Bioplastics scale-up project starts

The three-year programme led by Biome Bioplastics aims to develop products such as a fully bio-based polyester, and will involve several parallel projects undertaken in partnership with the Universities of Warwick, Liverpool and Leeds, as well as the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) on Teesside.

Success would allow us to competitively challenge the dominance of oil-based polymers

Biome Bioplastics chief executive Paul Mines

The consortium’s aim is to harness industrial biotechnology techniques to produce bio-based chemicals from lignin at a scale suitable for industrial testing.

Lignin is an abundant waste product of the pulp and paper industry.

“The ready availability of high value, sustainable chemicals from natural sources will be a game changer for the bioplastics market,” said Biome Bioplastics chief executive Paul Mines.

“Success in this work would allow us to competitively challenge the dominance of oil-based polymers. The technology we are developing is part of the growing adoption of bio-based processes that is likely to deliver radical changes across the materials industry.”

Scientists have been trying to valorise lignin for more than 30 years. Last year, Biome Bioplastics and the University of Warwick’s Centre for Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining successfully demonstrated that bacterial degradation can be used to produce organic chemicals from lignin that are suitable for bioplastic manufacture.

In groundbreaking research, the team proved that soil bacteria can be used to manipulate the breakdown pathway and that the process can be controlled and improved using synthetic biology.

Biome Bioplastics’ extensive development programme will build on this proven science by increasing yields and scaling up the technology to demonstrate commercial viability and the potential for industrial volumes of production.

Larger trials will be undertaken at CPI and demonstration quantities of chemicals will be converted into novel materials for evaluation among Biome Bioplastics’ existing customers.

In addition to converting lignin feedstocks, Biome Bioplastics will also be leading a one-year feasibility study with the University of Liverpool into the possibility of extracting similar organic chemicals from the cellulose portion of lignocellulose.

This work is expected to broaden the possible raw materials that can be used in the manufacture of bioplastics to include waste streams such as agriculture. If successful, this work will be integrated into the ongoing development work towards industrial scale products.

The entire £3 million project is supported by funding organisations including Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).