A Green Technology to Produce Biodegradable Thermoplastics and Elastomers from Organic Wastes

Category: Engineering and Physical Sciences

Reference Number: 00357

Description

A novel green technology has been developed to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) -- a type of truly biodegradable thermoplastic -- from organic wastes, such as food scraps or agricultural by-products. This technology has been demonstrated in laboratory bench scale (5-10L waste solids composting and 1L polymer production). The key technical innovation is a novel membrane bioreactor system and production process.

Applications

• Manufacture of environmentally friendly materials (thermoplastics and elastomers) for various packaging products
• Production of biomaterials for controlled release of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides with long-term efficacy and reduced runoff and environmental pollution
• Materials for marine antifouling coatings with controlled release of antifouling agents and self-renewed surface
• Manufacture of biodegradable containers, bags and films for agriculture, aquaculture and house-hold products with predictable life-time and environmentally friendly disposal
• Value-added utilization of marine and agricultural biomass.
• Recycling and reuse of industrial and municipal organic wastes for cost-efficient waste disposal.

Main Advantages

• Saves 70-75% of raw carbonaceous raw materials compared to fermentation of pure glucose and organic acid (propionic acid), leading to 40-45% reduction in production cost of the polymers
• Produces a clean cell mass with a very high polymer content (72-75% wt dry mass) compared to the low polymer content (1-5% wt) produced by conventional biological production processes.
• High polymer content keeps the cost of polymer recovery low (typically to 20-25% of total production cost)
• Offers potential to modify conventional biocomposting systems to produce valuable biodegradable thermoplastics along with other conventional composting products, such as fertilizer for organic agriculture

Inventor(s)

Jian Yu
Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering

Contact Information

For licensing information, please contact Jonathan Roberts at ayuen@hawaii.edu

For all other inquiries, please write to:

Office of Technology Transfer & Economic Development
University of Hawai’i
2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 280
Honolulu, HI 96822