It\u2019s been a big week in plastics and nylons, all right \u2014 not only for those who value sustainability attributes, but for fans of lower costs and higher performance, too. Let\u2019s look at 4 Biggies makin\u2019 a stir.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin researchers report bioplastic precursor breakthrough<\/p>\n
In Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering James Dumesic and his team report a high-yield, economical route to furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA), a precursor to bioplastic polyethylene furanoate (PEF) and a number of polyesters and polyurethanes.<\/p>\n
PEF is a viable alternative to the ubiquitous, petroleum-based plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but the high cost of producing FDCA has so far limited its use.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil now, FDCA has had a very low solubility in practically any solvent you make it in,\u201d says Ali Hussain Motagamwala, a UW-Madison graduate student in chemical and biological engineering and study co-author. \u201cYou have to use a lot of solvent to get a small amount of FDCA, and you end up with high separation costs and undesirable waste products.\u201d The team\u2019s process uses gamma-valerolactone, a plant-derived solvent, which is easily separated from FDCA upon cooling.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s estimates its process currently produces FDCA at $1,490 per ton, and with tweaks they could get that figure down to $1,310 per ton\u2014making their FDCA cost-competitive petroleum-based alternatives.\u00a0The work was published in a recent issue of Science Advances.<\/p>\n
Aquafil, Genomatica partner on bio-nylon for sustainable apparel, carpets and fibers
\nFrom Italy, news broke Monday night that Aquafil and Genomatica announced a multi-year agreement to create sustainable caprolactam, a key ingredient to producing 100 percent sustainable nylon. Aquafil will provide R&D collaboration and development funding, and gains an option for a commercial plant.<\/p>\n
Interesting development. Nylon intermediates are easy to target, been tough to hit.<\/p>\n
The Genomatica process<\/p>\n
Genomatica\u2019s GENO CPL process aims to provide an environmentally-friendly way to make caprolactam with better economics, including for smaller-scale plants. Additionally, it will enable licensees and their customers to differentiate themselves by offering a more sustainable bio-based product whose performance will be fully comparable with nylon made from crude oil-derived caprolactam, and which will not require any machine or process adjustments by the nylon supply chain.<\/p>\n
The Aquafil sustainable nylon backstory<\/p>\n
Aquafil is a large producer of nylon 6 and launched the ECONYL Regeneration System in 2011 to produce nylon made from 100 percent regenerated waste. A large and growing number of globally recognized sportswear, fashion, luxury and carpet brands choose ECONYL as the sustainable ingredient for their product. Like the ECONYL process, the GENO CPL process eliminates the significant amount of by-products common to most crude oil-derived caprolactam production, and will allow producers to diversify their sources in terms of raw material.<\/p>\n
Why cool?<\/p>\n
As a friend of the Digest theorized, \u201cPeople feel like nylon is all around them \u2013 they wear nylon athletic clothing and walk on nylon carpet, so our work will be seen as improving everyday products very directly. And Aquafil is a known player and in particular a leader in nylon production and sustainability.<\/p>\n
Anellotech raises $9M from Suntory
\nIn New York, beverage giant Suntory has invested an additional $9 million in Anellotech\u2019s Bio-TCat technology. This latest tranche, which is part of a new $15 million package based on Anellotech achieving specific milestones, brings Suntory\u2019s total investment in Anellotech to more than $25 million to date.<\/p>\n
Anellotech\u2019s Bio-TCat Process will produce cost-competitive renewable aromatic chemicals (benzene, toluene and xylenes, \u201cBTX\u201d) from non-food biomass for use in manufacturing plastics such as polyester, nylon, polycarbonate, polystyrene, or for renewable transportation fuels. Anellotech recently announced the completion of the commissioning of its 25 meter tall TCat-8 pilot plant, and has commenced the critical development program to validate process economics and obtain necessary data for commercial plant design. And we covered that development here.<\/p>\n
The alliance with Suntory, one of Anellotech\u2019s principal strategic investment partners, began in 2012 with the goal of enabling the development and commercialization of cost-competitive 100 percent bio-based plastics for use in beverage bottles. Suntory currently uses 30 percent plant-derived materials for its Mineral Water Suntory Tennensui brands and is pursuing the development of a 100 percent bio-based PET bottle through this alliance, as part of its commitment to sustainable business practices.<\/p>\n
Better shelf life for bottles \u2013 a big deal from DuPont and ADM<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re keeping an eye on DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland who jointly picked up the 2017 Innovation in Bioplastics Award. from the Bioplastics Council for their process to produce furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME), a biobased monomer, from fructose.<\/p>\n
The kicker? The technology developed by DuPont and ADM is a more efficient and simple process than traditional conversion approaches and results in higher yields, lower energy usage, lower capital expenditures and better performance.<\/p>\n
One of the first polymers under development that will use FDME is polytrimethylene furandicarboxylate (PTF), a novel polyester also made from DuPont\u2019s proprietary Bio-PDO\u2122 (1,3-propanediol). PTF is a 100 percent renewable and recyclable polymer that, when used to make bottles and other beverage packages, substantially improves gas-barrier properties compared to other polyesters. The companies have built a 60-ton pilot plant in Decatur, Illinois to demonstrate the process.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line<\/p>\n
Think big brand roll-outs of sustainable bottling, apparel, carpets and fibers \u2014 and soon. There\u2019s enough activity under the hood (and, in cases like Suntory, in plain sight) to say \u201cit\u2019s coming, real soon, to s store near you.\u201d<\/p>\n
What we like is the presence of major brands \u2014 not only proven biomaterials developers like Genomatica and DuPont that have a strong record in biomaterials (DuPont\u2019s PDO and Genomatica\u2019s BDO). But also, these are major targets and we\u2019re talking here about reduced costs, new functionality.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the kind of performance improvement that is universally compelling in the industry, even to those who don\u2019t value new materials simply for a sustainable attribute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been a big week in plastics and nylons, all right \u2014 not only for those who value sustainability attributes, but for fans of lower costs and higher performance, too. Let\u2019s look at 4 Biggies makin\u2019 a stir. Wisconsin researchers report bioplastic precursor breakthrough In Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5847,14147,7105],"supplier":[2188,10284,196,337,2414,333],"class_list":["post-49624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-bioplastics","tag-nylon","tag-packaging","supplier-anellotech-corp","supplier-aquafil-s-p-a","supplier-archer-daniels-midland-company-adm","supplier-dupont","supplier-genomatica-inc","supplier-university-of-wisconsin-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49624","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=49624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49624"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=49624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}