Myriant Technologies LLC has just won U.S. Department of Energy funding of up to $50 million to construct a new plant that will produce Succinic Acid from sorghum, using a biobased process that is more energy efficient than conventional methods, and also absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces.

Until now, petroleum has been the feedstock of choice to manufacture Succinic Acid. If commercially successful, a more sustainable biobased process like Myriant’s could have a significant impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, because Succinic Acid is used in a fantastic variety of materials from non-toxic diesel fuel additives, pharmaceuticals and food to plastic car parts, computer casings, and shoe soles.

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Cereplast, Inc., manufacturer of proprietary bio-based sustainable plastics, announced that it has been developing a breakthrough technology to transform algae into bioplastics and intends to launch a new family of algae-based resins that will complement the company`s existing line of Compostables & Hybrid resins.

Cereplast algae-based resins could replace 50% or more of the petroleum content used in traditional plastic resins. Currently, Cereplast is using renewable material such as starches from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes and Ingeo PLA. Cereplast has initiated contact with several companies that plan to use algae to minimize the CO2 and NOX gases from polluting smoke-stack environments. Algae from a typical photo-bioreactor is harvested daily and may be treated as biomass, which can be used as biofuel or as a raw material source for biopolymer
feed stock. The company is also in direct communication with potential chemical conversion companies that could convert the algae biomass into viable monomers for further conversion into potential biopolymers.

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Massachusetts-based Metabolix is working with the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), to develop its proprietary bioplastic, Mirel™ for military use in food packaging.ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) has teamed up with Metabolix in a joint venture called Telles, to market Mirel bioplastic. The first plant capable of producing Mirel bioplastic in commercial quantites is under construction.

Metabolix announced that Vinçotte (A Belgian firm emerging as a leader in certifying materials for meeting European Norm (EN) standards for compostability) has certified Mirel bioplastic for compostability with its OK Compost and OK Compost HOME marks, meaning that the material is certified to biodegrade appropriately for compost under both industrial and household conditions.

One thing holding bioplastics back from the mass market is price, so once that barrier falls, anything is possible.With the U.S. military and “supermarket-to-the-world” ADM both throwing their considerable weight behind a bioplastic that’s not merely biodegradable but compostable, there’s a chance for the economics of scale to kick in.

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NatureWorks LLC has achieved a manufacturing breakthrough with its Ingeo(TM) plastics made from plants, not oil. A new, proprietary manufacturing process commissioned late last year lowers CO2 emissions by 60 percent and reduces by 30 percent the energy required to produce Ingeo(TM) plastics compared to previous Ingeo(TM) production.

The emissions and energy reductions are even greater when Ingeo(TM) bioresin is compared to petroleum-based plastics. For example, the process of manufacturing PET (polyethylene terephthalate), the polymer most commonly used to make water and soda bottles and the mainstay of the synthetic fibers industry, emits 3.4 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of resin produced. By contrast, the new Ingeo(TM) manufacturing process emits 77 percent less, with 0.75 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of resin. The new Ingeo(TM) production technology also consumes 56 percent less energy than the equivalent weight of PET.

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The California-based “BioSolar” company has developed a novel technology to produce bio-based materials from renewable plant sources, which could significantly reduce the cost of solar cells. By replacing petroleum-based plastic solar cell components with bio-based materials, the company says it can achieve cost reduction of up to 50% on the materials being replaced. Advanced manipulation of bio-based polymers allows BioSolar to produce both robust and durable components, which, according to the company, meet the requirements of current solar cell manufacturing processes.

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Though it has proven to be extremely useful in the modern world, plastic still has a number of negative selling points. There is a new chemical invention that could do away with these long-standing concerns.Norbert Eisenreich, a senior researcher Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal, Germany, said his team of scientists have come up with a substance that could replace plastic: Arboform - basically, liquid wood.It is derived from wood pulp-based lignin and can be mixed with a number of other materials to create a strong, non-toxic alternative to petroleum-based plastics, Eisenreich said, as reported by DPA news agency.

"The cellulose industry separates wood into its three main components -- lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose," ICT team leader Emilia Regina Inone-Kauffmann told DPA.The lignin is not needed in papermaking, however. They mix that lignin with fine natural fibers made of wood, hemp or flax and natural additives such as wax. From this, they produce plastic granulate that can be melted and injection-moulded.The final product can resemble highly polished wood or have a more matted finish and look like the plastic used in most household items.

The German researchers were able to reduce the sulphur content in Arborform by about 90 percent, making it much safer for use in everyday items.Bolstering Arboform's environmental credentials, Eisenreich's team also discovered that the substance was highly recyclable.

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Recycling and waste-to-energy technologies promise eco-friendly 'second lives' for flexible packaging.Multilayer packaging is very difficult to recycle because it contains many different polymers. Polyflow Corp is working on a technology that will recycle mixed, dirty plastic and rubber waste, sans sorting. “Our process can even take metallized film,” CEO Joe Hensel remarks. The process also does not require metal screws or paper labels to be removed from the packaging before processing.

Using high-temperature anaerobic de-polymerization and chemical reactions, the Polyflow process converts mixed-waste polymers back into monomers that can be sold to petrochemical companies to make polymers. Hensel says the technology could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil used for plastic manufacturing by as much as half. Major products of the Polyflow process are styrene and its precursors, gasoline blendstock and other hydrocarbons. The company says its technology will be able to produce 0.7 tons of light hydrocarbon liquid for every ton of polymer feedstock.

Polyflow does admit that at this stage in development, the concept carries processing costs that are about 10 percent higher than those of a typical major petrochemical company making the same virgin products. Where the Polyflow concept enjoys an economic advantage is the cost of raw materials; Dirty, mixed plastic and rubber feedstock often is available locally, in abundance and carries a low price tag.

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