Bio-intelligent manufacturing of multifunctional bio-based polymer systems (BIOMAPS)

Bio-intelligent manufacturing of multifunctional bio-based polymer systems 

Creating sustainable materials is a pressing challenge given that natural resources continue to diminish, especially in the plastics industry. The latter heavily relies on non-renewable petrochemical plastics. However, bio-based alternatives are costly, difficult to manufacture and demonstrate inferior performance. The EU-funded BIOMAPS project aims to develop a fully circular manufacturing value chain for bio-manufactured plastics – vitrimerised polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHAs. These materials can self-heal and retain biodegradability, making them more appealing to manufacturers. Also, using AI-based tools, BIOMAPS should help speed up the adoption of bio-plastics, starting with high-value, low-volume products. The proposed approach will position European manufacturers leaders in sustainable technology.

During the times of diminishing natural resources, a huge challenge for our society is to efficiently design, produce, and optimize new safe and sustainable materials for various industrial sectors. Plastics industry has so far been slow to convert away from the non-sustainable petrochemical plastics due to worse economic cost, less than satisfactory manufacturability, and inferior performance of bio-based alternatives. In the proposed project we develop a fully circular manufacturing value chain for bio-manufactured plastics, vitrimerized PolyHydroxyAlkanoates (PHAs). These materials show potential for replacing many petrochemical plastics owing to their thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability. In addition, vitrimerization increases the tractability of PHAs towards manufacturing industries by enabling more flexible processability than traditional plastics, allowing for the introduction and fine control of novel bio-inspired functionalities, such as self-healing, while retaining biodegradability. We propose that these properties, together with the modelling and AI-based tools developed in BIOMAPS will speed-up the adaptation of these biologically produced plastics to replace their petrochemical competitors in the manufacturing industry in Europe. This will be reached starting from low volume, high-value products, which enable establishing circular material loops to first lower the raw material prize before moving towards the high-volume bulk applications. This sets the European manufacturing companies apart from their competitors and positions them as leaders in adopting innovative and environmentally friendly technologies.