Boosting industrial adoption of biodegradable polymers for packaging through the new European Be-UP project

Stimuler l'adoption industrielle des polymères biodégradables pour l’d'emballage grâce au nouveau projet européen Be-UP

Polymeris, along with its two affiliates Imerys and Aptar Group, are partners in the new European RDI project Be-UP. As part of the Be-UP project, new synthesis and processing routes will be developed for innovative aliphatic-aromatic biopolyesters with an increased content of renewable raw materials, using bio-based building blocks (e.g., 1,4-bio-BDO), as well as innovative catalysts and additives.

These components will be optimized using advanced numerical modeling tools, based on Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) models, for synthesis and polymerization.

These biopolyesters will be blended with commercial biopolymers (such as PLA, PBAT, and PHA), bio-based chain extenders, and mineral fillers to create bioplastic packaging materials.

The design of these blends will rely on advanced compounding modeling tools, along with techniques such as screw design and in-line rheology measurements, to achieve technical performance, durability, and biodegradability objectives using multi-objective function evaluation.

Ease of processing will also be a key factor, with particular emphasis on the main production techniques used in the packaging industry: extrusion blown film, injection molding, and thermoforming.

A series of packaging product prototypes (TRL7) will be manufactured to validate the developed materials.

The biodegradability of these new products will be assessed under various end-of-life (EoL) scenarios, including open environments and controlled conditions, thus bridging the gap between laboratory conditions and the real-world end-of-life behavior of these materials. In addition, the recyclability of the new products will also be assessed.

The data and findings from these assessments will be useful for:

• developing guidelines and tools for circular design, contributing to the adoption of the “Safe and Sustainable by Design” (SSbD) framework;
• improving the standardization framework for testing and labeling packaging materials and products.

The Be-UP project aims to replace more than 50,000 tons of non-biodegradable plastics by 2032, which would save more than 120,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year.