BIO-BASED PLASTICS | MATERIALS
Developers of bio-based plastics have been concentrating on properties and performance to target materials at demanding
applications.Peter Mapleston reports on new products
Working on the building blocks of bioplastics
Thermoplastics derived from renewable feedstocks are increasingly mainstream, with the materials often being chosen by specifiers just as much for their performance as for their green credentials. Biochemistry is also giving polymer developers the chance to create brand new materials, so not only can bioplastics slot straight into applications previously occupied by traditional plastics without having to change machine settings, but they are also expanding the application universe for plastics. Shanghai-headquartered Cathay Biotech is a
leader in synthetic biology now producing new materials on a commercial scale using bio-manu- facturing. According to company CEO Xiucai Liu, its bio-based long chain dibasic acids (LCDA), which started commercial production in 2003, today account for over 80% of the global market. Cathay has also developed and commercialised
proprietary technology for the production of a 100% renewable 1,5-pentanediamine (DN5) from
www.injectionworld.com
plant materials. DN5 production is presently underway at a 100,000 tpa facility. “The availability of DN5 and LCDA enable the production of a new variety of polyamides that are renewable and can replace incumbent polyamides such as PA 6 and PA 66 in engineering polymer and textile applica- tions,” claims Liu, in a paper co-written with Xiaohui Zhou, Haishuai Li, and Bing Guan. In addition, Cathay has developed a new class of biobased polyamide elastomers (LPAE), composed of a long chain polyamide, as a hard segment, and a polyether soft segment. At room temperature, the glass-state of the hard segments form rigid domains which act as physical-crosslink points and provide high strength to the elastomer. The soft domains endow the elastomer with excellent elasticity. In addition, this new bio-based polyam- ide elastomer demonstrates good solvent resis- tance, and good processing performance. Cathay’s LPAEs can be processed on existing
Main image: Toy group Mattel has launched its Mega Bloks Green Town range made from 80%+ ISCC-certified bio-based plastics
June 2022 | INJECTION WORLD 41
IMAGE: MATTEL
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