Materials Key milestone
Materials Key milestone for commercial PHA production TerraVerdae BioWorks, an industrial biotechnology company developing advanced bioplastics and environmentally sustainable biomaterials, has announced that it has successfully achieved key milestones for the economic, commercial production for its line of PHA-based biomaterials. These include 10,000-liter production runs of the firm’s line of biodegradable, natural microspheres for use in personal care and cosmetic products, as a direct replacement for synthetic, non-degradable plastic microbeads. TerraVerdae BioWorks has facilities located in Canada and the UK and collaborates with a range of leading commercial, technology, and research organizations in Canada, UK, and USA. The company has developed a carbon-neutral bioprocess that uses bacteria to produce a range of high-value products, including a PHA biopolymer that the bacteria naturally produce as a carbon storage reserve. TerraVerdae draws on its specialized expertise in metabolic engineering, industrial bioprocess optimization/ scale up and biopolymer development – including proprietary genetic, protein expression and bioprocessing capability- to develop and manufacture high-value performance biomaterials and biocomposites from waste. Now, supported by a grant from Innovate UK, and in collaboration with researchers at facilities in the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation, the company has successfully scaled-up its biodegradable and biocompatible materials technology from laboratory pilot scale to 10,000+ liter capabilities, validating process scale up and production economics for commercial deployment. “Developing the technologies needed to produce commercial scale quantities of our biomaterial products in an economic and efficient process is a milestone for the company, and potentially the industry,” said William Bardosh, CEO and founder of TerraVerdae BioWorks. “Our first product developed using this technology, biodegradable and biocompatible microspheres to replace synthetic microbeads in personal care products, addresses a strong global need to remove plastic contamination from water supplies.” “Innovate UK is excited to fund this ambitious and complex project that achieved its final goal of running a large-scale fermentation at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s National Industrial Biotechnology Facility,” said Merlin Goldman, Lead Technologist – High Value Manufacturing at Innovate UK. “TerraVerdae produced significant quantities of purified PHA material for product testing with partners and other potential customers. We hope to see the company complete its ambition of building a biorefinery facility in the north-east of the UK.” 22 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/15] Vol. 10
Materials “We are also fortunate to have collaborated on this technology with the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation,” continued Bardosh. “They are one of the world’s leading facilities for process innovation in the industrial bioprocess arena and their support has been invaluable.” “The project with TerraVerdae has been a great opportunity for us to collaborate with a pioneer in the industry,” said Pete Carney, Business Development Manager at The Centre for Process Innovation. “CPI has used its bioprocessing scale up expertise to take the process from lab scale to commercialization.’’ A key advantage of the technology developed by TerraVerdae is that it uses non-food based feedstocks, such as green methanol, derived from municipal and agricultural waste, and stranded biogenic methane, produced by municipal landfills, agricultural waste and by the oil and gas industry as feedstocks for its bioprocess. It therefore neither impacts the food supply nor raises land use issues, while offering significant life cycle and carbon footprint improvements over traditional processes for petroleum-derived materials. According to the company, its process could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 800,000 tonnes and mitigate over 450 tonnes of carbon monoxide, 65 tonnes of non-methane volatile organic compounds, and 135,000 tonnes of methane per year. TerraVerdae’s newly developed natural microspheres are a PHA‐based biomaterial produced using a non‐GMO, non-toxic, plant-associated process. TerraVerdae’s microspheres are intrinsically biocompatible and meet industry standards for biodegradation in a marine environment. TerraVerdae can produce microspheres in a range of sizes, in both smooth and coarse finishes, that feature high optical clarity and the mechanical characteristics to meet all requirements for cosmetic formulations. In addition to microspheres, other targeted application areas for TerraVerdae’s PHA include the biomedical industry, films for specialty coating and active packaging, automotive parts and electronic devices, to name but a few. KL www.terraverdae.com www.innovateuk.org www.uk-cpi.com Info Videoclip: http://bit.ly/1JUe5W7 organized by supported by 20. - 22.10.2016 Messe Düsseldorf, Germany Bioplastics in Packaging BIOPLASTICS BUSINESS BREAKFAST B 3 PLA, an Innovative Bioplastic Bioplastics in Durable Applications Subject to changes Call for Papers now open www.bioplastics-breakfast.com Contact: Dr. Michael Thielen (info@bioplastics-magazine.com) At the World‘s biggest trade show on plastics and rubber: K‘2016 in Düsseldorf bioplastics will certainly play an important role again. On three days during the show from Oct 20 - 22, 2016 (!) bioplastics MAGAZINE will host a Bioplastics Business Breakfast: From 8 am to 12 noon the delegates get the chance to listen and discuss highclass presentations and benefit from a unique networking opportunity. The trade fair opens at 10 am. bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/15] Vol. 10 23
