Carbios (Saint-Beauzire / France; www.carbios.fr), a green chemistry company specialising in technologies for the recovery of plastic waste as well as production of biopolymers, has started up a pilot plant for the production of biodegradable plastic film, incorporating its exclusive enzyme-based technology. The company said the 40 kg/h facility at its headquarters in central France that will enable the pilot-scale reproduction of all steps required to produce plastic film encompasses several production modules. These range from the extrusion of the materials and their transformation into flexible film to the characterisation of all properties of the materials produced.

According to Carbios CEO Jean-Claude Lumaret, the new platform brings to completion the pre-pilot development unit for production of enzymes established in 2014 – see Plasteurope.com of 30.07.2014 – and the company said it is now ahead of its original development schedule. The work also encompasses Carbios’ collaboration with the CRITT Bio-Industries regional centre for innovation and technology transfer in Toulouse, established earlier this year for production of enzymes at the pilot scale of 300 litres. The investments were funded by proceeds from the company’s initial public offering of December 2013.

With the new production platform, Carbios said it will be able to demonstrate the performance of its biodegradation technology for initial applications such as plastic films, mulching films for agriculture, and plastic bags at the pre-industrial stage. The first industrial and commercial demonstrations are planned for the near future.