{"id":156539,"date":"2025-01-17T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=156539"},"modified":"2025-01-14T13:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T12:00:47","slug":"this-is-our-time-working-on-biodegradable-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/this-is-our-time-working-on-biodegradable-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"This is our time: Working on biodegradable plastics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Milad Golkaram, Scientist Circular Economy, \u00a9 TNO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Plastic is long-lasting, versatile, and inexpensive to produce. Unfortunately, it is also often bad for the environment. A team of talented researchers has created an AI model that makes developing a new biodegradable plastic a lot easier. Meet Milad Golkaram, one of the key researchers and nominee for TNO\u2019s Young Excellent Researcher Award 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI model<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Polymers are the building blocks of plastic. Milad Golkaram\u2019s team has created polySCOUT, a machine-learning program to develop new biodegradable polymers. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Milad Golkaram; Scientist Circular Economy \u00a9 TNO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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\u2018Our AI model predicts the chemical structure of whatever polymer we want. So, if you need a material with certain properties, you enter those properties into the model, and then the model produces a chemical structure for a suitable polymer.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Ideally, you want microplastic particles to break down before they enter our bodies.’ – Milad Golkaram<\/a>; Scientist Circular Economy, TNO<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Already in use<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

TNO is already using it in the field, such as in our collaboration with Senbis, a textile manufacturer. The aim is to develop biodegradable synthetic textile fibres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Milad:<\/strong> \u2018The synthetic textiles we use a lot today produce microplastics that enter the water cycle, eventually ending up in our food and drink. Ideally, you want these microplastic particles to break down before they enter our bodies.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pushing boundaries<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are often a lot of questions when it comes to biodegradable plastic. Is it strong enough? Is it sustainable? Is it scalable? How long does it last? Is it toxic? Is it affordable? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The polySCOUT model can answer these, Milad <\/strong>explains. ‘We are creating something unique, pushing the boundaries of science and technology in this field. That\u2019s what I\u2019m proud of.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘This model can be huge for society. You can include all these variables and make producing and using biodegradable plastic a lot more attractive.\u2019 – Milad Golkaram, Scientist circular economy, TNO<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Immediate result<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PolySCOUT<\/a> also saves a lot of time. Milad: \u2018Back when I was studying, we had to go into the lab to develop new polymers. It was a matter of trial and error, a process that can take years. With machine learning, our model learns more and more about the properties of polymers. It can recognise correlations faster than people can, and draw conclusions from them. This means you actually get the desired result almost immediately.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Some are sceptical about the use of AI, or think it\u2019s too complicated. They are always positively surprised when we show them what we can do with polySCOUT. As a result, we now have several companies who want to work with us, especially in the Netherlands. Getting a foothold in the rest of Europe is our next challenge.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Putting the puzzle together<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Milad<\/strong>\u2019s work on polySCOUT brings together his three biggest motivations: polymer science, sustainability, and AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018I\u2019m very proud to be part of a team of experts. It is like putting a puzzle together: everyone brings their own in-depth knowledge from an array of fields. We complement each other and help each other. Maybe that\u2019s why TNO is the only organisation I know that\u2019s doing it this way. It is very interdisciplinary.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

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PolySCOUT, a TNO Tech Transfer, offers a highly effective Machine Learning solution that accelerates the design of novel, bio-based polymers \u00a9 TNO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plastic is long-lasting, versatile, and inexpensive to produce. Unfortunately, it is also often bad for the environment. A team of talented researchers has created an AI model that makes developing a new biodegradable plastic a lot easier. Meet Milad Golkaram, one of the key researchers and nominee for TNO\u2019s Young Excellent Researcher Award 2024. AI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":156579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"TNO researchers create AI model to develop new bioplastics","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[24550,11270,5847,6026,10416,12468],"supplier":[13576,2624],"class_list":["post-156539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-arteficialintelligence","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-biopolymers","tag-circulareconomy","tag-textiles","supplier-senbis-polymer-innovations","supplier-tno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156539"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=156539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}