{"id":39892,"date":"2017-01-18T07:32:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T06:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=39892"},"modified":"2017-01-16T13:55:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T12:55:45","slug":"scientists-make-plastic-from-christmas-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/scientists-make-plastic-from-christmas-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists make plastic from Christmas trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most current plastics are made from oil, which is unsustainable. However, scientists from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath have developed a renewable plastic from a chemical called pinene found in pine needles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pinene is the fragrant chemical from the terpene family that gives pine trees their distinctive \u201cChristmas smell\u201d and is a waste product from the paper industry.<\/p>\n

The researchers hope the plastic could be used in a range of applications, including food packaging, plastic bags and even medical implants.<\/p>\n

Making renewable plastics from trees<\/h3>\n

Degradable polyesters such as PLA (polylactic acid) are made from crops such as corn or sugar cane, but PLA can be mixed with a rubbery polymer called caprolactone to make it more flexible. Caprolactone is made from crude oil, and so the resulting plastic isn\u2019t totally renewable.<\/p>\n

The researchers publishing their results in the journal Polymer Chemistry<\/a>, used pinene as the raw material to make a new type of plastic that can be used in the place of caprolactone.<\/p>\n

Helena Quilter, PhD student at the CSCT, explained: \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about recycling old Christmas trees into plastics, but rather using a waste product from industry that would otherwise be thrown away, and turning it into something useful.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we can make a plastic from sustainable sources, it could make a big difference to the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replacing fossil fuels<\/h3>\n

Professor Matthew Davidson, Director of the CSCT and Whorrod Professor of Sustainable Chemical Technologies, added: \u201cThis research is part of a wider project that looks at using bio-based chemicals like pinene as a sustainable starting material for making a range of useful products, in the place of petrochemicals. This reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and provides a renewable feedstock that has the potential to revolutionise the chemical industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is also investigating using other terpenes, such as limonene from citrus fruit, as a substitute for petrochemicals to make a range of products from plastics to pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

The research is still at the early stages – only a few grams have been made so far – but the scientists aim to scale up the process to produce larger quantities in the near future.<\/p>\n

Terpenes: sustainable chemical feedstocks<\/h3>\n
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