MATERIALS | BIOPLASTICS
BIOPLASTICS | MATERIALS Left:
CJ Biomaterials says its aPHA bioplastics can be used to create home compostable PLA/PHA blends
Oil Mist, which between them account for sales of more than 5.4m units/ year.
More recently, US-based Beyond Plastic used its PHA to make a biodegradable bottle cap.
“Using PHA, we’ve developed an eco-con- scious alternative to conventional plastic bottle caps,” said Fred Pinczuk, chief technology officer of Beyond Plastic. “We aim to offer tailored PHA formulations for diverse applications, such as caps and various single-use plastics currently threatening our environment.” The cap will be recyclable, compostable and
biodegradable, says CJ Bioplastics. “These bottle caps address the environmental concerns associated with traditional plastic caps and demonstrate the versatility and effectiveness of our PHA technology,” according to Max Sene- chal, chief commercial officer at CJ Biomaterials.
China bioplastic market set to treble by 2026
The Chinese market for bioplastics is expected to treble by 2026. A report from Nova Institute in Germany predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49%. It expects the bioplastics industry in China to expand from around 766,000 tonnes in 2023 to more than 2.5 million tonnes in 2026. “China’s bio-based plastics industry is experiencing rapid
growth which is largely driven by policy incentives,” said the report. One key policy, introduced in 2021, was the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioeconomy. The Chinese government has since introduced other policies
and regulations to promote bio-based and biodegradable materials, including the Three-Year Action Plan to Accelerate the Innovative Development of Non-Food Bio-based Materials, in 2023. It aims to make non-food, bio-based products competitive with fossil-based products by 2050. While policies like these – and investment from private equity firms – have contributed to industry growth, they have also led to structural overcapacity, says Nova. In 2023, annual production capacity of PLA and PBAT was 1.5 million tonnes (while actual production was only 260,000 tonnes), and is expected to reach 3.6 million tonnes by 2025. However, the market size is only expected to reach 2.5 million tonnes, suggesting overcapacity in the biode- gradable plastics market. �
www.nova-institut.de
20 INJECTION WORLD | July/August 2024
Novel performer CJ Biomaterials claims to be only producer worldwide of amor- phous PHA (aPHA). This is a more rubber-like version of PHA that offers fundamen- tally different performance characteristics to the conventional crystalline or semi-crystalline forms. The company says interest in aPHA as a performance boosting component in bioplastic compounds has
increased over the past year in a wide range of end markets, including
cosmetic packaging, food packaging and
organic waste management. The company says in the food packaging market
in particular, brands are responding to consumer demand for products with more bio-based content and end-of-life options such as composting. It says aPHA provides a practical solution as it is TUV OK-certified for industrial and home composting and is both soil and marine biodegradable. Recent tests have shown that blends of PLA and aPHA can be made home compostable (pure PLA can only be composted in industrial plant) if the aPHA/PLA ratio is greater than about 0.5. This is significant as it extends the range of applications for PLA/aPHA blends to areas such as flexible packaging. “The use of aPHA has increased over the past
year as more organisations have started working proactively to replace plastic with more sustainable solutions, but we expect the speed of adoption to continue to accelerate. Right now, there is a lack of understanding about the value and unique advantages of aPHA. It’s similar to the 1950s when polyethylene was introduced. The market had to figure out what the new material was and how to use it effectively before they could start working with it,” said Raj Krishnaswamy, VP, research & development at CJ Biomaterials. He cites the example of cosmetic packaging developed for CJ Olive Young, which is a leading health and beauty retail chain in Korea. “The new cosmetic case was developed by combining aPHA with PLA to replace acrylonitrile butadiene styrene [ABS]. Some developed countries and leading cosmetic brands are actively making efforts to replace ABS, which is a petroleum- based, non-biodegradable plastic, and the PLA/ aPHA blend introduced an eco-friendlier alterna- tive. More recently, we worked with Banila to develop the world’s first 100% biobased cosmetic
www.injectionworld.com
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