EU BioICEP project: Aimplas develops pretreatment tech for plastics biodegradation

24 Aug 2023 --- Aimplas has performed pretreatments to accelerate the biodegradation of synthetic plastics. The plastics technology centre is using methods based on microwaves and reactive extrusion.

Aimplas is part of the Bio Innovation of a Circular Economy for Plastics (BioICEP) project, which started in February 2020 and is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The project aims to develop environmentally sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. 

The project used an innovative cascade process by applying and combining chemical and biological methods to turn fossil-based plastic waste into biodegradable substitutes for the packaging and pharma industries.

“The pretreatments developed by Aimplas help break down non-biodegradable plastics into biodegradable materials and to obtain monomers of these polymers. Project partners will employ microorganisms to turn those monomers into biodegradable plastics,” Max Torrellas, chemical recycling researcher at Aimplas, tells Packaging Insights.

Biodegrading plastics
Aimplas’ role in the project involved the pretreatment of plastics using microwave-assisted thermochemical degradation. The technology centre provided “promising” results through the new technology, turning non-biodegradable plastic waste (such as low-density PE) into easily biodegradable materials and achieving total degradation in less than 28 days. 

A triple-action depolymerization system developed by the BioICEP project succeeded in breaking down plastic waste.Another technique used was the depolymerization of polyamides to obtain the monomers of these polymers. After depolymerizing the polyamides, microorganisms can degrade these monomers to turn them into bioplastics. 

Furthermore, Aimplas used reactive extrusion technologies that changed the structure of the polymeric chains to improve the plastics’ biodegradation. The plastics technology centre is also the coordinator for dissemination and exploitation of results and communication activities.

Torrellas explains that microwave-assisted pretreatments are a much more efficient and rapid technology when compared with traditional heating techniques for plastic degradation. 

“As a pretreatment, reactive extrusion’s importance lies in the fact that it is a solvent-free, continuous, scalable and flexible technology that allows modification of physical and chemical properties by depolymerization.”

Through the developments, BioICEP project has met the goal of advancing processes to reduce plastic waste in the environment. Partners from different countries and areas of knowledge developed alternative processes to improve recycling through a multidisciplinary approach.

Triple-action against plastic waste
The solution to plastic waste proposed by the BioICEP project focused on using three technologies that enhance, accelerate and increase the degradation of the material to levels “far beyond what is currently possible.”The degradation process will be used to synthesize new polymers and bioproducts to enable a plastic waste-based circular economy.

A triple-action depolymerization system broke down plastic waste through three consecutive processes. The first consisted of chemical disintegration processes, including a new microwave-based technology that reduces the molecular weight of base polymers to improve biodegradation. 

The second process was biocatalytic digestion with improved enzymes using innovative techniques, including screening with fluorescent sensors and directed evolution. 

In the third process, microbial consortia developed from “best-in-class” single microbial strains were combined to produce the efficient degradation of mixed plastic waste streams. 

The plastics technology centre concludes that the products of this degradation process will be used to synthesize new polymers and bioproducts to enable a new plastic waste-based circular economy. 

By Natalie Schwertheim