MATERIALS | BIOPLASTICS
Braskem also announced in September that it opened its new Renewable Innovation Center near Boston, Massachusetts. The new centre will focus on early-stage science and engineering related to the conversion of biomass-based feedstocks to sustainable chemicals and materials.
Formulating compounds The work cut out for compounders and their supply chain partners is to use their formulation expertise to improve the properties and processability of bio-based polymers, especially those that are not “drop-ins,” to give them functional, aesthetic, and end-of-life characteristics for their intended use. Bio-based materials can be challenging to process, because they can be more sensitive to shear rate and residence time than conventional materials.
Compound and material suppliers should
collaborate with the end-user or brand when selecting the best applications for switching to bio-based plastics, said Marissa Hann-Banks, Brands Relationship Manager at Colortech, in a presenta- tion at AMI’s Bioplastics conference. These discus- sions will provide details about requirements so that the best balance can be determined for end-use performance, cost, and end-of-life. If an end-product needs to be home compostable, for example, that may limit the additives and specifically the colorants that can be used, said Hann-Banks. A wide range of mineral or plant-based fillers
and fibres can be used in bio-based plastic compounds. Some of these commercially available materials were discussed in Compounding World May 2024 issue.
Biomass balance used in new materials
There has been a proliferation of bio-based chemicals that can be used as feedstocks, as the chemical industry works to move toward a circular economy. For the most part, there are not enough of these bio-based feedstocks yet to be efficiently segregated from their conventional counterparts, so they are mixed together during polymer production. The “bio” portion of the end-product may not be measurable, but instead is calculated using mass-balance methods; the resulting materials are being called a variety of terms such as mass-balanced, biomass-attributed or bio-attributed plastics. For example, BASF introduced a biomass-balanced (BMB) version of its certified compostable polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), Ecoflex F Blend C1200 BMB. Feedstock from waste and residual biomass is attributed to the BMB grade using a mass-balance approach certified by REDcert2
or ISCC Plus. The new
material has a 60% lower product carbon footprint than the standard Ecoflex F Blend C1200, BASF reports. Other examples come from toy
brands that have announced use of mass-balanced renewable plastics. The LEGO toy brand said that in the first half of 2024, 30% of the resin it
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purchased was certified by mass-bal- ance principles, using renewable raw materials such as used cooking oils or plant oils. Ineos Styrolution announced in
March 2024 that toy brand Playmobil would use its bio-attributed Terluran ECO GP-22 BC100. In this BC100 product (100% bio-attributed content), all three of the conventional feedstock components of ABS (styrene mono- mer, butadiene, and acrylonitrile) are replaced by renewable feedstock. The bio-attributed products are produced according to an ISCC-certified mass balance approach. Bio-Fed, a branch of the com-
pounder Akro-Plastic in Germany, introduced M-Biobase compounds
COMPOUNDING WORLD | November 2024
that have a lower product carbon footprint than fossil-based plastics. The M-Biobase materials include mass-based PP, made from materials such as residues from vegetable oil refining or used cooking oil, and certified by ISCC Plus. Other M- Biobase compounds contain renew- able, organic fillers, such as lignin. Bio-Fed also supplies colour, carbon black, and additive masterbatches using mass-balanced carrier materials.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.basf.com �
www.lego.com �
www.ineos-styrolution.com �
https://bio-fed.com
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: BIO-FED
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