The 72 Fraunhofer Institute, the leading application research organization in Europe, is working on a sustainable alternative to the new high-performance plastics found in resins.
Fraunhofer researchers are using a new catalytic process to convert lettuce into 100% pure bio-based plastics that are transparent and have high thermal stability. Lettuce is a natural material, is a component of turpentine, turpentine is a waste from wood production of cellulose. Coniferous trees such as pine, larch or spruce provide a natural substance.
The preparation of pulp includes the decomposition of wood to separate cellulose fibers and a large number of separated terpene as byproducts. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Branch participated in a joint project of the ' Terpene bio-based polyamide building blocks ', which successfully optimized the synthesis of caprolactam from lettuce and transformed it into a scalable, competitive process. Can be used for industrial scale production.
Experts believe that pinene, lemon and other terpene is a suitable raw material for the synthesis of bio-based Caprolactam, is the basis for the production of polyamide raw materials. The Fraunhofer Association is Germany and the largest applied scientific research institution in Europe, founded on March 26, 1949, named after the German scientist, inventor and entrepreneur Joseph Fraunhofer. Unlike the Mark Planck Research Association, the Fraunhofer Association is committed to industrial-oriented application technology research.
Especially focus on molding technology, design new products, improve health, communication, safety, energy saving, environmental protection and other production methods and technology. The development of polymers with lower environmental impact presents a huge opportunity for plastics manufacturers. Global markets are growing in demand for materials based on renewable resources and meeting stringent physical, chemical and mechanical properties. In many applications, bio-based plastics have been able to replace some of the petrochemical-based plastics, thus greatly promoting more sustainable processing of resources.
According to market data compiled by the European Bioplastics Association and Research Institutes, global bio-based plastics production capacity will grow from about 2.05 million tonnes in 2017 to about 2.44 million tonnes in 2022. From the actual production and regional capacity of bio-based plastics, Asia is becoming the largest production center for Bioplastics and will further expand its global leadership position. As an important category in bio-based plastic products, bio-based plastics are developing rapidly and making progress in new materials development and performance improvement.