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News daily upated news at www.bioplasticsmagazine.com Kaneka expanding, plans to add PHBH capacity Kaneka Corporation, headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo has announced that it is planning a capacity expansion of its Takasago manufacturing facility for the production of its biodegradable polymer Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer PHBH. The production capacity will be about 5,000 tonnes per year and require an investment of 2.5 billion yen. The plant will start up operations in December 2019. Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer PHBH is 100 % plant-based and offers superior biodegradability. The polymer is stable under everyday usage conditions. At the same time, it will biodegrade in either anaerobic, aerobic or marine conditions in the natural environment, ultimately being converted into carbon dioxide and water. Because it is completely biobased, it produces less carbon dioxide than fossil-based polymers and can contribute to the prevention of global warming. Current applications include fruit and vegetable bags as well as compost bags, mainly in Europe, where stringent legislation intended to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags has been a major factor in pushing up sales. Moreover, while marine pollution by microplastics is increasingly becoming a global concern, PHBH is certified as biodegradable in seawater, in addition to being approved by the FDA as a Food Contact Substance in March of this year. PHBH demand is expected to rise as it finds more and more application in food packaging or marine products in the future. The market for biodegradable plastic is expected to expand substantially, with global demand predicted to reach over a million tons in 2022. By expanding its manufacturing capacity now, Kaneka is establishing a production facility able to meet rapidly growing demands and at the same time develop further applications. In fact, Kaneka has already begun to consider their next step: building a commercial plant with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes to achieve full-scale business expansion. MT www.kaneka.be PBAT is fully digested by microbes, say researchers Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) succeeded in an interdisciplinary study to demonstrate that soil microorganisms metabolically utilised the carbon in the PBAT polymer both for energy production and also to build up microbial biomass. The researchers used the biodegradable polymer PBAT (Polybutylenadipatterephthalat) labelled with a carbon isotope. This isotope label enabled the scientists to track the polymer-derived carbon along different biodegradation pathways in the soil. It showed that the carbon from PBAT was not only converted into carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as a result of microbial respiration but also incorporated into the biomass of microorganisms colonizing the polymer surface. The researchers are the first to successfully demonstrate where the carbon of a polymer ends up and that a plastic material is effectively biodegrading in soils.“This clarifies that nothing remains after biodegradation besides water, CO 2 and biomass,“ says Hasso von Pogrell, Managing Director of European Bioplastics e.V.. “With this study, two concerns that are constantly being raised about biodegradable plastics have been rebutted – the doubt that microorganisms fully metabolize certified biodegradable plastics and the concern that the oil-based part of the polymer will not biodegrade completely.“ “The results of this study will surely enable municipalities and waste managers across EU Member States to acknowledge the benefits and the functionality of certified compostable plastic bio-waste bags for a separate collection of organic waste as well as in an agricultural context the alternative of soil biodegradable mulch films,“ von Pogrell concluded. www.ethz.ch/de Magnetic for Plastics www.plasticker.com • International Trade in Raw Materials, Machinery & Products Free of Charge. • Daily News from the Industrial Sector and the Plastics Markets. • Current Market Prices for Plastics. • Buyer’s Guide for Plastics & Additives, Machinery & Equipment, Subcontractors and Services. • Job Market for Specialists and Executive Staff in the Plastics Industry. Up-to-date • Fast • Professional 6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/18] Vol. 13
News Japan to subsidize bioplastics development According to the Japan News the Japanese government plans to support bioplastics next fiscal year by subsidizing ‘commodity manufacturers and groups that are making efforts to replace petroleum-based plastic products with plant-based ones.. “Amid the global trend to stop using disposable goods made of petroleum-derived plastic — which is considered a cause of environmental pollution — the ministry is trying to disseminate domestic bioplastic products,” writes The Yomiuri Shimbun. The article goes on to note that the movement to stop using disposable plastics has been spreading both inside and outside Japan. “U.S. coffee giant Starbucks has decided that it will eliminate plastic straws from its stores worldwide by 2020. Family restaurant chain Gusto has announced it will do the same within the year. Although it is technologically possible to replace petroleum-based plastics with bioplastics, they are costly and a mass production system has not yet been fully implemented, so it is difficult to make people familiar with them. To solve these problems, the ministry plans to subsidize companies and universities that make efforts to develop technologies to replace plastic packaging with that made of bioplastics, and to expand and improve facilities in order to increase production of bioplastic items. The ministry will also study methods to collect and dispose of used bioplastic products. It has included ¥5 billion ( million) in its budgetary request for next fiscal year for these projects. The government’s global warming prevention plan estimates that the country can cut 2.09 million tons of CO 2 emissions by increasing the amount of domestic bioplastic shipments to 1.97 million tons by fiscal 2030. According to the ministry, however, the volume of domestic bioplastic shipments in fiscal 2015 was 40,000 tons, hovering at around the same level as the base year of fiscal 2013. The government is being urged to drastically increase production volume in order to achieve its interim goal of producing 790,000 tonnes in fiscal 2020.” MT bit.ly/2Nc7oJb THE BENCHMARK FOR COST EFFECTIVENESS. VISIT US: FAKUMA Friedrichshafen / Germany 15 – 20 October 2018 Hall 6, Booth 6314 59 euros/tonne for high-quality recycled pellets 110 µm filtered* *) Production costs for recycled pellets on an INTAREMA ® 2018 TVEplus ® with EREMA Laserfi lter, input material: washed supermarket fi lm LD/LLDPE 98/2, 8 % moisture, calculation incl. investment costs (amortisation 5 years) and variable costs (labour, electricity, water, service and maintenance). INTAREMA ® TVEplus ® From post-consumer plastic to high-quality, top recycled pellets for only 59 euros/tonne*. The INTAREMA ® TVEplus ® sets the standard in terms of production efficiency and cost effectiveness: extremely low energy consumption, high throughput thanks to Counter Current technology, laboursaving through automation and remarkably low service costs. That’s Careformance! CAREFORMANCE We care about your performance. 1807023ERE_Ins_bioplastics Magazine.indd 1 bioplastics MAGAZINE 25.07.18 [05/18] Vol. 10:0913 7
