bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 04/2015

As part of EXPO 2015 (1 May – 31 Oct), the innovative and creative nation of Austria is present at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, Italy.

Where will this journey take us?” That’s the question our cover girl is pondering, and with good reason.Who knows what the beverage bottles of the future will be made of? This, and more, are the questions we explore in the Blow moulding / Bottle Applications highlight of this issue.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC, headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan) recently announced that its bio-based engineering plastic DURABIO™ has been chosen by Sharp Corporation (Osaka, Japan) for the front panel of its new smartphone, the AQUOS CRYSTAL 2, slated to go on sale in the middle of July 2015).

Making materials lighter is one of the main challenges of society today because it involves cutting down on the use of raw materials, reducing fuel consumption in vehicles and increasing the thermal insulation performance of buildings, to name but a few examples.

Nowadays, polymer foams are widely used because the cellular structure leads to a low thermal conductivity and specific impact resistance, which are necessary for applications such as insulation or packaging (fig. 1 and fig. 2).

Over the last decades indoor air quality and emissions from building materials have been a major challenge for scientists, industry and consumers.

The aim of the European BIOBOTTLE project is to develop new biodegradable materials suitable to produce monolayer and multilayer plastic bottles and pouches for packaging different types of dairy products (e. g. fresh milk, pasteurized milk and UHT dairy products), that offer the same shelf life as traditional packages.

Vancouver, Canada based Solegear Bioplastic Technologies Inc., in partnership with Columbia Plastics Ltd., a leading Canadian plastic injection molding company, have completed a commercial agreement with TOPS Products Canada to convert six of their Starmark branded desk organizer and accessory products to Solegear’s plant-based materials.

Newlight Technologies (Costa Mesa, California, USA), a biotechnology company using an advanced biological carbon capture technology to produce sustainable materials, announced today that it has signed a take-or-pay off-take agreement with Vinmar International Ltd (headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA)

Avantium is a technology company which has established a leading market position in providing advanced catalysis services and systems to companies in the oil, gas, chemical, and renewable industry sectors.

In hospital corridors, patient rooms, and operating theaters, along corporate hallways, offices, and meeting rooms, and gracing modern sports stadiums, sustainable materials are being used on walls, floors, and for window treatments.

Lightweight materials with improved cushioning, insulating, structural performances, and other characteristics are the reasons for an increasing demand for plastic foams [1].

Wood is a sought-after raw material for energy generation as well as for material utilization.

Designing zero-waste products with future life-cycles in mind provides a logical way to mitigate rising demand in a world of limited resources.

Between 10 – 15 % of the total European composite market is covered by Wood-Plastic Composites (WPC) and Natural Fibre Composites (NFC). Main authors of the latest WPC and NFC study are Michael Carus and Asta Eder, biocomposite experts of nova-Institute. The study points out the growth potential of WPC and NFC granulates for injection moulding for all kinds of technical applications and consumer goods as well as in the automotive industry.