A consortium of universities and research institutes together with Netherlands-based innovator Senbis will invest €6.6 million, in a new project that began last month, to develop a new biodegradable polyester, with half of that amount coming in from the European Just Transition Funds (JTF).
THE STAKEHOLDERS: The three-year BIOTT EK research project has the following stakeholders:
- Senbis Polymer Innovations B.V. for polymerisation and melt spinning of fibres;
- University of Groningen for polymerisation and characterisation of biopolymers;
- NHL Stenden University for processing and assessing various end of life scenarios (recycling);
- Wageningen Food & Biobased Research for biodegradability assessment and method;
development - TNO for Artificial Intelligence.
AIM: The focus of the project is to find a solution for the enormous microplastic pollution caused by apparel textiles.
- Over 50 million metric tonnes of fibre is produced for apparel each year, of which over 60% is polyester (PET).
- An estimated 500.000 metric tonnes of this volume is lost in the environment each year through fibre shedding and the like.
- A biodegradable replacement can avoid long-term microplastic accumulation. However, many technical and economic challenges need to be considered when designing the polymer and fibre.
THE PROJECT: In the BIOTTEK project knowledge will be gathered and gained on what makes certain biopolymers biodegradable and also what makes them melt spinnable and achieve high performance, looking at molecular design and physical properties.
- This insight will be used to develop new biopolyesters which will be evaluated both analytically and through application testing via e.g. melt spinning of fibres. This is a unique approach to develop a biodegradable polymer specifically for an application, in this case fibres.
- Another unique element of this project is that artificial intelligence (AI) will be utilised to speed up the development and to provide new suggestions for molecular design.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Our company has been developing fibres and filaments from biodegradable polymers for many years. We know what is possible and too often what is not. With biodegradable polymers it is often challenging to achieve high mechanical and thermal properties. For technical yarns and textile fibers, this is often a show stopper. We believe industry needs a new type of biodegradable polyester that can be used for fiber applications which meets both the technical and economical requirements needed for a breakthrough in this field.
— Gerard Nijhovin
Managing Director
Senbis
