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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 8 | Aug 06 | |
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ARTICLE
 FARM FACTORIES: Harvesting Bio-plastics By Robin Taylor and Rebecca Thyer
A new industry is being created as research uses agricultural products to create alternatives to petrochemical-based plasticsA paddock of wheat is not merely a food crop. It is also a vast assembly of leafy biological factories producing molecular ingredients that can be transformed into numerous other end-uses – including plastics. In research that is leading the way for this emerging new industry, as well as creating an alternative high-value market for grain growers, CSIRO researchers are using a range of biological products – different crops, agricultural wastes and residues, and forestry materials – to create alternatives to petrochemical-based plastics. Although many research groups around the world are working on biodegradable plastics based on materials such as the starch derived from plants, the Sustainable Polymeric Materials team at CSIRO Manufacturing and Materials Technology (CMMT) is concentrating on developing high performance and multifunctional bio-composites and bio-nanocomposites. Bio-composites and bio-nanocomposites are made up of bio-based polymers – for example starch and protein – blended with natural fillers. Global demand for such products is already booming, with the North American market growing at about 50 per cent a year from a base of $150 million in 2000. Australian companies are also feeling the increase in interest and demand. Melbourne-based bio-plastic packaging company Plantic Technologies opened a new factory in Melbourne in June to cope with increasing overseas orders. Plantic Technologies commercialised starch-based packaging materials developed by members of the CSIRO team, as part of the former Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for International Food Manufacturing and Packaging Science, in 2002. The company exports 70 per cent of its product to companies such as Nestlé, Lindt and Cadbury Schweppes.
Managing director Grant Dow says the new factory will help cope with international demand for its maize-based product: “The expansion will allow us to double production, employ more people and continue our research and development.” It will also allow the company to produce new products, such as resin pallets, which can then be converted into other plastic materials for new applications. The factory will increase production to up to 10,000 tonnes of material a year, or 250–400 kilograms of product an hour, making it one of the largest bio-material production facilities in the world. Plantic Technologies is working on another project with CSIRO within the CRC for Polymers. Mr Dow says the goal is to improve the water resistance of the material, thereby creating new opportunities for the product: “This will give us a bigger addressable market.” Sustainable Polymeric Materials general manager Dr Dong Yang Wu says her team is endeavouring to improve the strength and durability of bio-plastics by developing new bio-composites and bio-nanocomposites. “We are looking at starch and protein-based polymers from a range of crops and combining them with natural fibres and fillers to create bio-plastics that can be tailored for particular end-uses,” she says. CSIRO has more than 10 years’ experience in developing polymers from renewable resources, including from biodegradable plastics, bio-composites and nanocomposites. It has also developed technologies associated with cellulose fibre-reinforced plastic materials. Dr Wu says this knowledge will be extended and leveraged off to understand and control biodegradability. “Biodegradability is an advantage, but the challenge is when to trigger it. We are doing a lot of fundamental research in this area. We need to build the knowledge between chemical composition, performance durability and biodegradable mechanisms. We’ll then know which enzyme will trigger biodegradability and can design a mechanism based on that.” A lot of work will need to be done to bring the performance of biodegradable plastics up to the level of the more mature technology behind petrochemical counterparts, but the CSIRO team has no doubts about where the future of plastics lies. “We have a limited supply of fossil fuels, which causes price rises and fluctuations,” Dr Wu says. “As technology for using starch-based polymers improves, prices will go down – the same cannot be said for petrochemical-based products.” Consumer demand is also providing an economic drive. “Demand for products like expanded polystyrene foam – used in coffee cups – is declining as people become more environmentally aware,” she says. “It has already pushed one Melbourne manufacturer to come and talk to us about the development of environmentally friendly alternatives. With a fundamental understanding of bio-composites and bio-nanocomposites, the possibilities are endless.” APPLICATION Plantic trays are made from cornstarch. It takes less than a cob of maize to make the Plantic material required to make one Cadbury Milk Tray™. BENEFIT Bio-composites are fully biodegradable, combustible, compostable, renewable and carbon dioxide neutral For further information contact: |
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