Technology developed by sustainable chemicals specialist Bio-on (Bologna / Italy; www.bio-on.it) for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from glycerol is now available to be licensed from the company to enable what is claimed to be the first PHAs bioplastic production using biodiesel by-products.

Bio-on says its technology now allows production facilities with capacities from 2,000 t/y to 10,000 t/y of PHAs to be realised. In recent years, Bio-on has developed a technology for using crude glycerol in the production of high-performing PHAs biopolymers. This by-product is added to others developed by Bio-on obtained from sugar beet, sugar cane and potatoes – see Plasteurope.com of 02.04.2015.

Marco Astorri, Bio-on chairman, said: “It is a great scientific and engineering achievement in the bioplastics world, because it shows that it is possible to transform a new waste product such as glycerol into a raw material, expanding concepts such as biodegradability and eco-sustainability with innovative, advanced plastics. It’s an important step in the affirmation of PHA in the latest-generation plastics market."

Bio-on said that Europe produces around 4m t/y of crude glycerol, as a waste product of biodiesel production. Its use as crude glycerol is problematic and over-production has caused its value to slump.