At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Swiss researchers have developed a method that can convert agricultural waste into bioplastic. The plastic produced with this has a CO₂ footprint that is up to 75 percent lower.
An EPFL team led by Jeremy Luterbacher has now presented the method for producing so-called polyamides in the journal “Nature Sustainability”. Polyamides are a class of plastics that also includes nylon. Until now, oil has been the most important raw material for this.
Researchers: 97 percent nuclear efficiency
The Lausanne researchers use the chemical sugar structure from agricultural waste such as wood or corn cobs as the main raw material. According to EPFL, the process achieves an atomic efficiency of 97 percent, meaning that almost all of the starting material is used in the final product.
The costs for bioplastic are not higher
The resulting plastic has properties similar to those of its fossil counterparts, the researchers wrote in the study. The researchers also estimate that the costs of producing the new bioplastic are comparable to those of producing Nylon 66, which is widely used today.
Source: Krone
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