Wednesday 30 July 2014

Customised Bioplastics

More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia...

Chelo Escrig of AIMPLAS ran through a range of bioplastics developments underway at AIMPLAS. A new extrudable polyvinyl alcohol had been developed and this allowed production of a 3-layer oxygen and moisture barrier film comprising polyvinyl alcohol sandwiched between layers of PLA (“C-Calpe” and “Bio4map”).  It could also be co- injection moulded with polyethylene. PVOH was unique among polymers in that it was not polymerised in that form.  Vinyl acetate was polymerised to PVAc and then hydrolysed back to PVOH.
PLApack was a highly plasticised version of PLA film which had low modulus and hence suitable for a wider range of packaging films.
Hydrus was a PLA tubing suitable for micro-irrigation with an operating temperature range up to 103oC.
Biopolyim A was a soft PLA containing newly developed plascticisers based on lactic acid oligomers.
Innorex was PLA produced without metal catalysts using ring-opening polymerisation of a lactide in a reactive extrusion process.  The lactide was fed into an extruder with laser, microwave and ultrasound being shown as the initiators of the polymerisation.
BioBottle was injection moulded from PLA with supercritical CO2 injected into the first of two extruders.  The resulting volatiles were vented from the second extruder which delivered odour-free PLA to the mould.


David Bertomeu of FKUR reviewed their range of compounds for use in food packaging.  They buy PLA, PHA, PBAT, PBS and Cellulose Acetate and compound them in different ways to make Bioflex®, Biograde®, and Fibrolon®  for use in agricultural mulch films and flower-pots. For the catering industry they make a complete range of compostable plastic cups, plates, cutlery and disposal bags to that the entire table setting and any food waste can be gathered for delivery to the composter.  They also buy biobased PE and make Terralene™ blends to get a range of properties which allow substitution of the full range of polyethylenes from LDPE to HDPE.

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