Be-UP

Boosting the Industrial Uptake of Biodegradable polymers for packaging applications by implementing digital tools and advanced techniques to achieve a holistic sustainability goal

Term: May 1^st 2025 – April 30^th 2029

Project

Within Be-UP project new synthesis and processing routes will be developed for novel aliphatic-aromatic biopolyesters with increased renewable content using biobased building blocks (e.g 1,4 bio-BDO), alongside innovative catalysts and additives. These components will be optimized through advanced digital modelling tools, based on Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) models, for synthesis and polymerization. These biopolyesters will be blended with commercial biopolymers (e.g., PLA, PBAT, and PHA), biobased chain extenders, and mineral fillers to create bioplastic packaging materials. The design of these blends will employ advanced compounding modelling tools, supported by techniques like screw design and inline rheology measurements, to achieve the target technical performance, sustainability and biodegradation goals using multi-objective function evaluation. Processability will be also a key factor, with a focus on the primary production techniques used in the packaging industry, namely, blown film extrusion, injection moulding and thermoforming. A set of packaging products’ prototypes (TRL7) will be manufactured to validate the developed materials. The biodegradability of these novel products will be assessed in different End-of-life (EoL) scenarios, including open environments and controlled conditions, thus making possible to fill the gap between laboratory conditions and real end-of-life behaviour of these materials. Additionally, the recyclability of the new products will be evaluated. The data and conclusions of these assessments will be useful for: i) the development of guidelines and tools for circular design contributing to the adoption of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Framework; ii) contributing to improve the standardization framework for testing and labelling of materials and packaging products. Be-UP is expected to replace more than 50,000 tonnes in 2032 of non-biodegradable plastics leading to savings of over 120,000 CO2 eq tonnes yearly.

Coordinator

INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DEL EMBALAJE, TRANSPORTE Y LOGISTICA (Spain)

Partners

INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DEL EMBALAJE, TRANSPORTE Y LOGISTICA (Spain), HYBRID CATALYSIS BV (The Netherlands), PARTICULA GROUP DRUSTVO S OGRANICENOM ODGOVORNOSCU ZA ISTRAZIVANJE RAZVOJ I PROIZVODNJU (Croatia), ISOTECH LTD (Cyrpus), EUROPEAN BIOPLASTICS EV (Germany), Polinivo (Belgium), IDENER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AGRUPACION DE INTERES ECONOMICO (Spain), NORMEC OWS (Belgium), CEBIMAT LAB SL (Spain), INNOTECH COEXPAN-EMSUR SL (Spain), NOVAMONT SPA (Italy), POLYMERIS (France), IMERYS TALC EUROPE (France), FAKULTETA ZA TEHNOLOGIJO POLIMEROV (Slovenia), ASOCIACION ESPANOLA DE NORMALIZACION (Spain), Aptar France SAS (France), UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE (Italy)

Tasks of Normec OWS

• Work package 3 leader: Biodegradation testing
• Evaluation of the biodegradation of bench products, biopolyesters and bioplastic packaging materials in different environments (compost, freshwater, soil, marine)
• Evaluate the final packaging prototypes for suitability for organic recycling by industrial composting (including biodegradation, evaluation of material characteristics (mainly heavy metals), disintegration and effect on plant toxicity) and anaerobic digestion
• Perform disintegration tests in the open environment (marine and soil)

The project is supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CBE JU. Neither the European Union nor the CBE JU can be held responsible for them.