PHA Program: Developing and scaling up biopolymer production
In today’s society, there is an increased attention and demand for sustainable plastics from both consumers as well as on the political agenda. Bioplastics, including PHA, is forecasted to be an important contributor to reach the goals of a climate neutral Europe in 2050 as determined in the Paris Agreement. As the market of the new plastic economy is developing with rapid speed, there is now a great opportunity to be part of this transition.
In order to substitute fossil-based plastics, PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is appearing as a promising candidate as a biological material with several compelling benefits such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, properties similar to commonly used plastics (e.g. PE and PP), and utilization of waste streams as feedstock.
The PHA program was established by Ecoras together with a group of forward-looking parties that want to take major steps together towards a more sustainable future for plastic production and application.
Description and ambition of the project:
The PHA program is an international co-operation between companies and knowledge institutes, with a joint ambition to establish a cutting edge PHA production chain and consequently become leading players in “PHA production and application” worldwide. The PHA program consists of three main project lines covering the whole PHA value chain:
- Project line 1 – Feedstock and PHA technology
- Project line 2 – PHA applications
- Project line 3 – End of Life
Cooperation partners:
The PHA program is made possible by Gemeente Emmen, Chemport Europe and Interreg.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) PHARIO project
In 2016 the Dutch waterboards in the PHARIO pilot project have produced PHA bioplastics with the help of bacteria that clean wastewater on a large scale. Within this project the aim was to analyse the technical, economical and environmental implications. Ecoras carried out the LCA which was used to determine the sustainability potential of this project.