K’2022 Review Mynusco Mynusco Spectrus Sustainable Solutions (Bengaluru, India) is a world leader in biocomposite materials and a platform for circular economy adoption. The company uses crop residue and fast-renewable raw materials to make biocomposite materials that replace certain conventional plastics and other carbon-intensive materials. The company’s portfolio of more than 1,000 biomaterials includes BioDur for durable products and BioPur for biodegradable and compostable products. Biomaterials are only part of the circular economy solution. It is important to bring together all stakeholders to ensure that our entire economic system is sustainable. For this, Mynusco pioneered a biomaterials platform on which companies can collaborate to develop circular solutions. The Biocomposites centre of excellence and R&D capabilities enables Mynusco to develop new biomaterials that meet your specifications and needs. They can calibrate their biomaterials portfolio to alter material properties, appearance, and usability. Mynusco is the first biomaterials producer in the world to offer IT systems to track resources and carbon footprint across the value chain – from the origin of resources to the products’ end-of-life. “We are a grassroots sustainability company”, as the website says, “we are happy to support champions of sustainability, innovation and circular economy with the material selection, processing, product engineering, mould development, part manufacturing and provide clarifications about our materials”. www.mynusco.com DuPont DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware, USA) announced that its global Delrin ® (acetal homopolymer – Polyoxymethylene POM) production facilities have achieved an estimated 10 % reduction in total scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2019 to 2021. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled emissions sources while scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased energy resources. The reduction is principally due to Delrin plant modernization efforts which are part of the business’s overall commitment to sustainability. Part of the contributions to the reduction in scope 1 and 2 manufacturing emissions is the production of Delrin Renewable Attributed resin at the Dordrecht Works facility in the Netherlands. The Delrin Renewable Attributed product portfolio is produced entirely with electricity backed by renewable energy credits from wind. Furthermore, steam is sourced from municipal waste energy recovery. The Delrin Renewable Attributed product line, whose base polymer is produced with 100 % ISCC-certified bio-feedstock from waste, provides up to 75 % reduction in global warming potential (GWP) impacts compared to fossil-based Delrin. Delrin Renewable Attributed was the first commercial biobased acetal homopolymer and has been recognized for its world-class environmental profile, winning an R&D 100 Award in 2021 as well as a 2022 Gold Edison Award. www.dupont.com Sabic Sabic (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) showcased its broad expertise in Trucircle solutions for more sustainable packaging. One example is Orkla, who launched its first chips packaging using certified renewable polypropylene (PP) polymer from Sabic’s Trucircle portfolio that is a drop-in solution for replacing fossil-based plastics in the packaging industry with no compromise on food safety, and is converted into a BOPP or Natural BOPP (NOPP) food packaging film by Irplast. In Orkla’s chips bags, the material solution from biobased feedstock reduces the carbon footprint of the three partners’ value chain by about 50 % compared to the use of traditional non-renewable plastics. “With our certified circular and renewable polymers, we are aiming to create a sustainable value chain where we collaborate with downstream customers like Irplast and Orkla in the use of biobased feedstock”, a spokesperson said. Bottles using certified renewable HDPE polymer from Sabic’s Trucircle portfolio as inner layer is a drop-in solution for replacing fossilbased plastics with no compromise on food safety. Sabic’s certified renewable products are based on a mass balance system and fully certified via ISCC PLUS. Core and outer layers are made of Sabic HDPE mechanical recycled compounds, contributing to circularity by saving virgin material in bottles without facing processing issues or machine efficiency reduction while keeping the quality standards for the bottles. www.sabic.com Imerys Imerys (Paris, France) is the world’s leading supplier of specialty minerals, with best-in-class operations, delivering excellence and marketdriven innovation to customers around the world. Whether it be promoting lightweighting, fostering recyclability, extending the lifespan or lowering the ecoprofile of the end product, sustainability is at the core of Imerys’ innovations for plastics and rubber markets. Among other flame retardant, calcium carbonate, graphite, clay, carbon black, talc and other products, the company presented Jetfine ® 3 C talc for lighter, stronger biopolymers. Jetfine 3 C is an ultrafine engineered mineral solution for biodegradable plastics which renders biopolymers fit for use as an alternative for conventional thermoplastics. www.imerys.com 36 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17
Chimei A Taiwan-based performance materials company that designs and manufactures advanced polymer materials, synthetic rubbers, and specialty chemicals, CHIMEI Corporation is adding a range of International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS approved (mass balance) bioplastics to its newly released Ecologue sustainable materials portfolio. The brand Ecologue was officially launched during K 2022. Approval from ISCC PLUS reinforces the renewable plastics value chain, which Chimei has been building together with Neste, Idemitsu Kosan, and Mitsubishi Corporation, allowing them to introduce new, renewable biomass materials that can effectively replace fossil feedstock in plastic production. The ISCC PLUS approvals apply to ABS, SAN, MS (SMMA), HBR, and SSBR products, which are produced at Chimei’s factory in Tainan, Taiwan. Chimei will officially launch ISCC PLUS bio-ABS products, under the Ecologue trademark, in the first half of 2023. Bioplastics are one of three innovation areas in Chimei’s Ecologue sustainable materials portfolio. Chimei’s ongoing bioplastic innovations include biodegradable materials, which have the potential to replace singleuse plastics in the near future. Chimei aims to expand its bioplastic offerings over the coming years. Production is an ongoing innovation area in Chimei’s Ecologue sustainable materials portfolio. This includes carbon capture and utilization at Chimei facilities. Of the three innovation areas at CHIMEI, recycling has proffered the most development; featuring optical-grade, chemically recycled MMA, and mechanically recycled PCR materials. www.chimeicorp.com Lanxess Lanxess (Cologne, Germany) presented (among other products) Adiprene Green – biobased prepolymers with excellent properties. Under the brand name Adiprene Green LF Lanxess provides a range of biobased, low free monomer prepolymers for polyurethane CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, Elastomers) applications. Biobased LF prepolymers focus on renewable chemical building blocks that are designed to the specific needs of many different applications by exploring additional chemistries and optimization of molecular weight and structure. Progress has been made developing biobased LF MDI prepolymers over a wide range of NCO content (free reactive isocyanate groups) which yield systems with lower viscosity at application temperature, improved high crystallinity, better wetting ability, and fast green strength in reactive hot melt and twocomponent adhesives formulations. The new LF MDI prepolymers enable hot-melt formulations with a biocontent of up to 75 %. Other Adiprene Green systems allow the manufacturing of PU elastomers with a biocontent of up to 90 %. www.lanxess.com K’2022 Review Benvic Benvic (Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur, France), Europe’s leader in PVC compounds, technical compounds and ecological biopolymers presented its recently reborn ProVinyl range of PVC compounds and a reworked and rebranded the second strand of materials – largely polyolefinbased polymer technology. The third leg of the Benvic portfolio involved both polymer recyclates and biopolymeric materials in order to service the growing eco-conscious and circular economy. Benvic’s French subsidiary Ereplast is helping drive a growing number of solutions in recycled PVC grades. Meanwhile, Benvic’s Plantura product lines showed K visitors a range of biobased and/ or compostable polymers for the development of successful eco-designed products and solutions. These four new groupings reflect the fact that Benvic is no longer simply a supplier of polymer compounds but is a solutions business; offering forward integration through its plastics processing companies or providing environmental ‘cradle to cradle’ service with respect to materials. Benvic is also a supplier of niche materials for specialist product sectors, including medical, biopolymers, conductive and self-sanitizing polymers, as well as creating materials for stringent uses in the construction and electrical industries. www.benvic.com Eckart With its trade show motto "Discover Nexxt", Eckart (Hartenstein, Germany) presented pigment solutions for the plastics industry that demonstrably improve the carbon footprint. At K 2022 Eckart showed their forward-looking pigment solutions, such as Mastersafe BCR. With this product, the manufacturer of effect pigments is the first company worldwide to present biobased preparations for aluminium pigments. By replacing fossil raw materials with renewable biobased materials, Mastersafe BCR enables greenhouse gas emissions to be saved in the value chain leading to a reduction of the product’s carbon footprint by 50 %. www.eckart.net bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/22] Vol. 17 37
