightweight
materials; but the presence of covalent intermolecular
cross-links that makes thermoset materials so attractive
is precisely what makes them so difficult to recycle as they
cvannot be molten anymore like thermoplastics.
After outlining the current routes of thermoset recycling,
the brief goes on to provide technology overviews of 9
commercially available thermoset material recycling
solutions. Companies profiled include several major
chemical companies such as Dow Polyurethanes (Midland,
MI, USA), BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany), and Covestro
AG (Leverkusen, Germany). The technologies profiled
are categorized into polyurethane foam solutions, epoxy
composite solutions, and other difficult to recycle plastic
solutions. As we already reported on Dow’s Renuva process
earlier this year (bM 01/22) it was not considered in the
selection for PU recycling solutions.
The Intelligence Brief concludes with an exclusive
interview with Sudhin Datta, consultant on polymers and
retired Senior Research Associate at ExxonMobil Chemical
(Houston, TX, United States).
bioplastic MAGAZINE selected three examples of
the report (one of each category) as well as some
insights from Sudhin Datta.
Polyurethane foam recycling
Covestro has a pilot plant for flexible foam recycling at
its Leverkusen, Germany, site. Polyurethane flexible foam
recycling/recovery can be done in a few ways:
1. Rebonding (mechanical recycling) – Moulding and adding
a binder to hold it together. Applications include carpet
padding, flooring, athletic mats, cushioning, packaging,
and acoustical materials
2. Regrinding (mechanical recycling) – Grinding and
blending with polyol. Applications in seating materials
3. Glycolysis (chemical recycling)
4. Energy recovery – Recommended when recycling is not
technically or economically feasible
Solution: N/A
Input material: Polyurethane flexible foam
from used mattresses
Output material: Polyols
Steps: Glycolysis (chemical recycling): Reaction with diols
at temperatures greater than 200ºC
Efficiency: N/A
Advantages: Reduces the carbon footprint
Disadvantages: Currently at pilot scale
Additional information: Covestro’s products include
isocyanates and polyols for cellular foams, thermoplastic
polyurethane and polycarbonate pellets, and
polyurethane-based additives used in the formulation of
coatings and adhesives.
Covestro polyurethane was used in the 2014 official
FIFA World Cup football.
Covestro is taking part in the EU-funded PUReSmart
together with eight other partners, the project is planned to
finish at the end of this year.
As part of the PUReSmart research project, Covestro
has, in collaboration with Recticel (Brussels, Belgium) and
Redwave (a division of Wolfgang Binder GmbH, Eggersdorf
bei Graz, Austria), also developed an intelligent sorting
solution for separating the different polyurethane foams from
post-consumer mattresses.
Epoxy recycling
Polyurethane recycling tests (Source: Covestro)
Schematic depicting curing of epoxy resin systems
(non-recyclable vs recyclable) (Source: Dubey et al., 2020)
56 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

Report
Recyclamine is a technology platform that uses novel
polyamine curing agents that contain specifically engineered
cleavage points at cross-linking sites, which convert
thermosetting epoxies into recyclable thermoplastics under
a specific set of conditions. It was developed by the Aditya
Birla Group (Mumbai, India) in partnership with Cobra
International (Chon Buri, Thailand) for manufacturing
surfboards that can be recycled.
Solution: Recyclamine
Input material: Epoxy thermoset composites (carbon fibre,
glass fibre)
Output material: Recyclable thermoplastic and recovered
fibres
Steps: The matrix composed of epoxy resin and Recyclamine
hardeners in polymer composites can be cleaved by
solvolysis under specific conditions (not disclosed).
Efficiency: N/A
Advantages: Maintains or exceeds the process and
performance characteristics of epoxy matrix used in
composites. Recovered fibres are in near virgin form, with
nominally reduced mechanical strength.
Disadvantages: Recycling process steps are not disclosed.
Case study
The first industrial-scale implementation of Recyclamine
was performed by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
(Hamburg, Germany), and commercial operations are
expected to commence in 2022.
Companies: Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
Location: German North Sea
Input material: A mixture of resin and materials including
balsa wood, glass fibre, and carbon fibre
Output material: A combination of materials (balsa wood,
glass and carbon fibre) cast together with resin to form a
strong and flexible lightweight structure
Objective: Recyclable wind turbine blade
Methods: Heating the material in a mildly acidic solution
The first six 81-metre long recyclable blades (Source: FT)
Results: The chemical structure of this new resin type
makes it possible to efficiently separate the resin from the
other components at the end of the blade’s working life.
This mild process protects the properties of the materials
in the blade, in contrast to other existing ways of recycling
conventional wind turbine blades. The materials can then
be reused in new applications after separation.
Additional information: Wind turbine blades have been
produced using epoxy systems. With Recyclamine, the
blades are recyclable, as are the fibres and epoxy, closing
the loop and allowing for a circular economy. This helps
solve the difficult issue of disposal of the blades, making
the wind turbines truly 100 % recyclable, as well as
creating value through the reuse of recovered materials.
In the vehicle industry, thermoset composite structural
elements like the doors, chassis, and panels can have
improved end-of-life characteristics with Recyclamine.
Recyclamine was developed by Connora Technologies
(Hayward, CA, USA), and Aditya Birla acquired the product
and technology rights. This technology is protected by patent
number US20130245204A1.
Obtained products after plastic recycling through HydroPRS
process (Source: Bioenergy International.)
All plastics – Difficult to recycle solutions
The Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling System (HydroPRS) is
a process developed by Mura Technology (London, UK) that
utilizes the Cat-HTR technology, which employs supercritical
water, heat, and pressure to convert waste plastics into
valuable chemicals and oil. This chemical recycling process
targets plastics deemed unrecyclable.
Solution: HydroPRS
Input material: All kinds of end-of-life plastics
Output material: Naphtha, distillate gas oil, heavy gas oil,
heavy wax residue
Steps: 1) Waste plastic cleaned and shredded; 2) Melting
and pressurization; 3) Mix with steam; 4) Heat; 5) Cat-
HTR reactor; 6) Depressurize; 7) Product separation; 8)
Product storage.
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 57

Report
Efficiency: Over 85 % of the mass of plastic converted to
hydrocarbon product
Advantages: High conversion efficiency, the technology
is scalable, controllable reaction, process flexibility, and
does not generate toxic products.
Disadvantages: Does not mention specifically thermoset
materials
Case study
ReNew ELP is the first commercial-scale HydroPRS site,
already under construction, with an annual capacity of
80,000 tonnes on completion.
Companies: ReNew ELP
Location: Teesside, North East England
Input material: End-of-life plastic
Output material: Naphtha, distillate gas oil, heavy gas oil,
heavy wax residue
Objective: Recycle all kinds of plastics
Methods: N/A
Results: N/A
Additional information:
HydroPRS process breaks down the long-chain
hydrocarbons and donates hydrogen to produce shorterchain,
stable hydrocarbon products for sale to the
petrochemical industry for use in the production of new
plastic and other materials.
The use of supercritical water provides an organic solvent,
a source of hydrogen to complete the broken chemical chains,
a means of rapid heating, avoiding excessive temperatures
that would lead to excessive cracking, and a scalable process.
This helps to create a circular economy for plastic by
diverting those materials that cannot be recycled via
traditional means away from landfills and incineration and
into recycling, thus reducing unnecessary single-use plastics
and reducing carbon emissions.
Additional insight taken from the
interview with Sudhin Datta
The most important classical thermosets that are
recyclable are polyurethanes, epoxies, and silicones.
Additionally, there are materials which behave like
thermosets in the recycling process, such as PVC, Teflon,
and PEX, cross-linked polyethylene.
The three classical thermosets are recycled for different
purposes:
• Polyurethanes are recycled because there is a very
large volume in the world in the low-density form.
There is inherent value in the materials that come out
of polyurethane recycling, and the process only takes a
couple of hours. It is not being done in North America
and Western Europe, as the companies in such regions
would much rather export that waste polyurethane foam
to lower cost countries in Asia.
• Epoxies have inherently no value, but reinforced epoxies
are recycled for carbon fibre recovery, which are 10 times
more expensive than the epoxy itself.
• Silicones are recycled because silicone
monomers are very expensive.
Other materials face more economic barriers, such as
Teflon and PVC:
• Thermal recycling turns Teflon and PVC into dark
intractable solids while releasing toxic acid gases which
damage the equipment.
• Teflon recycling is hampered because typically it is
present in small quantities by weight and recovering and
recycling is economically unjustifiable.
• Typical PVC pipes for city water are composed of filled
PVCs. So whatever recycling process should first remove
the filler, which is a toxic waste that corresponds to
around 40 % of the volume.
The recycling processes are usually not disclosed by
the companies, but they can be understood based on their
chemistries:
Polyurethanes
Chemical structure of polyurethanes
Polyurethanes are soaked, and then a glycolysis process
is carried out by heating up ethylene glycol (at around
280°C) for about four or five hours and breaking the big
molecules down to smaller molecules, which can be
distilled and recovered. It is claimed a 95 % efficiency of
whatever output material as free monomers. The process
is fairly well understood.
Epoxies
Chemical structure of the
epoxide group, a reactive
functional group present
in all epoxy resins.
Reinforced epoxies are recycled
via alcoholysis, or there is typically
a catalyzed degradation of the
process. The epoxies come off
and the catalyst is washed off, so
the carbon fibres are recovered.
The chemistry is well understood,
but there is some work to be done
to understand the catalyst.
Silicones
Silicones are recycled in a
similar way to polyurethanes, but the molecules are broken
down to polydimethylsiloxane
(PDMS).
Chemical structure of
silicones (PDMS)
The full report is available from
the website. AT
www.prescouter.com/inquiry/recyclingof-thermoset-materials/
58 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

Bioeconomy is not alone
From Bioeconomy to Carbon Management
The bioeconomy faces great expectations and hopes in
the fight against climate change, and at the same time
is viewed critically. The biggest problems in building a
strong bioeconomy are direct and indirect land-use changes,
which have significant impacts on biodiversity, climate
change, and food security.
What could be a solution here? The most prevalent
approach is to develop comprehensive sustainability indicator
systems to identify the consequences of land use changes.
But so far, it has proven very difficult to develop consistent
and harmonised systems that are also applicable. Especially
because dilemmas arise when such indicators intrinsically
oppose each other. Apart from this, the Renewable
Energy Directive (RED) in Europe led to the development
and establishment of various biomass certifications on
the market that also request compliance with
sustainability criteria. However, the application
of strict sustainability criteria for biomass also
means that not enough biomass can be used to
replace the fossil feedstock, which in turn has
significant impacts on climate protection,
biodiversity, and food security.
Nevertheless, there is a completely new
and surprising solution, an out of the bio-box
thinking, by expanding the frame of reference.
The bioeconomy has never been an end in and by
itself, it has never been propagated for its own sake.
Rather, the bioeconomy was promoted to help reduce
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the areas of fuels,
chemicals, and materials by replacing the fossil
economy. The carbon needed for these sectors should
then no longer be taken from fossil sources in the
ground, but instead through plants straight from
the atmosphere. Over the past decade, however,
it has become clear that the bioeconomy cannot
achieve this without seriously compromising food
security and biodiversity. For this reason, we also
see a European bioeconomy policy that acts very cautiously
and focuses primarily on biogenic waste streams.
Fortunately, new technologies have been developed in the
last ten years that represent further alternatives to fossil
carbon. In the transportation sector, electric mobility and
hydrogen fuel cells are promising options for future mobility.
For the chemical and material industries, CO 2
utilisation
(Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU)) and plastic waste
recycling represent significant alternative carbon streams
that can and already do substitute additional fossil carbon.
The bioeconomy is no longer alone. Together, all three
renewable carbon sources – biomass, CO 2
utilisation, and
recycling – can replace the entire fossil system.
With the introduction of chemical recycling, the limitations
of mechanical recycling can be overcome so that almost all
waste streams can be used as a carbon source. The use of
CO 2
, with the help of green hydrogen from renewable energy
sources, brings significant advantages over biomass due to
considerably higher land efficiency and the option to utilise
non-arable land such as deserts. This can substantially
reduce the pressure on natural ecosystems. Finally, CO 2
use
fits perfectly with the emerging hydrogen economy.
So, the question on how to deal with sustainable tradeoffs
of the bioeconomy has a surprising answer: expand the
reference system to all alternative carbon sources. A new,
comprehensive strategy for sustainable chemicals and
materials must include the long-term carbon demand that
still exists after the extensive decarbonisation of the energy
sector. Furthermore, it needs to show how this carbon
demand can be covered in the most sustainable way possible
– and what role the bioeconomy will play in this, in different
regions, for different applications and technologies.
Most certainly, the bioeconomy will continue
to play an important role, short as well as long
term. There will always be biogenic material
flows that can only be used outside the food
sector. There will be areas that can produce
additional biomass without any competition
with the food supply. There will be special
fine chemical molecules that can be best
produced from biomass. And in addition
to thermo-chemical and chemical-catalytic
processes, biotechnology including synthetic biology
will continue to develop rapidly and make the use of
biomass ever more efficiently. Biotechnology is not
limited to biomass but will also play an important role
in CO 2
utilisation and enzymatic recycling.
Carbon management
By expanding the reference system, we properly
integrate the bioeconomy into a long-term strategy
for future carbon demand in the material sector.
This facilitates what we call carbon management,
which is an overarching challenge of the future and
could serve as an excellent framework for constructive
discussions between all stakeholders. What is the longterm
carbon demand of chemicals and materials after the
energy sector has been largely decarbonised? And how can
this demand be met as sustainably as possible, including all
alternative carbon sources?
What is required here is an overarching carbon
management strategy that also takes specific regional
and application-related features into account. Which
simultaneously applies the same sustainability requirements
to all renewable carbon streams. Such a strategy does not
yet exist, but it is indispensable if we want to shift towards
renewable chemicals, materials, and products.
This is the only way to develop a realistic strategy to
completely substitute fossil carbon and thus tackle the
climate problem at its root.
www.nova-institute.com | www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications/
By:
Michael Carus
nova-Institut
Hürth, Germany
Renewable Carbon
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17 59

Renewable Carbon
The Renewable Carbon Initiative
A new movement draws worldwide attention
The Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) was initiated by
the nova-Institute after observing the struggles of the
chemical and plastics industry in facing the enormous
challenges to meet the climate goals set by the European
Union and the sustainability expectations held by societies
around the globe. It was clear that the industry has to go
beyond using renewable energy and also consider their
raw materials. Decarbonisation is not an option for organic
chemistry as it is entirely based on the use of carbon – an
alternative strategy was needed. Hence, nova-Institute
developed the renewable carbon strategy and set up the RCI
to bring theory to life.
Eleven leading companies from six countries founded the
RCI under the leadership of nova-Institute (23.09.20) – in May
2021 RCI had already 20 members, 5 partners and more than
200 supporters. The initiative aims to support and speed up
the transition from fossil carbon to renewable carbon for all
organic chemicals and materials.
The RCI addresses the core problem of climate change,
which is largely related to extracting and using additional
fossil carbon from the ground. The vision is stated clearly:
By 2050, fossil carbon shall be completely substituted
by renewable carbon. Renewable carbon is carbon from
To help communicate the concept of Renewable Carbon
bioplastics MAGAZINE published a short comprehensive
comic (made by the nova-Institute/RCI) on the following
two pages. The comic is placed at the centrefold so it can
be easily removed and shown to friends and colleagues
within and outside the industry. AT
alternative sources: biomass, direct CO 2
utilisation, and
recycling. The founders are convinced that this is the only
way for chemicals, plastics, and other derived products to
become more sustainable, more climate-friendly, and part
of the circular economy – part of the future.
The RCI urges the industry to go beyond just using
renewable energy and face the issue that ALL fossil carbon
use has to end, as the carbon contained in the molecules
of organic chemicals and materials is prone to end up in
the atmosphere sooner or later as well. Only a full phaseout
of fossil carbon will help to prevent a further increase
in CO 2
concentrations. Consequently, companies are
encouraged to focus on phasing out fossil resources and to
use renewable carbon instead.
Currently, RCI aims at fostering networks among its
members and building new value chains to replace fossil
carbon with biomass, CO 2
utilisation, and recycling.
Since its launch, the initiative has been busy raising
awareness and reaching out to industry, policy, and the
public. Besides creating a webpage with comprehensive
information and press releases on current policy issues such
as the European Green Deal, the RCI regularly holds public
webinars to address questions around renewable carbon.
Moreover, the development of a label for products that use
renewable carbon is on its way. A growing number of working
partnerships with other stakeholder organisations like CO 2
Value Europe, Textile Exchange, or WWF Germany as well
as participation in events such as the “Renewable Materials
Conference” (see next page) have already been established.
Further joint activities are under development.
The nova-Institute also published a comprehensive
background paper (nova-Paper 12), covering the definition,
strategy, measures, and potential of renewable carbon.
It gives a full and in-depth picture of renewable carbon and
related strategies – and works as a background paper of the
RCI. The full paper can be downloaded for free (link below).
In summary, the RCI’s activities reflect the needs of
its members: awareness-raising for renewable carbon,
promoting the strategy, networking, and building new value
chains to replace fossil carbon with biomass, direct CO 2
utilisation and recycling.
By:
Michael Carus
Founder and CEO
Nova Institute
Hürth, Germany
www.renewable-carbon-initiative.com | tinyurl.com/nova-paper-12
60 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16

ioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 61

Renewable Carbon
Renewable Materials Conference
Review
The unique “Renewable Materials Conference 2022”,
10–12 May in Cologne (Germany), attracted over 400
participants who came to see the latest developments
in bio – and CO 2
-based chemicals, plastics, and other
materials as well as advanced recycling technologies
in search of non-fossil solutions. 60 speakers and 25
exhibitors from leading companies presented their innovative
products and strategies. Over 400 questions were posted
by the participants for 14 panel discussions, which were
ranked by 1600 likes.
The first day of the Conference started strong, kicking
off with Avantium (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), showing
that they are anything but a one-trick PEF pony with a
lot more to offer. One of them is electrochemical CO 2
reduction to formic acid, oxalic acid, and glycolic acid, which
are planned to be used for CO 2
based plastics in a later
stage, among other things.
One very interesting statement came from Peep Pitk
from Fibenol (Tallinn, Estonia) while promoting their own
industrial scale-up and wood to sugar transformation he said
that “we cannot replace all fossil feedstocks with biomass
– biomass is limited”. A statement that in itself seemed to
legitimize the very conference it was made on, promoting a
wider range of solutions that go beyond just going green and
one-fits-all silver bullet solutions.
After the lunch break Paul Bremer, a perhaps rather
unusual presenter at such a conference – showed the results
of rheingold’s (Cologne, Germany) psychology-based market
research about the image the chemical industry has with
end consumers – sinner or saviour. The gist of it was that
big chemical companies should not try to paint themselves
as grand saviours to climate change problems without
admitting that they aren’t without sin in matters of pollution.
The best course of action seems to be to meet consumers at
eye level showing them developments that fit into everyday
life and thus give the consumers a sense of agency. It is, of
course, easier to simply blame the chemical industry than
to accept that they are an essential part of contemporary
society – and therefore will have to play an important part in
the solutions that are desperately needed.
The rest of the day seemed to follow similar lines of
thought – there are already a lot of projects being done and
investments are made, however, this won’t be enough by
itself. There is a lack of supply chains for a lot of materials
that can already be recycled by new technologies, and
so far, legislation hasn’t done enough to promote and
enable these options. Or as Jens Hamprecht from BASF
(Ludwigshafen, Germany) quite astutely stated, “dumping
is not made expensive by the legislator – so it appears to
be an easy solution”.
In all of this, one other point became once again quite clear,
communication of what is possible is more important than
ever, these new technologies are not a threat to classical
recycling, but rather complementary to the systems already
in place (which nonetheless need to be improved as well).
However, this is a complicated problem and people like easy
solutions (like simply banning plastic cups or straws), but
as Lars Börger from Neste pointed out, “communication is
important, but more often than not, when you make it (the
whole climate crisis shebang) easy (to understand) you
also make it wrong”. And as if to prove the point, even at
a conference with the focus on materials we found a piece
of wrong/misleading communication. The packaging of a
give-away gift at one of the exhibition booths claimed the
following: “This bag is made of renewable raw materials.
This enables environmental-friendly disposal and 100 %
composting”. While both statements of biobased origin
and compostability may be true – correlation is not
causation, one does not necessarily cause (enable) the
other! Moreover, the necessary environment for the “100 %
composting” remains unclear. It is painfully obvious,
that communication remains one of the biggest
challenges of the industry.
During the second day of the conference participants
had to make some potentially tough decisions as the event
split into two – one with a more general focus on renewable
materials, including topics such as chemical building blocks,
technology, and markets – and a second parallel block of
presentations with a focus on fine chemicals. Both included
interesting topics and panel discussions with sometimes
rather provocative questions such as “Do we need more
‘new plastics’, or should we rather make the existing ones
renewable?” that Thomas Farmer from the University of York
(UK) was asked after his presentation on new materials made
by enzymatic polycondensation that could potentially replace
PBAT or PBAF (his answer was that it might be smarter
to look at both). Or why SABIC is working on upcycling
technology that would transform single-use PET bottles
into PBT when there are already (comparatively) robust PET
recycling systems in place; and how renewable materials
fit into Saudi Arabia’s broader political strategy framework
that seems to shift from fossil-based fuels to fossil-based
materials. The last block combined the two parallel sessions
again with the Renewable Materials of the year 2022
award. This year’s winner was Twelve Benefit Corporation
(USA) for their Electrochemical CO 2
Transformation
to Chemicals and Materials (for more details see
https://tinyurl.com/RMC-Award22).
Overall, a day full of many topics and opinions, and lots
of room for discussion which were probably continued in
more detail during one of the breaks or at the end of the day,
accompanied by a Kölsch (local beer) or two.
62 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17

By: Alex Thielen
The last day offered insights into everything the novainstitute
has to offer, covering every inch of the industry.
Followed by insights into brand owners’ positions (LEGO
and Henkel) and policy including a representative of the
European Commission.
The last day closed with a closer look at biodegradation.
Andreas Künkel of BASF explained the basics of
biodegradation while Miriam Weber of HYDRA addressed
the topic of biodegradable plastics in the open sea The
last session included a presentation on unidirectionally
bio-fibre reinforced thermoplastic tapes to produce socalled
organo-sheets. These semi-finished sheets can be
thermoformed and subsequently be back injected on an
injection moulding machine. So, sophisticated composite
parts can be manufactured with natural fibres such as
hemp and thermoplastic matrices such as PP but also
biobased resins such as PLA.
Overall, a very interesting and engaging event, and for
some the first in-person conference they had attended in a
long time. Considering that the conference season is in full
swing, with conferences on similar topics every other week,
the Renewable Materials Conference demonstrated how
important it is to look at all available options to tackle both
climate change and the plastic waste problem. And the number
of participants in combination with vibrant discussions and
a, in general, very good reception underlines the need for
such events that demonstrate the interconnectedness of
the different parts of the industry (or rather industries) and
facilitate cooperation throughout the value chain. While I am
far from being an optimist in the face of these challenges that
go far beyond the plastics industry, I come home with a little
bit more hope after a conference such as this one – we may
just make it, but it won’t be easy.
https://renewable-materials.eu
Renewable Carbon
bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/22] Vol. 17 63

Technology
Merging high-quality recycling
with lowered emissions
Changing the way we think about plastics is a task facing
the entire value chain, but the main focus still lies
where a product’s life meets its smelly end’ – on waste
management. While keeping an eye on the ongoing need to
reduce climate impact, we also need to broaden our recycling
technology horizons. Ultimately, high-quality recycling is what is
going to be needed to make the plastics economy truly circular.
The Newcycling ® process
APK AG was founded in 2008 with the vision of producing
pure polymers with properties close to virgin plastics
from mixed plastic waste, including multilayer film waste.
Researchers and engineers at APK have developed a
physical recycling process that combines mechanical
recycling steps with a targeted solvent-based step – their
Newcycling technology.
Where is this process positioned on the spectrum of
plastics recycling technologies? A comprehensive overview
of technological innovation is badly needed in order to
understand which elements each technology branch
(mechanical/advanced physical or chemical) can contribute
to creating a circular economy for plastics – and how these
processes can complement each other.
Recycling technology delineation
APK’s technology is a physical (also referred to as material)
recycling technology. The molecular structure of the
polymer is kept intact, as is the case in standard mechanical
recycling. This is the major difference in comparison to
chemical processes. Recently, the delineation of innovative
recycling processes has begun to become more refined and
therefore clearer. The use of a solvent does not automatically
designate the recycling process as being chemical. There
are innovative approaches on both the physical side of the
spectrum (dissolution, etc.) and on the chemical side (for
example, solvolysis).
Because physical, solvent-based recycling does not break
down molecular chains, no energy needs to be invested in
re-polymerisation – one reason for the low carbon footprint
of recyclates produced via such technology.
Newcycling consists of the following steps:
Waste from PA/PE multi-layer film production is first
mechanically pre-treated, undergoing, among other things,
shredding and classification. Next, the PE layer is dissolved
and liquefied in a solvent bath, leading to separation of the
polymers and polymer layers.
The undissolved PA is then separated from the dissolved
PE using conventional solid-liquid separation technology
and the polymers are subsequently further processed in
separate material streams.
The PA is introduced into a twin-screw extruder, where it
passes through various process sections and is processed
into a high-quality PA melt, using very high dispersion
performance and intensive devolatilization. Finally, it is
pelletized into first-class PA recyclates.
Any remaining contaminants in the liquefied PE, such as
degraded additives, inks, etc. are removed (purification).
Then an additive package is added (re-additivation). Following
pre-evaporation, the PE is likewise introduced into a twinscrew
extruder, together with the solvent. There, intensive
devolatilization of the liquid takes place, which has been
precisely calibrated for this application so that even when PE/
solvent ratios fluctuate, first-class results will be produced.
The solvent is completely volatilized and added back into the
Newcycling process in a closed loop. The PE remains in the
form of a homogeneous, high-quality melt, which is then
pelletized. The resulting PE recyclate is of a quality similar
to that of virgin plastics.
In April 2021, the renowned recyclability certifier ARGE
cyclos/HTP (Aachen, Germany) audited APK’s recycling
facility in Merseburg, Germany, for conformance with the
EuCertPlast certification scheme. The audit focussed on
the suitability of APK’s plants for the recycling of postconsumer
waste from plastic films as well as of waste from
PE/PA multilayer film production. All test requirements were
successfully fulfilled and in July 2021, ARGE cyclos/HTP
awarded APK the official EuCertPlast certificate.
Recycing technology delineation (© APK)
64 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/21] Vol. 16

The recyclate products
The two fully commercialized recyclate products created
in Merseburg are marketed as Mersalen ® (LDPE) and
Mersamid ® (PA). Both recyclate types have been certified with
the flustix RECYCLED sustainability seal, ensuring that they
meet DIN standards for recyclate content.
Mersamid PA recyclates are suitable for a number of
applications – from simple dowels and cable binders to
sophisticated sports gear or parts in the automotive segment.
A recent example of products made with APK’s PA recyclates
are the fastening hooks on outdoor equipment company
VAUDE’s ReCycle pannier. For these hooks, VAUDE (Tettnang,
Germany) required a recycled material that could withstand
high loads under a wide variety of outdoor conditions as well
as provide outstanding durability. To account for designrelevant
factors, it was also necessary to ensure that the
material had good colouring capability.
Mersalen LDPE recyclates provide a very high level of purity
and are transparent in colour. They can be used in a number
of flexible packaging applications. A recent example is APK’s
collaboration with Huhtamaki (Ronsberg, Germany), where
recycled content was introduced into their PBL tubes. A total
of 19 % of the material was replaced with recyclates from
APK. The tubes are suitable for such applications as facial and
body cosmetics. Moreover, the PBL tubes, including recycled
content, have been certified recyclable by EuCertPlast.
When it comes to climate impact, the carbon footprint of
APK’s recyclates is an average of 66 % lower than that of their
virgin plastics version.
The future: scaling Newcycling across the EU
Based on its industrial-scale plant in Merseburg and its
successfully commercialized products, APK is planning to
scale its Newcycling technology across the EMEA region.
Newcycling technology is able to valorize a broad feedstock
base, including post-industrial and post-consumer sources,
whether in the form of multilayer film waste or mixed unsorted
plastic streams. In collaboration with initial partners from the
plastics industry, planning is underway for the construction of
additional plants for the processing of post-consumer waste
in the very near future. With an initial focus on LDPE, APK is
already working on additional recyclate solutions, such as
PP, HDPE, and other PCR streams.
www.apk-ag.de/en
By:
Hagen Hanel
Head of Plastics Recycling Innovation Center
APK AG.
Merseburg, Germany
Product
examples –
Mersalen:
Huhtamaki
PBL tube,
2020 (top right)
Mersamid,
VAUDE pannier,
2021 (bottom).
Mersalen (LDPE) recyclate produced with
APK’s Newcycling technology
Technology
Newcycling – the closest loop back into packaging (© APK)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/21] Vol. 16 65

Technology
New world-scale
plastic-to-plastic
molecular recycling facility
Eastman Chemical Company Board Chair and CEO
Mark Costa and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee recently
announced the company's plans to build one of the
world's largest plastic-to-plastic molecular recycling
facilities at its site in Kingsport, Tenn., USA. Through
methanolysis, this world-scale facility will convert polyester
waste that often ends up in landfills and waterways into
durable products, creating an optimized circular economy.
Over the next two years, the company will invest approximately
USD 250 million in the facility, which will support Eastman's
commitment to addressing the global waste crisis and to
mitigating challenges created by climate change, while also
creating value for its stakeholders.
Utilizing the company's polyester renewal technology, the
new facility will use over 100,000 tonnes of plastic waste
that cannot be recycled by current mechanical methods to
produce premium, high-quality speciality plastics made with
recycled content. This process of using plastic waste as the
main feedstock is a true material-to-material solution and
will not only reduce the company's use of fossil feedstocks
but also reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20–30 %
relative to fossil feedstocks.
"Eastman has been a leader in the materials sector for over
100 years and continues to be a valued partner to our state,"
said Governor Lee. "I'd like to thank the company for investing
in Kingsport and its highly skilled workforce, and for focusing
on innovative technology that enhances the quality of life for
people not just in Tennessee, but around the world."
Eastman was one of the pioneers in developing
methanolysis technology at a commercial scale and has more
than three decades of expertise in this innovative recycling
process. Eastman's experience with methanolysis makes it
uniquely qualified to be a leader in delivering this solution at
a commercial scale. Polyester renewal technology will be an
especially impactful solution, as low-quality polyester waste
that cannot be mechanically recycled and would typically be
diverted to landfills, incineration, or end up in the environment
can instead be recycled into high-quality polyesters suitable
for use in a variety of end-use durable applications.
"While today's announcement is an important step, it is just
part of the company's overall circular economy strategy," said
Costa. He added that Eastman is actively working on the next
steps forward with its circular economy initiatives including
partnerships and direct investments in Europe.
This facility, which is expected to be mechanically complete
by year-end 2022, will contribute to the company achieving
its ambitious sustainability commitments for addressing
the plastic waste crisis, which includes recycling more
than 230,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually by 2030
via molecular recycling technologies. The company has
committed to recycling more than 115,000 tonnes of plastic
waste annually by 2025. AT
www.eastman.com
66 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

Not all plastics are
recycled equally
Floris Buijzen, Senior Product Market Manager
Gerrit Gobius du Sart, Corporate Scientist
TotalEnergies Corbion, Gorinchem, the Netherlands
By
Technology
TotalEnergies Corbion has launched the world’s first
commercially available chemically recycled bioplastics
product. The Luminy ® recycled PLA grades boast the
same properties, characteristics, and regulatory approvals
as virgin Luminy PLA, and are partially made from postindustrial
and post-consumer PLA waste. TotalEnergies
Corbion is already receiving and depolymerizing reprocessed
PLA waste, which is then purified and polymerized back into
commercially available Luminy rPLA.
Of the total estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of historic plastic
production, only 9 % of the plastic waste (or 0.6 billion tonnes)
have been recycled, or about 7 % of all plastics produced [1].
Clearly, the plastics industry is facing a major challenge to
realize high recycling rates for all plastics, and bioplastics
are no exception to that conclusion.
Industrial composting is a well-established end-of-life
option for PLA and is preferred for applications like tea
bags and coffee capsules, allowing diversion of organic
waste from landfill. In addition to its already established
end-of-life options, different recycling strategies should be
explored and advanced also for polylactic acid or PLA.
Over the last years, TotalEnergies Corbion has been
working on the different parts of the recycling value chain,
from collection, sorting, and cleaning to reprocessing
and reuse. Over the last years, numerous closed-loop
applications have ensured enough volume to capture the
value in recycled yet biogenic carbon on a commercial
scale. In such applications, PLA is used in well-controlled
environments, is collected after use, cleaned, and finally,
chemically recycled. Through this process, biogenic carbon
content is kept in the value cycle and reduces the need for
biomass in the production process of PLA.
Working in close cooperation with the recycling industry,
PLA converters and reprocessors, such new PLA feed streams
now enable production of increased volumes of commercially
available Luminy rPLA at TotalEnergies Corbion’s Thai plant
(with an overall PLA production capacity of 75,000 tonnes/a).
The company is still working on increasing the availability of
recycling volumes and welcomes new partners across the
recycling value chain. For the European market, chemical
recycling capacity is foreseen in the planned second facility
in Grandpuits, France.
Currently, Luminy PLA with a recycled content of 20 % is
now offered to the market, using a mix of post-industrial and
post-consumer PLA feed.
Where possible, TotalEnergies Corbion is a strong supporter
of mechanical recycling of PLA, but for certain applications,
notably those requiring food contact approval, mechanical
recycling, whilst arguably most favourable from an LCA
standpoint, poses a number of challenges. To overcome
the purity requirements for food contact articles, chemical
recycling of PLA was developed and upscaled successfully.
Contrary to traditional polyolefins like polypropylene,
chemical recycling of PLA is much less energy-intensive,
yet more selective. As they are not easily depolymerized,
pyrolysis of fossil thermoplastics typically requires high
energy inputs, high temperatures and produces complex,
non-selective mixtures of products [2]. Regarding process
selectivity, pyrolysis and cracking are reported to yield at most
19–24 % ethylene and 12–16 % propylene in addition to other
chemicals and fuels [3].
PLA on the other hand is selectively broken down
by different chemical recycling routes, including
depolymerization, esterification, and hydrolysis to lactic
acid [4]. These processes are highly selective and give
numerous options to valorise PLA waste. Simply looking
at the difference in necessary heat while comparing, for
example, hydrolysis (possible at relatively mild temperatures)
with classical pyrolysis (ranging from 300–900°C), it becomes
obvious that these technologies are a far cry from each other
in matters of energy consumption. Chemical recycling as
such breaks PLA down to its basic building blocks lactide or
lactic acid, which can then be transformed into PLA at virgin
quality. One could therefore argue that chemical recycling of
PLA is a more sustainable process than chemical recycling
of some traditional polymers requiring pyrolysis.
TotalEnergies Corbion has completed food contact,
compostability, and biobased content certifications for its
Luminy rPLA offering. A third-party certification of recycled
content will be available as of June 2022 as well.
An LCA study of Luminy rPLA with 20 % post-industrial
and post-consumer waste is being conducted and will be
published shortly. The goal remains to significantly increase
volumes of mechanical and chemical recycling of PLA and to
facilitate the transition to a truly circular economy.
[1] KPMG (2019) To ban or not to ban. Available at: https://assets.kpmg/
content/dam/kpmg/uk/pdf/2019/06/to-ban-or-not-to-ban-v6.pdf (Accessed:
May 45h, 2022)
[2] J.-P. Lange, Managing Plastic Waste: Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and
Product Redesign, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2021, 9, 15722
[3] Eunomia, Chemical Recycling: State of Play 2020, Petrochemicals
Europe Market Overview 2021
[4] R. Narayan, W.-M. Wu, C.S. Criddle, Lactide Production from Thermal
Depolymerization of PLA with applications to Production of PLA or other
bioproducts, US2013023674
www.totalenergies-corbion.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 67

Technology
Molecular recycling
Understanding material-to-material methanolysis
“Molecular (or chemical) recycling isn’t ready for
commercial operation” – or so many people believe.
With methanolysis, a specific type of molecular recycling
technology, this common misperception couldn’t be further
from the truth. Eastman Kodak Company (a forerunner
of today’s Eastman) used methanolysis commercially for
three decades to recycle photographic and X-ray film.
The technology was capable of recycling much more, but
until the last few years, the demand for recycled content
was missing. Now that the market is alive and growing,
methanolysis has an important role to play in shaping a
more sustainable materials industry – if stakeholders
across the value chains work in tandem to create a robust
recycling ecosystem.
Renewing polyester waste for high-value uses
Polyester products that can’t be mechanically recycled
are destined to wind up in a landfill or incinerator (or, worst
of all, out in the environment). Those end-of-life options
abruptly end the potentially infinite useful life of the polyester
molecules. Enter methanolysis – a molecular recycling
technology that makes new materials out of polyester plastic
waste that has been diverted from landfills and incinerators.
Mechanical recycling chops and shreds plastic; only
altering its physical form and causing some quality
degradation. Methanolysis, on the other hand, uses a process
called depolymerization. By heating the polyester waste
plastic and treating it with methanol, it unzips the polyesters
and converts them back to their molecular building blocks,
dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and ethylene glycol (EG).
Colours and additives are removed in the process.
The molecules that result from methanolysis are
indistinguishable from materials made with virgin content.
Eastman uses those pure DMT and EG molecules to make
new materials – not fuel or energy. They are ideal for making
specialty copolyesters that go into packaging and durable
medical, beauty, and electronic applications, among others.
Eastman also sees the potential for using molecular recycled
content in food-grade PET packaging.
Methanolysis feedstock: big
challenge, bigger opportunity
Mechanical recycling processes are limited to certain types
of plastic that can be used in a limited number of end-use
applications. Methanolysis processes polyester materials that
pose a challenge to mechanical recycling, such as coloured
plastic bottles, carpet fibres, films, and even polyesterbased
clothing. Eastman ensures that its methanolysis
recycling technology does not compete against mechanical
recycling for polyester feedstock, but rather complements it.
The company follows a three-part feedstock
acquisition strategy:
1. Purchase low-value materials, like used PET strapping
and rejected plastic waste from conventional mechanical
recycling facilities.
2. Forge innovative partnerships to collect and transport
hard-to-recycle plastic waste, like carpet and textiles
that would not go into the mechanical stream.
3. Create completely new feedstock streams for items such
as coloured bottles and thermoform clamshell food
packaging that cannot be processed mechanically.
Eastman’s single greatest challenge in scaling up
methanolysis is accessing enough feedstock when the
recycling infrastructure does not yet exist. Material makers
like Eastman, consumer packaged goods brands, waste
companies, and other stakeholders are partnering to build a
supply pipeline to make sure the polyester plastic waste can
reach methanolysis recycling facilities.
The opportunity is worth the challenge. While mechanical
recycling delays the landfilling of plastic, methanolysis
enables Eastman to recycle polyester waste over and over
again without degradation, keeping those materials out of the
landfill and in the value chain. And it does so with a lower carbon
footprint compared to virgin, nonrecycled plastic production.
The life cycle perspective of methanolysis
Recycling technologies that reduce waste yet release
more carbon emissions than virgin production are not an
acceptable solution. True solutions must operate at the
intersection of the plastic waste crisis, climate change,
and population growth.
Eastman is committed to advancing technologies that
reduce environmental impacts and enable a lower-carbon
future. To ensure they are making good on that commitment
in the realm of molecular recycling, Eastman commissioned
a third-party verified life cycle assessment (LCA) of its
methanolysis process. The LCA (assessable on Eastman’s
website), which was published in early 2022, compares
the global warming potential and other environmental
indicators of DMT produced via methanolysis (using recycled
feedstock) to DMT made using conventional processes (and
virgin fossil feedstock).
For this cradle-to-gate LCA, the cradle begins at raw
material extraction; in the case of plastic waste feeds, this
begins at the end of the previous life of the material when
it is deemed to be waste. The gate is internal to Eastman
at the point where rDMT and rEG (intermediates) are
manufactured. Between these two points, the LCA includes
raw material acquisition, upstream operations, energy
supply and all relevant processing at Eastman. The study
used the state-of-the-art Environmental Footprint (EF)
impact assessment methodology developed by the
European Commission.
68 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17

By:
Jason Pierce
Senior Technical Leader of Circular Economy
Eastman
Kingsport, Tennessee, USA
Technology
The study shows that DMT from methanolysis has
significantly lower impacts than conventional DMT in 13
out of the 14 environmental impact categories studied.
Most notably, the climate change impact for DMT from
methanolysis is 29 % lower. This was calculated by using
global warming potential (GWP) characterization factors for
all greenhouse gas emissions and expressing the results on
the basis of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents emitted
to the atmosphere. Roughly 73 % less fossil fuel natural
resources are used in methanolysis vs. conventional DMT
production, and methanolysis also ranks significantly better
in terms of water and human health-related impacts.
For the sake of conservatism, the study only takes the
function of material production into account; if the functional
unit of the study were extended to also include avoided plastic
waste disposal, the carbon footprint of methanolysis would
compare even more favourably due to receiving credit for the
avoided landfilling or incineration of plastic waste inputs.
As is, the study results clearly demonstrate that recycling
polyesters via methanolysis tackles more than the plastic
waste crisis – it also addresses climate change.
Mechanical recycling remains the least energy-intensive
recycling technology, and it is important that clean, clear
polyesters that can be mechanically recycled continue
to be recycled in this fashion. It is equally important to
send difficult-to-recycle polyester waste to methanolysis
facilities that can make a substantial difference in the plastic
industry’s overall carbon footprint – which is predicted to
keep growing even as the world desperately needs to shift to
a low-carbon economy.
It takes an ecosystem
Mechanical recycling and molecular recycling via
methanolysis certainly aren’t the only two solutions for
tackling the plastic waste crisis and climate change. The world
needs an all of the above approach to material-to-material
recycling technologies to truly make a difference in these
two interconnected issues. Jason Pierce, senior technical
leader for Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment at
Eastman, says, “I see this as an ecosystem of infrastructure
and complementary technologies that will be optimized over
time”. The ecosystem encompasses the complementary
roles of mechanical and molecular recycling, as well as
recycling’s relationship to other waste reduction and climate
solutions, such as bioplastics.
Pierce is also quick to point out that the ecosystem
includes much more than the technologies themselves.
Collaboration across the value chain and with policymakers
is just as important for a robust, future-ready waste reduction
ecosystem. It takes brands willing to purchase different
types of recycled materials for their products – and then
launching take-back programs to get that material back to
a recycling facility. It takes partners building new feedstock
streams and infrastructure.
As a materials manufacturer, Eastman is actively
participating in increasing demand and building up supply.
The company is currently running pilot methanolysis plants
while building two new state-of-the-art methanolysis
facilities in the United States and France.
The US facility, located at Eastman headquarters in
Kingsport, Tennessee, will have a capacity to process more
than 100,000 tonnes of polyester plastic waste annually.
By as early as 2025, the USD 1 billion plant in France is
expected to be capable of processing up to 160,000 tonnes of
plastic per year. The facility will include equipment to break
mixed-plastic bales and prepare material for processing,
a methanolysis unit to break down polyester waste plastic
into DMT and EG, and a unit to purify and repolymerize the
chemicals into Eastman’s branded polymers for use in
packaging, textiles, and other products.
www.eastman.com
Understanding mass balance
Molecular recycled and virgin materials are
indistinguishable. Mass balance is an accounting system
used to track the recycled content through complex
manufacturing processes. This vetted and standardized
system is used in a variety of industries. It is analogous to
how power companies account for the sale of renewable
energy to consumers using an electric grid. It’s also how
some brands certify the amount of sustainably sourced
cocoa in their products.
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17 69

Basics
By:
Mónica Viciano Miralles
Decarbonization Department, AIMPLAS
Paterna, Valencia, Spain
CO 2
-based
plastics
One of the biggest challenges of our time is climate
change and how to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions. One of the most talked about GHGs is CO 2
(carbon dioxide) giving it a bad reputation as something
that we should avoid. However, in the right hands, CO 2
is
more than just an evil gas that might kill us all (or, you
know, the stuff that leaves your mouth when you exhale, or
that helps beer and soda pops quench your thirst). In the
right hands CO 2
is a valuable resource that can be turned
into anything from a lunch box or a mattress, to the hockey
rink you train and play on, or even the aspirin you use when
curling practice escalated a little again.
Nowadays, it is possible to capture and transform CO 2
into a multitude of different products using carbon capture
and utilisation technology, or short CCU. For a closer look
what CCU is all about check out the basics article in issue
03/21 of bioplastics MAGAZINE. CO 2
is a non-toxic and cheap
carbon source currently used to obtain ecological green
fuels, as well as other products with high added value.
Recent research efforts focus on the development of early
technologies for direct CO 2
capture and the subsequent
CO 2
uses to transform it into everyday products of highvalue
industrial interest. Moreover, the CO 2
recovery to
obtain these daily products, such as plastics, fuels, or
solvents, is already an exciting reality in many industrial
sectors. Furthermore, the design of new biopolymers
and bioplastics made via captured and recovered CO 2
from towns and factories will permit an increase in the
reduction of emission in the future.
The attainment of green solvents or polymers, such as
polycarbonates and polyurethanes (plastics that can be
made from CO 2
), supports a Circular Economy approach
in regards to waste management (for instance, recovering
CO 2
and residues or biomass sources). The low reactivity
of CO 2
molecules means a catalyst is required to transform
them. Turning waste into energy in connection with
energy efficient new catalysts developed by scientists, will
contribute to sustainable development that will help to
create a greener and more renewable world.
This technology doesn’t only have an impact on
sustainability, but it also contributes to improve the safety
of industrial processes. It allows for the replacement of
the highly toxic reagents that are usually employed in
the preparation of some polymers, such as broadly used
polycarbonates. Through these catalysed CO 2
reactions,
an industrial alternative has been developed to avoid
using phosgene, which was employed as a toxic chemical
weapon during the First World War. This will not only
contribute to a more friendly and greener chemistry,
70 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/21] Vol. 16

Basics
but also to an economical synthesis method. Notably, this
industrial solution avoids toxic phosgene and recycles CO 2
from the atmosphere in a zero emissions technology.
Many CO 2
-based polymers are both recyclable and
biodegradable. These polymers have a wide range of
applications according to their size (molecular weight) and
shape (linear, branched, etc.). Low-medium molecular
weight polycarbonates are utilised in adhesives, paints,
and polyurethane formulations. High molecular weight
CO 2
polymers can be employed to make polymers that are
biocompatible with human tissues.
Researchers, from AIMPLAS and over the world, are
working on the exciting conversion of CO 2
to recycle this GHG
and contribute, along with the creation of new sustainable
bioplastics, to Circular Economy principles. The more CO 2
that
is captured and used for products, and thus bound in them, the
less will end up as GHG in the atmosphere.
Using and improving this knowledge will help us rise
to current and future challenges of society. Together with
innovative scientific experts who imagine new types of
polymers that can replace the carbon of conventional plastics,
we will be able to transform the world into one that future
generations can be proud of.
www.aimplas.es
14–15 November
Cologne (Germany)
Hybrid Event
advanced-recycling.eu
Diversity of Advanced Recycling of Plastic Waste
All you want to know about
advanced plastic waste recycling:
technologies and renewable
chemicals, building blocks,
monomers, and polymers based
on recycling
Topics
• Markets and Policy
• Circular Economy and Ecology of Plastics
• Physical Recycling
• Biochemical Recycling
• Chemical Recycling
• Thermochemical Recycling
• Other Advanced Recycling Technologies
• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU)
• Upgrading, Pre- and Post-treatment Technologies
Organiser Sponsored by Contact
Dr. Lars Krause
Program
lars.krause@nova-institut.de
Dominik Vogt
Conference Manager
dominik.vogt@nova-institut.de
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/21] Vol. 16 71

Basics
Carbon Capture & Utilisation
T
h is article is an edited excerpt from the
nova-Paper #12 on renewable carbon: “Renewable
Carbon – Key to a Sustainable and Future-Oriented
Chemical and Plastic Industry”. The full report can be
downloaded for free from [1].
One almost endlessly available source of renewable carbon
is the carbon dioxide (CO 2
) and other carbon oxides (e.g. CO)
contained in exhaust gases, waste air, and the atmosphere,
which may be utilised as a raw material for the chemical
industry by means of a number of technologies.
Nowadays, fossil CO 2
and CO is mainly obtained from
fossil point sources such as power plants, steel and
cement/lime plants as well as
chemical industry factories. For
some of these industries, owing
to the specific technologies
used there, the generation of
CO 2
will remain unavoidable in
the decades to come. Biogenic
CO 2
is typically generated during
the fermentation process of the
food and animal feed industries
but also in biogas plants, when
combusting biomass or in the
paper industry. The largest reserve
of CO 2
exists in the atmosphere,
from which CO 2
may be retrieved
using specialised facilities in a
process called direct air capture [2].
In order to make the carbon
contained in CO 2
usable once more,
it must be chemically reduced, which
requires large amounts of energy.
From an ecological viewpoint, this
means that only renewable energies
or existing process energy qualify
as options. And this in turn means
that, in order to be able to use the CO 2
itself as a source for raw materials, there must be massive,
worldwide growth in renewable energies such as solar and
wind energy, hydropower and geothermal energy.
Provided there is sufficient renewable energy available,
direct CO 2
utilisation is an inexhaustible and sustainable
source of carbon for the chemical industry. nova Institute’s
own calculations demonstrate that just 1–2 % of the Sahara
area would be sufficient to cover the chemical industry’s
entire carbon demand in 2050, which will continue to grow
from today with a CAGR of 3–4 %, by means of photovoltaics
and CO 2
utilisation.
It only takes a simple chemical reaction to turn CO 2
and
hydrogen (H2), the latter of which may be obtained from
renewable energies, into methane, methanol, formic acid,
ethylene, and alcohols, which in turn may be used to produce
the bulk of today’s chemicals. The Fischer-Tropsch process
adds naphtha, diesel, kerosene, and long-chained waxes,
permitting even today’s refinery structures for the production
of platform chemicals to be maintained and, at the same time,
decoupled from fossil raw materials. New chemical catalysts
allow for the development of novel CO 2
-based chemicals
and polymers, and even complex organic molecules may
be directly obtained from CO 2
thanks to biotechnological,
electrochemical, and hybrid solutions.
If the chemical industry switches
to renewable carbon, society would
not have to relinquish anything it has
become used to over time.
“Almost all chemical
products currently
manufactured from fossil
raw materials can be
produced from carbon
dioxide”. (Lehtonen et al.
2019)
In the medium to long term,
considerable progress is also
expected in the development
of artificial photosynthesis and
photocatalysis, with the aid of
which sunlight is to be used
directly for the production of
chemicals. The foundation are
developments based on novel
nanomaterials and polymer
systems, through which efficient
use of solar radiation, water
splitting, and CO 2
reduction can
be directly coupled with the synthesis of the desired
products. Commercial systems with artificial photosynthesis
are expected to be on the market by 2050.
Compared to the utilisation of biomass, direct CO 2
utilisation
has some considerable advantages: The requirement for
space and water is significantly below the one incurred by the
utilisation of biomass. In 2017, Searchinger et al. calculated
that on world average, the area required for the production of
ethanol from wood is 85 times higher than the one for ethanol
production from photovoltaics and direct CO 2
utilisation [3].
The reason for this discrepancy is the significantly better
yield of modern solar cells (20–25 %; experts even believe
72 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16

By:
Basics
Michael Carus,
Lara Dammer,
Achim Raschka,
Pia Skoczinski
Christopher vom Berg
nova-Institute, Hürth (Germany)
efficiency rates of 40 % to be possible by 2050) compared
to natural photosynthesis, where – considering the entire
process chain including agriculture and down-stream
processes – only 0.1–0.3 % of solar exposure ends up
in the final product.
Economic and employment effects of CCU
Under current conditions, renewable carbon from CCU is
generally more expensive than fossil carbon from crude oil or
natural gas. It will never again be as easy and cheap to access
carbon as it has been in the fossil age. How much more
expensive CCU fuels or chemicals are exactly, depends on a
number of factors but mostly on the price at which renewable
energy can be obtained. As a rule of thumb, price parity with
fossil fuels could be achieved at electricity prices of 1.5–2
Eurocents per kWh [2].
In terms of employment, it is expected that a switch to
renewable carbon will have positive effects. According to
Eurostat, more than 65,000 employees (EU-28) (4,000 in
Germany) worked in oil and gas production in Europe in 2016.
If the raw material base were to be converted to renewable
carbon, this figure would increase considerably – decentrally
produced renewable carbon would certainly require 5–10
times the number of employees.
In addition, there are already hundreds of start-ups
developing new technologies for the production and use of
renewable carbon. “A third important driver for CCU is the
potential for new business cases based on the sustainable
supply of carbon for value-added products. Economic
feasibility is a long-term prerequisite for the viability and
large-scale realisation of CCU concepts. In addition, there
are CCU business cases, such as high-value speciality
chemicals and materials that can be justified solely on
an economic basis” [4]. For more details on the economic
aspects of CCU, please see nova-Paper #11 on Carbon
Capture and Utilisation [2].
References
[1] Carus, M. et al. 2020: Renewable Carbon is Key to a Sustainable and
Future-Oriented Chemical Industry, Hürth 2020-09; Download at
https://tinyurl.com/nova-paper-12
[2] Carus, M., Skoczinski, P., Dammer, L., vom Berg, C., Raschka, A.
and Breitmayer, E. 2019. Hitchhiker’s Guide to Carbon Capture and
Utilisation. nova paper #11 on bio – and CO 2
-based economy. nova-
Institut (Ed.), Hürth, Germany, 2019-02. Download at
https://tinyurl.com/nova-paper-11
[3] Searchinger, T. D., Beringer, T. and Strong, A. 2017. Does the world have
low-carbon bioenergy potential from the dedicated use of land? Energy
Policy, Vol. 110 434-446. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.08.016
[4] Lehtonen, J., Järnefelt, V., Alakurtti, S., Arasto, A., Hannula, I., Harlin,
A., Koljonen, T., Lantto, R., Lienemann, M. and Onarheim, K. 2019.
The Carbon Reuse Economy: Transforming CO 2
from a pollutant into a
resource. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (Ed.),
www.renewable-carbon-initiative.com
newsletter: http://bio-based.eu/email
Direct CO 2
utilisation: Pros in a nutshell
• Very high potential in volume (almost unlimited)
• Low demand for land and water, low carbon footprint
• High TRL (Technology Readiness Level) technologies available
Direct CO 2
utilisation: Cons in a nutshell
• Potential lock in effects using fossil point sources
• Competition on limited renewable electricity
• High investment necessary
• Almost all chemicals and plastics can be produced from CO 2
• High employment potential
• Inexhaustible source of carbon for the next millennia
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 73

Automotive
Category
10
Years ago
Published in
bioplastics MAGAZINE
Basics
Plastics made from CO 2
Basics
First plastics from CO 2
coming onto the market -
and they can be biodegradable
Basics
Photosynthesis Metabolism
Carbohydrates
Fig. 2: The carbon cycle as occurring in nature (left) and
the envisioned carbon cycle for the ‘CO 2 Economy’ (right).
CO 2
CO 2
Bayer Material Science exhibited polyurethane blocks at
ACHEMA, which were made from CO 2 polyols. CO 2 replaces
some of the mineral oils used. Industrial manufacturing of
foams for mattresses and insulating materials for fridges
and buildings is due to start in 2015. Noteworthy is the fact
that the CO 2 used by Bayer Material Science is captured
at a lignite-fired power plant, thus contributing to lower
greenhouse gas emissions.
Implementing a CO 2
economy
These examples, combined with the strong research efforts
of different corporations and national research programs,
are disclosing a future where we will probably be able to
implement a real ‘CO 2 Economy’; where CO 2 will be seen as
a valuable raw material rather than a necessary evil of our
fossil-fuel based modern life style.
Steps toward the implementation of such a vision are
already in place. The concept of Artificial Photosynthesis
(APS) is a remarkable example (Fig. 2).
This field of chemical production is aiming to use either CO 2
recaptured from a fossil fuel combustion facility, or acquiring
By
Fabrizio Sibilla
Achim Raschka
Michael Carus
Artificial
Photosynthesis
nova-Institute, Hürth, Germany
Energy / Material
Resources
Industrial
usage
Thinking further ahead, in a future when propylene oxide
will be produced from methanol reformed from CO 2 , PPC
will be available derived 100% from recycled CO 2 , therefore
making it very attractive for the final consumer.
PPC is also a biodegradable polymer that shows good
compostability properties. These properties, when combined
with the 43% or 100% ‘Recycled CO 2 ’ can contribute to the
development of a plastic industry that can aim at being
sustainable in its three pillars (social, environmental,
economy).
Other big advantages of PPC are its thermoplastic
behaviour similar to many existing plastics, its possibility
to be combined with other polymers, and its use with
fillers. Moreover, PPC does not require special tailor-made
CO 2 from the atmosphere together with water and sunlight to
machines for its forming or extruding, hence this aspect
obtain what is often defined as ‘solar fuel’ - mainly methanol
contributes to make PPC a ‘ready to use’ alternative to many
or methane. The word ‘fuel’ is used in a broad sense: it refers
existing plastics.
not only to fuel for transportation or electricity generation, but
also to feedstocks for the chemicals and plastics industries.
PPC is also a good softener for bioplastics: many biobased
plastics, e.g. PLA and PHA, are originally too brittle
However research is also focused on other chemicals, such
and can therefore only be used in conjunction with additives
as, for example, the direct formation of formic acid. Efforts
in many applications. Now a new option is available which
are in place to mimic the natural photosynthesis to such an
extent that even glucose or other fermentable carbohydrates
can cover an extended range of material characteristics
are foreseen as possible products. Keeping this in mind,
through combinations of PPC with PLA or PHA. This keeps
a vision where carbohydrates, generated by APS, will be
the material biodegradable and translucent, and it can be
used in subsequent biotechnological fermentation to obtain
processed without any trouble using normal machinery. It
almost any desired chemicals or bio-plastics (such as PLA,
must be pointed out that it is not easy to give an unambiguous
PHB and others) can become reality in a future that is nearer
classification to PPC, but it falls more into a grey area of
than expected.
definitions. As discussed above, it can be prepared either from
CO 2 recovered from flue gases and conventional propylene
The Panasonic Corporation for example, released its
oxide, and in this case although not definable as ‘bio-based’
first prototype of a working APS device (Fig. 3) that shows
the same efficiency of photosynthetic plants and is able to
produce formic acid from water, sunlight and CO 2 ; formic
acid is a bulk chemical that is required in many industrial
processes.
H 3
C
O
propylene oxide
it may still be attractive for its 43% by wt. of recycled CO 2
and its full biodegradability. It can in theory also be produced
using CO 2 recovered from biomass combustion, thus being
classified as 43% biomass-based (25% biobased according to
the bio-based definition ASTM D6866). As already mentioned
above, if propylene oxide could be produced from the
oxidation of bio-based propylene, then it can be declared 57%
biomass-based or 100% bio-based if CO 2 and propylene oxide
are both bio-based. As more and more different plastics and
chemicals in the future will be derived from recycled CO 2 they
will need a new classification and definition such as ‘recycled
CO 2 ’ in order not to bewilder the consumer.
Polyethylene carbonate and polyols
Polypropylene carbonate is not the only plastic that
recently came onto the market. Other remarkable examples
are the production of polyethylene carbonate (PEC) and
polyurethanes from CO 2 .
The company Novomer has a proprietary technology to
obtain PEC from ethylene oxide and CO 2 , in a process similar
to the production of PPC. PEC is 50% CO 2 by mass and can
be used in a number of applications to replace and improve
traditional petroleum based plastics currently on the market.
PEC plastics exhibit excellent oxygen barrier properties
that make it useful as a barrier layer for food packaging
applications. PEC has a significantly improved environmental
footprint compared to barrier resins ethylenevinyl alcohol
(EVOH) and polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) which are used as
barrier layers.
CH 3
O
CO 2 C
catalyst
C
arbon dioxide is one of the most discussed molecules
in the popular press, due to its role as greenhouse gas
(GHG) and the increase in temperature on our planet,
a phenomenon known as global warming.
Carbon dioxide is generally regarded as an inert molecule,
as it is the final product of any combustion process, either
chemical or biological in cellular metabolism (an average
human body emits daily about 0.9 kg of CO 2 ). The abundance
of CO 2 prompted scientists to think of it as a useful raw
material for the synthesis of chemicals and plastics rather
than as a mere emission waste.
Traditionally CO 2 has been used in numerous applications,
such as in the preparation of carbonated soft drinks, as
an acidity regulator in the food industry, in the industrial
preparation of synthetic urea, in fire extinguishers and many
others.
Today, as CO 2 originating from energy production, transport
and industrial production continues to accumulate in the
atmosphere, scientists and technologists are looking more
closely at different alternatives to reduce flue-gas emissions
and are exploring the possibility of using CO 2 as a direct
feedstock for chemicals production, and first successful
examples have already been achieved.
The carbon cycle on our planet is able to recycle the
CO 2 from the atmosphere back in the biosphere and it has
maintained an almost constant level of CO 2 concentration
over the last hundred thousand years. The carbon cycle fixes
approx. 200 gigatonnes of CO 2 yearly while the anthropogenic
CO 2 accounts for about 7 gigatonnes per year (3-4% of the
CO 2 fixed in the carbon cycle). Even if this quantity looks
small, we must bear in mind that this excess of CO 2 has been
accumulating year after year in the atmosphere, and in fact
we know that CO 2 concentration rose to almost 400 ppm from
280 ppm in the preindustrial era.
In recent years different processes have been patented
and are currently used to recover CO 2 from the flue-gases of
coal, oil or natural gas, or from biomass power plants. The
recovered CO 2 can be either stored in natural caves, used for
44 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/12] Vol. 7
O
O
polypropylene carbonate
n
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), or can be used as feedstock
for the chemical industry. The availability of a high quantity of
CO 2 triggered different research projects worldwide that are
aimed at finding a high added value use for what otherwise
is a pollutant.
Plastics from CO 2
When it comes to the question of CO 2 and plastics there
are many different strategies aiming at either obtaining
plastics from molecules derived directly from CO 2 or using
CO 2 in combination with monomers that could either be
traditional fossil-based or bio-based chemicals. Moreover,
the final plastics can be biodegradable or not, depending
to their structures. Noteworthy among already existing CO 2
derived plastics are polypropylene carbonate, polyethylene
carbonate, polyurethanes and many promising others that
are still in the laboratories.
dear
readers
Polypropylene carbonate
Polypropylene carbonate (PPC) is the first remarkable
example of a plastic that uses CO 2 in its preparation. PPC is
obtained through alternated polymerization of CO 2 with PO
(propylene oxide, C 3 H 6 O) (Fig. 1).
The production of PPC worldwide is rising and this trend is
not expected to change.
Polypropylene carbonate (PPC) was first developed 40
years ago by Inoue, but is only now coming into its own.
PPC is 43% CO 2 by mass, is biodegradable, shows high
temperature stability, high elasticity and transparency, and
a memory effect. These characteristics open up a wide
range of applications for PPC, including countless uses as
packaging film and foams, dispersions and softeners for
brittle plastics. The North American companies Novomer
and Empower Materials, the Norwegian firm Norner and SK
Innovation from South Korea are some of those working to
develop and produce PPC.
Are plastics made from CO 2
to be considered as bioplastics? Not
necessarily, I would say. If these plastics are in fact biodegradable
they would fall under our definition of bioplastics (see our revised
and extended ‘Glossary 3.0’ on page 50ff). And if such plastics are
made from CO 2
that comes, via combustion or other chemical processes,
from fossil based raw materials, we should at least avoid
calling call them biobased. Nevertheless, I believe that the use of
such CO 2
to make plastics (or other useful products) and so prevent,
or at least delay, the CO 2
from entering the atmosphere, is a good
approach in the sense of our overall objectives. It will certainly require
further evaluation and even standardisation until CO 2
based
plastics can/will be defined as a new (bio-) plastic class or category.
Today PPC is a high quality plastic able to combine several
advantages at the same time.
Plastics produced from CO 2
, definitely one of the major topics in
this issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE, is accompanied by further highlights.
In several articles we report about biobased polyurethanes
and elastomers and we present some articles about fibres and textile
applications.
In this issue we also present the five finalists for the 7 th Bioplastics
Award. The number of entries was not as large as in previous
years, however I doubt that the innovative power of this industry is
Fig. 1: Route to PPC from CO 2 and propylene oxide
CO 2
reduction
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/12] Vol. 7 45
Water oxidation by
light energy
water
Carbon dioxide
Oxygen
Formic acid
Metal catalyst
Fig. 3: Panasonic scheme of its fully functioning artificial
photosynthesis device
(Courtesy of Panasonic Corporation).
flagging. So we kindly ask all of you to keep your eyes open and report
interesting innovations that have a significant market relevance
whenever you see them. The 8 th Bioplastics Award is definitely coming.
The 7 th ‘Bioplastics Oskar’ will be presented on November 6 th in
Berlin at the European Bioplastics Conference.
Until then, we hope you enjoy reading bioplastics MAGAZINE
Sincerely yours
Michael Thielen
Follow us on twitter!
www.twitter.com/bioplasticsmag
Light
source
Nitride Semiconductor
Be our friend on Facebook!
www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine
46 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/12] Vol. 7
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/12] Vol. 7
74 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17

Automotive
In September 2022, Alex Thielen,
Editor of bioplastics MAGAZINE says:
Already 10 years ago the topic of CO 2
-based plastics
was featured in bioplastics MAGAZINE. And our very
own Michael Thielen wrote in the editorial on page 3
whether or not they should be considered bioplastics.
Back then we already made a clear distinction
between bioplastics and CO 2
-based plastics, as
they should only be considered bioplastics, if either
the CO 2
comes from a biobased source or if they
are biodegradable themselves. Now, 10 years later
it should be more than obvious that we still agree
with Michael’s statement about the usefulness
of CO 2
-based plastics as we now have a separate
segment that showcases topics related to CCU
(Carbon capture and utilisation) or CO 2
-based plastic.
Editorial
However, the distinction is clear, CO 2
-based
plastics tend to be a category of their own
– some might also be bioplastics
but many, or even most, are not.
However, the waters around the
definitions of (bio)plastics are
already rather murky, or as Jan
Ravenstijn said in What’s in a name,
“ask ten people for the definition (of
plastic) and you’ll get at least eight
different answers” (see bM 03/22,
p. 46). So instead of muddying these
waters further it seems to make sense
to sidestep the whole “what is and
isn’t a plastic” discussion by looking at
it from a different angle – where does
the carbon come from?
In any case, it is clear that the idea of CO 2
-
based plastics is not new as even in 2012 we
had articles about CO 2
-based polypropylene
carbonate polyols, CO 2
-based polyurethanes,
and a basics article about plastics made
from CO 2
in general. The last one on this list
was written by industry experts from the novainstitute
that a couple of years ago founded the
Renewable Carbon Initiative which focuses on the
feedstock issue of the plastics crisis. The concept
of renewable carbon creates a neat framework
through which we can look at plastics, or plasticlike
materials, through a new lens.
At the end of the
day, the goal is to move
away from fossil-based
plastics, we want to
defossilise the industry
(as it is quite impossible
to decarbonise). To be
clear defossilisation
in that sense does not
mean to avoid “fossil
carbon”, but to avoid
making plastics from
newly extracted fossil
resources. Some processes that fall under renewable
carbon like advanced recycling (or any recycling for
that matter) or CCU may have fossil carbon in it, yet
are useful (though as a side note, CO 2
from direct
air capture would technically count as bio due to its
12
C/ 14 C ratio). Again we can see how definitions of what
might count as fossil can get in the way of solutions.
And while some might not necessarily agree
with the inclusion of CO 2
-based plastics in this, by
now almost iconic publication that used to focus
exclusively on bioplastics (as the name might have
given away), we think that it is more important to look
at proper solutions for the vast amount of challenges
we as an industry face. I would be more than happy if
bioplastics, both biobased and biodegradable, could
solve all these problems, but as history has shown
change can be slow and cumbersome even if it is so
urgently necessary. Therefore it is my opinion that we
need to use all the available tools to challenge and
change the status quo. That includes CCU and yes
that also includes advanced recycling technologies.
There will be dead ends and false prophets that will
try to sell their greenwashing as proper solutions,
but that doesn’t make CO 2
-based and advanced
recycling-based plastics the enemy – the enemy has
always been misinformation and those that are keen
to profit from false claims and straight out lies.
Will this happen with CCU/CO 2
-based plastics?
Probably, yes. Did this happen and is still happening
with bioplastics? Sadly, yes. But if we even want to
have a shot at solving these humongous issues
we need more diverse solutions that tackle the
issues from different sides. Divided we will fall,
together we might succeed.
Categroy
tinyurl.com/ccu2012
3
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/22] Vol. 17 75

Opinion
Designing for recycling
of the future
The issue is familiar and pressing – currently, only 9 %
of plastic waste is recycled globally, the rest ending
up in landfills, in incinerators (thus generating
pollution), or in the environment. People want solutions.
Multiple processes that fall under the umbrella of chemical
recycling (also sometimes referred to as advanced recycling,
chemical conversion, molecular conversion, or conversion
technologies) have been proposed as solutions to recycle
more plastic, but unfortunately a basic problem is that
many of these technologies are currently used as pathways
to turn plastics into fuels – and this is not recycling. True
recycling returns materials to the manufacturing cycle; it
doesn’t destroy them under the guise of producing energy
(which so far, is still the status quo for chemical recycling).
And there is another fundamental problem with applying any
of these technologies to current plastics: toxic chemicals in
= toxic chemicals out.
Plastics, whether they are derived from fossil fuel or
biobased feedstock, can contain hundreds of toxic additives
such as plasticizers, stabilizers, flame retardants, and
pigments, and may contain toxic monomers [1]. These
substances pose health and environmental threats over the
life cycle of the material, from production to use to disposal
or recycling. Neither mechanical recycling nor chemical
recycling can effectively deal with these toxic chemicals –
they may be incorporated into the recycled product itself [2],
or concentrated in hazardous waste if separated from the
desired monomers or polymers. Chemical recycling facilities
in the USA utilizing pyrolysis or solvent purification generate
large quantities of hazardous waste [3].
It is important to move away from circulating the most
toxic chemicals on the market, and intentionally design
materials and chemicals to be safe from the start, with
their end of life in mind. The European Union Chemicals
Strategy for Sustainability published in 2020 works towards
this goal by encouraging innovation for safe and sustainable
chemicals coupled with better protections for human health
and the environment through regulation [4]. Because
(most) bioplastics are not derived from fossil fuels, there is
significant potential for these biobased materials to be an
important part of the sustainable and non-toxic materials
cycles envisioned by the EU Strategy, if materials can start to
evolve today to meet what is needed for tomorrow. Three of
the Strategy’s key elements that are particularly relevant to
recycling considerations are:
1. getting rid of the most hazardous materials,
2. encouraging chemicals that are safe and
sustainable by design, and
Getting rid of the most hazardous materials
The EU Strategy calls for banning the most harmful
chemicals from use in consumer products – those that cause
cancer, gene mutations, disruptions to the reproductive or
endocrine system, or are persistent and bioaccumulative.
Many chemicals currently used in plastics and bioplastics
would meet this criterion, including per-and poly-fluorinated
alkyl substances (PFAS), halogenated flame retardants,
heavy metals, and many more. If manufacturers removed
these types of hazardous chemicals from materials, there
would be far less concern for toxic contamination or recirculation
in recycling.
Safe and sustainable by design
While removing known toxic chemicals is critical, this
alone is not enough. Where a function is needed, it is also
key to replace known toxic chemicals with safer chemicals,
not chemicals that are inadequately tested or of unknown
toxicity (i.e. a “regrettable substitution”). The EU Strategy
promotes a safe-and-sustainable-by-design approach to
chemicals that “focuses on providing a function (or service),
while avoiding volumes and chemical properties that may be
harmful to human health or the environment”. Manufacturers
should use green chemistry principles to guide chemicals
development and selection as a priority in product design
from the outset, on equal footing with cost and functionality.
This includes designing for the end-of-life, which should feed
into a materials manufacturing cycle, instead of disposal
(including both landfill and waste-to-energy processes).
Nontoxic materials cycles
Overall, current plastic product design prioritizes
functionality in the use phase, with little to no consideration
for the end-of-life. This disconnect is a major contributor to
the plastic waste crisis. Designing for a non-toxic materials
cycle means that both the recycling process and the recycled
materials are free from hazardous chemicals. Chemical
recycling today falls short on both these measures and is
most often not true recycling. But emerging molecular
technologies have the potential to deliver in this regard,
such as enzymatic depolymerization of biobased polymers
used to feed building blocks back into polymer production,
performing true recycling [5]. These types of reactions
generally do not need high heat or toxic solvents and do
not generate hazardous by-products. If applied within a
cycle of safer, sustainable materials without toxic additives
or components, such technologies could be a part of the
recycling of the future.
3. creating nontoxic materials cycles.
76 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17

By
Veena Singla, Senior Scientist
Tessa Wardle, Environmental Health Intern
Natural Resources Defense Council
San Francisco, CA, USA
Opinion
Conclusion
These three elements from the EU Strategy point the
way towards designing materials today for a healthier,
more sustainable future where both hazardous chemicals
and waste are minimized, and products are safely recycled
as part of a circular economy. Companies that integrate
these elements into their business strategies will be well –
positioned to take advantage of related economic incentives
and get ahead of regulations. The plastic pollution crisis is
solvable, and recycling technologies (including certain forms
of advanced recycling) are a part of the solution – but only
when applied to materials that do not contain hazardous
chemicals, that are safe and sustainable by design, and that
feed into nontoxic materials cycles.
References
[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c00976
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/
S0304389422001984
[3] https://www.nrdc.org/resources/recycling-lies-chemical-recyclingplastic-just-greenwashing-incineration
[4] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/chemicals-strategy_en
[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/
S0167779919300897
Download the
bioplastics MAGAZINE
FREE
APP
Our free Android and iOS App lets you read
bioplastics MAGAZINE on your mobile device.
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 AppStore and search for "bioplastics
magazine".
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
*: (may become a paid service after 2022)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 77

In this Issue
Articles in this Issue
Page Category Article Topic Orig. Page Issue
6 Shorts MEG from captured carbon 5 22-4
6 Shorts Electrochemical conversion of CO2 6 22-3
6 Shorts Polyamide 6 from 92 % sustainable raw materials 6 21-6
7 Shorts Twelve and LanzaTech to produce polypropylene from CO2 emissions 5 21-5
7 Shorts PHA containers made from carbon emissions 7 21-1
8 Shorts Cooperation on chemical recycling of plastic waste 8 21-3
8 Shorts WWF released new position: Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles 7 22-1
9 Shorts Chemically recycled PLA now available 5 21-6
9 Shorts How plastic bottles end up in tyres 22 22-1
10 Automotive Strategic Partnership 15 21-1
11 Automotive Luca 19 21-1
12 Automotive Car headliner from plastic waste and old tyres 34 22-1
13 From Science & Research Clean-up ships fuelled by garbage 15 21-6
14 From Science & Research Closing the Circle 26-28 21-1
17 From Science & Research VIVALDI A change of tune for the chemical industry 40-41 21-4
18 From Science & Research The polymer of squares 48-49 21-2
20 From Science & Research Microalgae to PHB 28-29 21-3
22 From Science & Research Turning CO2 emissions into bioplastics VIVALDI 22-24 22-3
25 From Science & Research Engineered bacteria 16 22-2
26 From Science & Research Print, recycle, repeat – biodegradable, printed circuits 46 22-5
28 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens From cotton rag to modern functional textiles 26 21-2
29 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens Enzymatic degradation of used textiles for biological textile recycling 12 22-5
30 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens First fabric created using recycled carbon emissions 18-19 21-5
31 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens Enzymatic recycling technology for textile circularity 17 22-2
32 Fibres / Textiles / Nonwovens Upcycling process for PAN from textile waste 32 21-6
33 Feedstock Biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) for plastic production 17 22-5
34 Feedstock The future of Japan’s waste 24-25 21-2
36 Application Zero Compromise? Beautiful. 18 22-3
37 Application Protective furniture packaging from pyrolysis oil 18 22-2
38 Blow Moulding R-Cycle optimizes recycling 18 22-4
40 Blow Moulding First PET bottles from enzymatically recycled textile waste 14 21-3
41 Blow Moulding The world’s first HDPE Milk Bottles from advanced recycling 18 21-3
42 Polyurethanes Climate-friendly polyols and polyurethanes from CO2 and clean hydrogen 42-43 21-4
44 Polyurethanes Chemical recycling of polyurethane 14 22-4
45 Polyurethanes Biobased or renewable carbon based coatings 14 21-6
46 Polyurethanes Mattress recycling now a reality 36-37 22-1
48 Polyurethanes Melt spinning of CO2-based thermoplastic polyurethanes 14-15 22-2
50 Polyurethanes Converting plastic waste into performance products 19 22-2
51 Report Patent situation 33 21-6
52 Report Advanced recycling technology developing at a fast pace 36-37 22-3
54 Report Carbon dioxide utilization 46 22-4
56 Report Innovative recycling solutions for thermoset plastics 32-34 22-3
59 Renewable Carbon Bioeconomy is not alone 50 21-2
60 Renewable Carbon The Renewable Carbon Initiative 28-29 21-3
62 Renewable Carbon Renewable Materials Conference 10-11 22-3
64 Technology Merging high-quality recycling with lowered emissions 30-31 21-6
66 Technology New world-scale plastic-to-plastic molecular recycling facility 45 21-2
67 Technology Not all plasics are recycled equally 35 22-3
68 Technology Molecular recycling 16 22-4
70 Basics CO2 based plastics 50 21-5
72 Basics Carbon Capture & Utilisation 54 21-3
74 10 years ago 10 years ago 54-55 22-5
76 Opinion Designing for recycling of the future 44-45 22-3
78

Our frame colours
The familiar blue
frame stands for rather
administrative sections,
such as the table of
contents or the
“Dear readers” on page 3.
Bioplastics related topics, i.e.
all topics around biobased
and biodegradable plastics,
come in the familiar
green frame.
Subscribe
now at
bioplasticsmagazine.com
the next six issues for €179.– 1)
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.
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.
Articles covering Recycling
and Bioplastics ...
Recycling & Carbon Capture
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.
+
We’re sure, you got it!
Use the promotion code ‘book‘
and you will get the book 3)
Bioplastics Basics. Applications. Markets. for free
(new subscribers only).
1) Offer valid until 31 Oct 2022.
3) Gratis-Buch in Deutschland leider nicht möglich (Buchpreisbindung).
Watch as long as supply lasts.
79

Mechanical
Recycling
Extrusion
Physical-Chemical
Recycling
available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/graphics
Natural rubber
Lignin-based polymers
PFA
Casein polymers
Starch-containing
polymer compounds
Unsaturated polyester resins
Cellulose-based
polymers
Polyurethanes
ECH
MPG
Fatty acids
Dissolution
Physical
Recycling
PE
Furfuryl alcohol
11-AA
Epoxy resins
available at www.renewable-carbon.eu/graphics
Furfural
NOPs
PP
Building blocks
for UPR
Glycerol
Sebacic
acid
Enzymolysis
Biochemical
Recycling
Castor oil
DDDA
Hemicellulose
HMDA
EPDM
Building blocks
for polyurethanes
Casein
Caprolactame
PA
PHA
O
OH
HO
OH
Propylene
DN5
APC
HO
OH
Aniline
Naphtha
Plastic Product
End of Life
Plastic Waste
Collection
Separation
Different Waste
Qualities
Solvolysis
Chemical
Recycling
Monomers
Natural rubber
Non-edible milk
Plant oils
Lysine
Isosorbide
O
Waste oils
Lignocellulose
Sorbitol
OH
Ethylene
Starch
Depolymerisation
Thermochemical
Recycling
Vinyl chloride
Saccharose
Glucose
HO
Lactic
acid
Lactide
OH
Methyl methacrylate
Ethanol
O
PVC
Isobutanol
Itaconic
acid
PLA
OH
Pyrolysis
Thermochemical
Recycling
Fructose
Succinic
acid
Adipic
acid
3-HP
O
OH
Incineration
CO2 Utilisation
(CCU)
Gasification
Thermochemical
Recycling
MEG
2,5-FDCA
5-HMF/5-CMF
Acrylic
acid
PMMA
ABS
1,3 Propanediol
p-Xylene
Terephthalic
acid
THF
Levulinic
acid
1,4-Butanediol
FDME
CO2
© -Institute.eu | 2022
PEF
PBS(x)
Superabsorbent polymers
PBAT
PET
PBT
PTF
PTT
SBR
© -Institute.eu | 2021
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
© -Institute.eu | 2021
© -Institute.eu | 2020
nova Market and Trend Reports
on Renewable Carbon
The Best Available on Bio- and CO2-based Polymers
& Building Blocks and Chemical Recycling
Mapping of advanced recycling
technologies for plastics waste
Providers, technologies, and partnerships
Mimicking Nature –
The PHA Industry Landscape
Latest trends and 28 producer profiles
Bio-based Naphtha
and Mass Balance Approach
Status & Outlook, Standards &
Certification Schemes
Diversity of
Advanced Recycling
Principle of Mass Balance Approach
Feedstock
Process
Products
Plastics
Composites
Plastics/
Syngas
Polymers
Monomers
Monomers
Naphtha
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
Authors: Lars Krause, Michael Carus, Achim Raschka
and Nico Plum (all nova-Institute)
June 2022
This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
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
This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
Bio-based Building Blocks and
Polymers – Global Capacities,
Production and Trends 2020 – 2025
Polymers
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
Building Blocks
Plastic recycling and recovery routes
Intermediates
Feedstocks
Primary recycling
(mechanical)
Virgin Feedstock
Monomer
Polymer
Plastic
Product
Product (end-of-use)
Landfill
Renewable Feedstock
Secondary recycling
(mechanical)
Tertiary recycling
(chemical)
Quaternary recycling
(energy recovery)
Secondary
valuable
materials
CO 2 capture
Energy
Chemicals
Fuels
Others
Authors: Pia Skoczinski, Michael Carus, Doris de Guzman,
Harald Käb, Raj Chinthapalli, Jan Ravenstijn, Wolfgang Baltus
and Achim Raschka
January 2021
This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
Authors: Pauline Ruiz, Achim Raschka, Pia Skoczinski,
Jan Ravenstijn and Michael Carus, nova-Institut GmbH, Germany
January 2021
This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
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
Genetic engineering
Production of Cannabinoids via
Extraction, Chemical Synthesis
and Especially Biotechnology
Current Technologies, Potential & Drawbacks and
Future Development
Plant extraction
Plant extraction
Cannabinoids
Chemical synthesis
Biotechnological production
Production capacities (million tonnes)
Commercialisation updates on
bio-based building blocks
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
Levulinic acid – A versatile platform
chemical for a variety of market applications
Global market dynamics, demand/supply, trends and
market potential
HO
OH
diphenolic acid
H 2N
O
OH
O
O
OH
5-aminolevulinic acid
O
O
levulinic acid
O
O
ɣ-valerolactone
OH
HO
O
O
succinic acid
OH
O
O OH
O O
levulinate ketal
O
H
N
O
5-methyl-2-pyrrolidone
OR
O
levulinic ester
Authors: Pia Skoczinski, Franjo Grotenhermen, Bernhard Beitzke,
Michael Carus and Achim Raschka
January 2021
This and other reports on renewable carbon are available at
www.renewable-carbon.eu/publications
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
renewable-carbon.eu/publications