Burning Bio News

After four years of construction, the first-of-its kind biodegradable plastics plant located in Clinton, IA, is now operational and could begin shipping commercial goods next month. At full capacity, the plant will produce 50,000 tons per year of a natural plastic, called Mirel, using starch from ADM’s wet corn mill as raw materials.

Cereplast, Inc., a manufacturer of bio-based plastics, announced that it expects the U.S. bio-plastics market to top $10 billion in sales by 2020. As of 2007, the U.S. bio-plastics market accounted for approximately $1 billion in sales. Some estimates point to bio-plastics capturing up to 30% of the total plastics market within ten years. — mj: Or in other words, competition for biomass feedstocks going into bioplastic production will increase ten fold in the next 10 years.

Schulman’s AgriPlas-brand wheat straw fiber bio-filler, a polypropylene-based additive that uses wheat straw, is being used by Ford Motor Co. in their Flex vehicle. AgriPlas is used in an injection-molded storage bin and inner lid for the interior of the Flex. AgriPlas provided the application with 10 percent weight savings, increased dimensional stability, lower energy use and a lower carbon footprint, officials with Fairlawn, Ohio-based Schulman said.

A green plastics reference system, The Plastics Scorecard, created by non-profit, Clean Production Action and sustainability consulting firm Pure Strategies. The Plastics Scorecard was unveiled Sept. 30 at Biopolymer Symposium 2009 in Chicago. The Plastics Scorecard grades various plastics from Grade F to A+ based on their life cycle performance, taking into account grading criteria for feedstock production, petrochemical and plastics manufacturing, recycled content, product use and end of life.

Catalyx Nanotech, Inc., a relatively new player in the nanomaterials market, has completed its pilot project to manufacture nanofibers from landfill gas, using a patented cracking process to break down methane into soot free elemental carbon and hydrogen. A nanofiber is a microscopic fiber made from polymers.

BioCycle’s July Issue conducts a comprehensive overview of compostable plasitics and the associated product label from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). This review covers new products, current challenges with infrastructure development and conflicts with existing plastic products. There is a wealth of excellent information in this article.

Scientists have discovered a remarkable, unexpected and cheap way to store hydrogen fuel– using carbonized chicken feather fibers. The storage of hydrogen requires cost-prohibitive containers. Scientists at the University of Delaware, while using keratin from feathers for microcircuitry, found that the keratin fibers rivaled the strength of nanotubes. In addition to hydrogen storage, the new method could turn 2.7 billion kg of chicken feather fibers produced each year into a number of other eco-products like hurricane resistant roofing, lightweight car parts, as well as the aforementioned bio-based computer circuit boards.

Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have come up with a process for transforming cellulose directly into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a chemical that can be converted into biofuels. “By combining the cellulose-breakdown and sugar-conversion steps, we are very close to a single-step method of converting raw biomass into a new platform chemical – a chemical you can readily turn into a transportation fuel or for synthesis of plastics and other useful materials,” said Jim Amonette of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Delia Julieta Valles-Rosales, assistant professor of industrial engineering New Mexico State University, is developing novel methods to convert biomass into biopolymers that could be molded into value-added products. Valles is looking at very specialized polymers that can have new uses like engineering degradable catheters to deliver intravenous medications.

NatureWorks, US-based producer of bio-based plastics, has recently come to a conclusion that the current automated plastics sorting systems are capable of sorting bio-based plastic bottles from the petroleum-based plastic bottles with a near 100% accuracy. The conclusion comes following company’s detailed 2-year assessment of several plastics sorting equipment manufacturers which have automated systems to segregate bio-based plastics from petro-plastics including PET, HDPE, PVC, and PS.

DCVelocity.com ran an in-depth analysis of the “green-ness” of plastic vs wooden pallets. Nothing is straight forward. Plastic pallets are made from residual resins created from natural gas (or fossil fuel derived). Wooden pallets are made from wood residues in the timber industry (biomass-derived). The wooden pallets seem to use more energy once they are created. The plastic pallets use energy in their creation, but require less once they are in use. The author concluded that it comes down to each application and the “green” goals of the groups involved.

This is a well written article comparing the challenges using recent, biomass-derived plastic from corn vs. recycling ancient fossil plastic. Are we better off releasing less fossil CO2 with bioplastic, or recycling ancient fossil plastic, because the recycling infrastructure doesn’t work well today with bioplastic? The challenge is in developing a bioplastic end use infrastructure. Then we will be able to gain ground the CO2 balance during the bioplastic production and use it constructively as something else later.

The Boston Globe ran a pretty good review of the benefits from plastic and recycled plastic. Using plastic save energy and other resources over the materials that were replaced by plastic like glass and metal. I am fascinated by an inherent interest in the benefits of ancient fossil plastic (as opposed to the carbon benefits from bioplastic (recent carbon).

This is a very comprehensive list of research that is going on around the US in bioenergy. This list was compiled by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers in April.

The San Diego-based company, which for years sold molecular modeling software, has devised a way to feed raw glucose to genetically-enhanced microbes and get a chemical substance out the other end that is a precursor to BDO, an industrial substance used in Spandex, air bags, bumpers, etc. The biologically produced BDO is chemically identical to regular BDO, but it costs far less to produce and far less energy gets consumed in the manufacturing process, he added.

Ecogeek.com is anti-bioplastic. – mj I am not sure that I am for or against. I think that it is an issue yet to be determined. Bioplastics are more difficult to recycle in the traditional way. So when the recycling plastic infrastructure gets bioplastic, there is a problem. The recycled plastic camp assumes that we will move to 100% plastic recycling. They are also against using plastic as an energy source, which I do not understand. In the end, we have two different products with two different markets which are both defined at some level as ‘plastic.’

Agroplast, a green chemistry start-up in Denmark, has figured out a way to produce plastics, fuel additives and other products from the urine of barnyard animals. The system automatically collects the urine, separates out the urea, and then prepares the urea for a useful life beyond the farm. — mj This is not the first time urine/feces separation has been considered. There is a group of support for using ammonia (NH3) for a hydrogen fuel carrier. They are also doing work with urine.

Metabolix, Inc., a bioplastics manufacturer has successfully genetically enhanced switchgrass to produce a new multi-function gene pathway that facililtates bioplastic production.

This isn’t really news, but it raises some reasonable questions. Plastic is a wonder material that can be a problem if it isn’t managed. But effective management makes its baggage go away. The ‘greens’ are struggling with whether to recycle or convert it to energy. Now we throw in biodegradable plastic that is made to break down, not be recycled. Tough questions…

USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researcher Kurt Rosentrater, in Brookings, SD, has found that DDGS can be blended with conventional resins to make cost-effective, durable, degradable plastics.