MATERIALS | BIOPLASTICS
ance comparable to traditional TPEs. The new grades also provide easy colourability, which is a major requirement for applications in target markets such as cosmetics packaging, personal care products and consumer electronics. With an opaque natural colour, the TPEs can use traditional or renewable colorants.
Adopting balance One of the more recent introductions to the bioplastics sector is the concept of “mass balance.” This approach recognises the difficulty of accurate- ly identifying the specific source of raw material used in a particular sack of plastic resin produced in a traditional plastics plant by applying a math- ematical model that considers inputs and outputs. As the source of the inputs and scale of the outputs is known, a specific “mass balance” value for aspects of the plant’s production — such as renew- able content —can be calculated. One of the company’s in the front line of this
approach is BASF, which is using mass balance techniques to allocate renewable substitutes for petrochemical-based feedstocks based on plant and waste oils in its production plant. The tech- nique is also used in its ChemCycling programme to calculate recycled content. Earlier this year, the company announced a further extension, saying it aims to provide customers with carbon footprint data — Product Carbon Footprint — for every product it manufactures by the end of next year. “By calculating the CO2
footprint, we bring both
together and create much greater transparency for our customers regarding the specific emissions for each BASF product,” says Dr Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of BASF. “This enables us to develop plans together with our customers to reduce CO2
emissions along the value chain up to
the final consumer product.” Another key player in renewable feedstocks is
Right: UPM’s Formi EcoAce wood fibre reinforced bio-composite contains TruCircle certified- renewable PP from SABIC
Neste, which has converted its business from petrochemical to renewable hydrocarbons. It has recently announced cooperations with Covestro and Borealis. Covestro will be supplied with renewable hydrocarbons to replace some fossil raw materials used to date in the manufacture of polycarbonates. Initially, the collaboration aims to replace several thousand tonnes of fossil raw materials. And last year Borealis started production of PP using some Neste renewable feedstock in its production facilities at Kallo and Beringen, Belgium.
Another polymer major produc- ing renewable material under a mass- 28 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2020
www.compoundingworld.com IMAGE: SABIC
balance approach is SABIC, which is supplying its certified-renewable TruCircle PP to Finnish forest products giant UPM. It has developed a wood- based bio-composite material — Formi EcoAce — that combines PP polymers produced using wood-based feedstock from UPM’s biofuels affiliate of UPM with wood fillers and cellulose fibre reinforcements. The companies say the bio-composite compound can be used as a drop-in solution in many cases. It is near 100% renewable according to the International Sustain- ability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) mass balance principle (ISCC is a chemical industry standard for managing and tracing sustainability characteristics of circular and/or bio-based materials). Typical end-use applications for UPM’s Formi EcoAce are expected to include food contact, personal care and consumer goods made by injection moulding or extrusion. Aside from the renewable content, a further attraction of the material is its wood-look appearance and warm, silky surface haptics. The companies say the compound can be produced in different colours and a wide range of shades.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.european-bioplastics.org �
www.quarzwerke.com �
www.imerys.com �
www.natureworksllc.com �
www.sirmax.com �
www.coperion.com �
www.bio-fed.com �
www.kaneka.co.jp �
www.fkur.com �
www.hexpoltpe.com �
www.kraiburg-tpe.com �
www.avient.com �
www.basf.com �
www.neste.com �
www.covestro.com �
www.borealisgroup.com �
www.sabic.com �
www.upm.com
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