Bioplastics | sustainability
extrusion applications, with injection moulding grades under development. Pricing will be above current Ingeo grades due to a higher manufacturing cost. According to Hugo Vuuruns, director of business
development at lactides producer Purac (which last month announced a name change to Corbion), the ability to produce high purity PLA homopolymers is one of the critical elements in achieving the crystallinity required in the polymer to increase the temperature and hydrolysis resistance to the levels needed for durable applications. High purity PLLA homopolymer (l-isomer product)
crystallises faster than a conventional PLA copolymer, he said, while the addition of low levels of pure PDLA homopolymer (up to 5% d-isomer) will help nucleation and the formation of physical crosslinks in the structure. Vuuruns said in trials it has been possible to produce homopolymer PLA blends providing HDT values between 95 and 120˚C, far above the 55˚C figure for conventional PLA and considerably exceeding that for PP and ABS. Corbion does not make PLA but produces the high purity d- and l-isomer monomers at a 70,000 tonnes/ year facility in Thailand. It is looking to partners to take these and turn them into commercial products, recently announcing a deal with an unidentified Asian company to supply it with up to 10,000 tonnes/year of lactide monomers for PLA production. It is not yet clear how much the company’s high
temperature resistant bioplastics are likely to cost, or if there is scope for price reductions as volumes build. “PDLA should not intrinsically be more expensive than PLLA but now it is produced in only small volumes,” said Vuuruns. “I expect a 30% premium in the long term but you only need 5% so prices are not going to drop fast.” In a presentation focused on the company’s bio- ethanol derived polyethylene, Braskem America commercial manager James Kahn provided a warning on taking the ‘drop-in’ terminology too literally when considering alternatives to petrochemical-based polymers. “It is a drop-in replacement but because the polymerisation process may be different it may be necessary to revalidate applications,” he said. Kahn said Braskem, which is headquartered in
Brazil, is currently able to produce up to 200,000 tonnes/year of high density and linear low grades of PE using its sugar cane derived bio-ethanol feedstock and plans to be offering a low density product when it starts up a 30,000 tonne/year unit during next year. TetraPack, which currently uses some of the company’s green- HDPE in its carton closures, has already agreed to take some of this green-LDPE for production of cartons for the Brazilian market.
www.injectionworld.com Kahn said the company expects its bio-based PE
production capacity at Triunfo in Brazil to be sold out within the next three to four years, despite the resin carrying a higher price than conventional petrochemical based product. “The value of this product is really where you can differentiate it from other materials,” he said. Many current users are in the consumer packaging sector, for example, where it is possible to convey the sustainability message in the branding. However, Kahn said the company’s previously
announced plans to set up a 50,000 tonne/year facility for production of bio-ethanol-based PP in Brazil have been delayed, in part due to the additional cost of converting the ethylene to propylene. This is likely to make the product twice the price of current petrochemical PP in the first phase, a considerably increased premium over its HDPE products. “We have basically done the conceptual engineering
and are waiting for board approval, which was put back by the economic downturn,” he said. “We are estimating some time in 2015.” FKuR of Germany has a compounding agreement
with Braskem, allowing it to develop a range of special blends using the Brazilian company’s bioethanol-based
July/August 2013 | INJECTION WORLD 37
Above and left: Natureworks is completing
modifications at its plant in Nebraska allowing
production of its fast
crystallising Ingeo HP
grades, which
offer improved thermal
performance
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